What's The Difference Between Disco and Funk?

~~someonecompletelyrandom~~ · 05-13-2009, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger

Disco is about dancing vertically
Funk is about dancing horizontally

This.

CaspersLane · 08-09-2013, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by someonecompletelyrandom

This.

Haha!

boo boo · 05-20-2009, 07:33 PM

It's foolish to say they're the same but Funk and Disco artists have had a tendency to crossover to one another. Chic are an example of a band that usually falls into both catagories.

Disco was a black thing before it was hijacked by whitey, it got it's start in black gay nightclubs, and eventually crossed over to latino and white gay nightclubs before going mainstream.

Both focus on a R&B flavored, dancable beats and emphasize rhythm over lead instruments.

The main diffefence is that Funk leans more towards jazz and soul while Disco has more pop to it. Funk tends to have more bass while Disco is more about synths and samples. There's more of a tendency for Disco to rely on samples while Funk employs real instruments. And Funk is a lot more aggressive and raw.

Disco artists had a greater focus on producing music specifically to be played in nightclubs, rather than promoting it through touring. And so tourists gained more from Disco than the artists involved.

I certainly wouldn't call P-Funk Disco in any sense of the word.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger

Disco is about dancing vertically
Funk is about dancing horizontally

Post of the week.

**Janszoon** · 05-20-2009, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

Funk tends to have more bass while Disco is more about synths and samples. There's more of a tendency for Disco to rely on samples while Funk employs real instruments.

Disco is about synths and samples? That's news to me. What Disco songs are you talking about?

boo boo · 05-20-2009, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Disco is about synths and samples? That's news to me. What Disco songs are you talking about?

Well there's a lot of orchestration, horns, strings and stuff. I thought those were samples and synthesizers for the most part but I guess I was wrong about that.

They certainly sound very sterilized to me.

**Janszoon** · 05-20-2009, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

Well there's a lot of orchestration, horn, strings and stuff. I thought those were samples and synthesizers but I guess I was wrong about that.

They certainly sound very "sterile" to me.

Definitely a lot of orchestration. In fact I read before that all the orchestration wound up playing a big role in Disco's downfall because it made the songs so expensive to produce. But yeah Disco was before sampling came into vogue so I think you'd be hard pressed to find much in the way of samples in Disco songs. And as far as synths go, there were some but they weren't the backbone of the music or anything, they were just another instrument in the mix.

I agree that Disco at it's worst can sound kind of sterile but there are also quite a few high-energy, sweaty, non-sterile Disco songs out there too.

barbarella · 05-26-2009, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

It's foolish to say they're the same but Funk and Disco artists have had a tendency to crossover to one another. Chic are an example of a band that usually falls into both catagories.

Disco was a black thing before it was hijacked by whitey, it got it's start in black gay nightclubs, and eventually crossed over to latino and white gay nightclubs before going mainstream.

Both focus on a R&B flavored, dancable beats and emphasize rhythm over lead instruments.

The main diffefence is that Funk leans more towards jazz and soul while Disco has more pop to it. Funk tends to have more bass while Disco is more about synths and samples. There's more of a tendency for Disco to rely on samples while Funk employs real instruments. And Funk is a lot more aggressive and raw.

Disco artists had a greater focus on producing music specifically to be played in nightclubs, rather than promoting it through touring. And so tourists gained more from Disco than the artists involved.

I certainly wouldn't call P-Funk Disco in any sense of the word.

Post of the week.

P-Funk!! - Post Of The Week?

I would just like to bring this into the discussion! It was SO huge as a Disco Club Classic!! For me, Chic have always been Disco. Their music is class, but not heavy enough to be Funk.

Heckto35 · 06-07-2013, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

It's foolish to say they're the same but Funk and Disco artists have had a tendency to crossover to one another. Chic are an example of a band that usually falls into both catagories.

Disco was a black thing before it was hijacked by whitey, it got it's start in black gay nightclubs, and eventually crossed over to latino and white gay nightclubs before going mainstream.

Both focus on a R&B flavored, dancable beats and emphasize rhythm over lead instruments.

The main diffefence is that Funk leans more towards jazz and soul while Disco has more pop to it. Funk tends to have more bass while Disco is more about synths and samples. There's more of a tendency for Disco to rely on samples while Funk employs real instruments. And Funk is a lot more aggressive and raw.

Disco artists had a greater focus on producing music specifically to be played in nightclubs, rather than promoting it through touring. And so tourists gained more from Disco than the artists involved.

I certainly wouldn't call P-Funk Disco in any sense of the word.

Post of the week.

They were not disco until 1979's "Gloryhallastoopid" That was a pretty discoteque record which is why i think it wasn't as appreciated as their earlier efforts.

SATCHMO · 05-20-2009, 07:55 PM

Disco had a lot of synths. It was one of the major elements that differentiated disco from funk. Almost all of the lofty cheesy string arrangements that characterised a lot of disco songs were synthetic. Samples not so much.

anticipation · 05-26-2009, 01:25 PM

what's the difference between despair and joy?

05-20-2009, 07:55 PM	#9 (permalink)
SATCHMO Al Dente Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Texas Posts: 4,847	Disco had a lot of synths. It was one of the major elements that differentiated disco from funk. Almost all of the lofty cheesy string arrangements that characterised a lot of disco songs were synthetic. Samples not so much.

05-26-2009, 01:25 PM	#10 (permalink)
anticipation Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 3,561	what's the difference between despair and joy?