Brit funk

Gaining inspiration from various musical genres, Britfunk continued and built off of technological and symbolic themes present in U.S. Disco. Author Robert Strachan describes that Britfunk became recognized for its, “use of electronic production, drum machines, electronic bass and the stripped down aesthetic of electro presented a slick, ultra-modern musical aesthetic combined with visual codes accessed from American disco acts,”[9]. Furthermore, Britfunk seemed to follow in Disco's footsteps in regards to expression of gender and sexuality. Various authors such as Tim Lawrence, Bill Brewster, and Frank Broughton, discuss how Disco ushered in a unique moment in which gender and sexuality queerness gained “recognition” in mainstream music[12][13]. The Disco genre fostered a culture that highlighted and celebrated a sense of fluidity and “multipleness”[14] that was a revoluntionary in its day. Like Disco, Britfunk also represented a unique moment of fluidity in gender expression and sexuality[11]. Britfunk was emerging in a time in the UK in which gender-play was entering the mainstream pop scene from strains of UK club scenes and formed around unique identity politics[15]. Such politics were highly entangled with pleasure on the dance floor which was the essence of U.S. Disco as well. Such pleasure in both Britfunk (and Disco) was ambiguous, “in terms of gender and sexuality...”[9]. Strachan says that many Britufunk artists, “were clearly drawing upon outré and undoubtedly gay styles that had emerged in the club scenes,”[9] and the aesthetics of Britfunk can now, "...be read as escaping fixed notions of identity."[16]

As Brit funk grew, the artists drew from a variety of African-American genres such as soul and jazz. Despite the fact that Brit funk was becoming its own category of music, it was seen and put into the box of other African-American genres instead. The first generation of young black people born in the U.S. took a liking to the genre and started to great their own genre. The only problem was that because they were producing music that was based on African American music influences, it brought into question the authenticity of the Brit funk being produced. However, because of the fact that Brit funk does not fit into a category, it struggled to be successful commercially, but it still defied the norms of music.

"On the one hand Britfunk’s particular appropriation of African-American forms resulted in a particular version of diasporic cultural articulation. In short, these US forms were appropriated strategically for particularly British ends to reflect the specificities of black experience in the United Kingdom during the 1970s. On the other hand, given that these musics are not directly bound geographically and culturally to the Caribbean, which has been a dominant (and even hegemonic) signifier of black Britishness (Hesse, 2000), they enabled a fluidity of identity and a space where strict cultural boundaries in terms of identity, gender and ethnicity could be negotiated, blurred and articulated."[18] -Robert Strachan in his book, Black Popular Music in Britain since 1945

Despite being neglected in narratives regarding Black diasporic music due to its similarities African American music, Britfunk was a relevant form of expressing Black British identity in its own right as it engaged in a “complex form of cultural politics” with key differences from Black American music such as the “infrequent explicit evocation of place,” British accents, and nuances in playing styles as the music lacked a finesse maintained in U.S. tracks [19]. Black British musicians were able to utilize this genre to challenge the idea that Black identity is a monolith. Britfunk allowed for a "multifaceted expression of identity" demonstrating the ethnic, cultural, and individualistic diversity possessed within the Black racial category [20]. Still, the tension between marketability and identity arose (as it often does in mainstream contexts) as Black British musicians were reduced to roles of either very ethnic or assimilated and forced to create music about either love or politics [21]. These expectations are often seen of Black artists today as the mainstream frequently attempts to place Black artists into to prescribed boxes. However, many Britfunk artists (like artists today) worked to combat the narrative of Black singularity as they cultivated a mode of escapism for Black Britons allowing them to embrace the utopia of what a fluid, multi-racial society could be [22].

Because of the style of Britfunk, women's voices had a more prominent role in the Brit funk music that was released. Sticking to the formula of U.S. genres, women were more involved in the Britfunk genre in order to seem more authentic. Because of the fact that clubbing was the primary reason the music spread, clubs allowed a safe space for people be free with their sexuality. While other diasporic genres like reggae were less open to sexuality, Brit funk encouraged both men and women to express their sexuality. As Strahan writes in his book, Black Popular Music in Britain Since 1945, "Club culture then allowed a space in which rigid attitudes towards sexuality within the wider community could be explored, pushed and negotiated. The centrality of black gay men within the scene allowed for a particular transcendence of contemporary social boundaries.