Top 25 Funk Albums That Shaped a Musical Movement

It was sometime in the latter part of the 1960s that R&B gave way to soul and, by extension, funk.

It wasn’t a scene so much at first as it was a grouping of like-minded artists taking their music to new depths (those deep, deep bass lines) and occasionally darker, definitely looser new places, allset to a dance beat established bydovetailing drums.

The list below of the Top 25 Funk Albums, as selected by members of UCR’s staff,doesn’t attempt to pinpoint the exact moment funk became a thing. Instead, it’s an outline of many of the biggest players and most influentialmakers of the music, from album-length declarations of faith to popular soundtrack LPs.

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The kings of the genre are here, often looming as a large presence;James Brown,George Clinton‘sP-Funkcollective andSly Stoneall emerged in the ’60s and found greater success in the next decade, shaping and then reshapingthe music to their times. By mid-decade, funk had grown intoa distinct entity, a branch of soul music easily identifiable by its elastic rhythm section and greasy licks laid on top.

The Top 25 Funk Albums also reveals a few lesser-known acts, including an Afrobeat superstar and a jazz legend or two. While many of the albums below come from the music’s peak period of the early and mid-’70s, records from the previous decade and the following one also make the list. It’s a rich and surprisingly diverse selection of albums and artists that reveal just how multileveled funk could be.