GIVE UP THE FUNK


GIVE UP 


THE FUNK

 The first time I heard this song I was watching Glee.


The song was featured on a terrible episode. During the episode, Jesse broke up with Rachel, Puck and Finn almost got expelled, and the glee club's rivalry, vocal adrenaline, toilet paper papered their choir room. I know, very dramatic. The point of all these bad things happening in the episode was to put all the characters in a funk, hehe get it? And lead them to singing “Give up the Funk” at the end of the episode. 


Despite Glee being ridiculously cheesy I won’t hear a word against it. Watching Glee is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. If nothing else, this show introduced me to one of the greatest funk songs of all time. 


I chose this song because I remembered listening to it on Glee but I also chose this song because I like Funk music. I would never choose to listen to it. And my favorite popular genre from the 70’s is actually disco but I like the uniqueness of funk music. 


“Give up the Funk” definitely embodies funk music. Throughout the song there are only three main instruments that I could identify, bass guitar, one synthesizer, and a drum kit. In the 70’s, Parliament, the band who performed “Give up the Funk”, and other Funk bands demonstrated how great songs that only used a few instruments could be. The simplicity of Funk music pushed music as a whole into an entirely new direction, and many bands attempted to create an equally impressive "more from less" sound. 


The instruments and rhythm of  “Give up the Funk.” were great. However, the lyrics are a different story. They weren’t my favorite. How many times can “Oww, we want the funk, give up the funk. We need the funk, we gotta have that funk” be sung in one song?


20 times would be the answer.


They sang that exact same line 20 times throughout the song. On my third time listening to “Give up the Funk.” I counted. Even though I found this aspect of the song annoying, I can't judge Parliament too much for repeating the same line over and over and over again because this song was meant to be a party song. My favorite song to dance to at parties is “Your love is my drug” by Ke$ha and she is known for repeating the same phrase over and over again as well. Overall, “Give up the Funk.” was a good example of funk music and a song I would definitely describe as Groovy. 

Comments

  1. Lauren HarmonOctober 31, 2021 at 2:05 PM

    Dang, 20 times! I'm like you, I'm not a big fan of songs that repeat the same phrase over and over. I'm also impressed that you were able to keep track. It's cool that you mentioned the impact this song had music and other bands, I didn't think much about "less is more," and I'm realizing that style wasn't that popular during this era. But now I hear it all the time.

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  2. Ben PolishNovember 1, 2021 at 10:51 AM

    Hello again! Love this post haha. The first time I heard "Give Up The Funk," was on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Disneyland. I added it to my playlist afterwards but these days I always skip in the middle for the same reason you mentioned. 20 times is too much for a casual listen for me. If it was at a party, I could handle it but it's just too long. I really like your analysis on how many instruments there were and how that shows how skilled you have to be to create a good song with less. I love the idea that you don't need anything special to make good music. An artist I'd highly recommend is Anson Seabra. His first album is pretty much strictly one instrument: piano. Other songs may use a guitar, but each song only has one instrument. And there's very little mixing and mastering done and it's so simple. He's since expanded his music and done more editing and digital production with his new album,. but he definitely embodies what Parliament did first.

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  3. Maya PjevacNovember 3, 2021 at 5:54 PM

    I love the way you connect to songs. I definitely get your love of Glee despite it's cheesiness. It also became the guilty pleasure show in my life that introduced and connected me to all types of music. It's funny that you counted the most repetitive line in the song. After listening to it, I completely agree that it gets a little annoying.

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