SOP - Mark Ronson: Funk Politics

Funk is back! Mark Ronson, hit maker and sage of pop music, has a No. 1 hit with his album Uptown Special. The distinct sounds of 70s funk are clearing out the radio of overplayed and increasingly stale electronic dance music. Why did funk ever die? This podcast can be found here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SwitchedOnPopPodcast

0:00 - 1:30 - Uptown Funk
2:30 - 4:40 - Mark Ronson becomes #1 - Who is a producer and what does this person do?
4:30 - 6:00 - Listen to Uptown Funk
6:15 - Horn sections are tight and loud
6:40 - Funky Drums
7:10 - Wobble Synth and Voices
7:50 - Funky slap bass - it is percussive
8:35 - What is a Vamp - How many chords
9:00 - Rhythmic variation, new instrumental combinations, different lyrics
9:45 - Uptown Funk isn't a typical song structure (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus). This song is A-B-C-D twice with a riff on the B section at the end.
11:00 - James Brown
11:50 - Complex drum beat with heavy syncopation
12:45 - Mark Ronson - Sampling and adding something new
13:15 - Schoenberg and Bach - It is all about song structure **
15:30 - Guest speaker
16:50 - Funk came back because the public was tired of the softer edges found in current pop music. Funk was born at the end of the 70's with inter-racial gorups
18:30 - Funk became party music with a mixture of politics
19:30 - Funk promoted Gansta Rap and Hip Hop

Artist: Bob Tozier
School: North Allegheny

Notes:
A podcast about the making and meaning of popular music hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding. We break down pop songs to figure out what makes a hit and what is its place in culture. We help listeners find "a-ha" moments in the music. Switched on Pop will make you laugh, dance, and ask ridiculous questions.

Comments

Anthony Hockenberry from: North Allegheny - posted: October 23, 2017
In my opinion, this song took a mix of funk and pop and electronic music. With the booming bass we talked about for in electronic muic and pop, and the horns common in funk music, this song gives us a good blend.

Amy Muhlenkamp from: North Allegheny - posted: October 26, 2017
I like funk because it is like a swung rock. We play funk in jazz band because the eigth notes are still swung

Shane Stewart from: North Allegheny - posted: October 29, 2017
My favourite part of this one was when they commented that there are only two chords in the whole song. This reminded me of a quote from David Byrne about the song "Road To Nowhere", which he did with Talking Heads. He said, "It was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it."

Charles Hart from: North Allegheny - posted: October 30, 2017
I like funk alot because it takes similar stylistic choices from things such as rock and blues and as a unqiue twist to them

Yosen Wang from: North Allegheny - posted: October 30, 2017
I found it quite suprising that such a popular song as Uptown Funk essentially contained only two different chords.

June Bracken from: North Allegheny - posted: November 1, 2017
I liked hearing about funk in this podcast, and it gave me a new appreciation for pop songs today that give off funk vibes.

Maeve Smith from: North Allegheny - posted: November 1, 2017
A song with a big horn line is Atom Bomb by The Strike and No Reply at All by Genesis. They both have feature parts in the song and their own section.

Maggie Johnson from: North Allegheny - posted: November 1, 2017
Sent to Tozier

Eugenia Lee from: North Allegheny - posted: November 1, 2017
I think that it's interesting how funk music, while its backbone can be so simple, it can also be complex. There is no actual format of the song and many often only include two chords.

Angela Lu from: North Allegheny - posted: November 2, 2017
I like that funk gives an interesting and different edge to pop music. These songs are often danceable and always manage to put you in a good mood.

sharon dong from: North Allegheny - posted: November 2, 2017
I like "Uptown Funk" and it was interesting learning about what makes music funk music and where it came from. I think the high horn sections are very noticeable in funk music.

Marshall Henry from: North Allegheny - posted: November 2, 2017
In my opnion Funk never died. People like Bruno Mars are keeping the genre alive. I also belive that funk will never die, but it will just evolve into something even better. Some great examples of modern day funk is anything written by Jeff Jarvis for Jazz Band, and anything Bruno Mars does.

Maria Constantine from: North Allegheny - posted: November 3, 2017
Knowing that Uptown Funk only has two chords surprised me to a high degree. It is such a popular song and the bass really brings it together. Another shocking aspect of this podcast is the discovery that Uptown Funk doesn't have a basic structure. Is is all over the place. There is no bridge or really a chorus, and I think this discribes Funk music really well.

Steven Lu from: North Allegheny - posted: November 3, 2017
I really like the noticeable brass riffs that are present throughout funk songs. Another song like this that I like is War by Edwin Starr.

Mess Tajewski from: North Allegheny - posted: November 6, 2017
I think it's funny that some popular music, like the song Uptown Funk, are in the funk genre but aren't recognized as such by the common listeners. This podcast definitely brought into light many "pop songs" that have funk elements.

Natalie Daninhirsch from: North Allegheny - posted: November 7, 2017
I found it fascinating how uptown funk, a song so seemingly simple, is actually a quite musically complex piece. I wouldn't have guessed this.

Kayla Grasak from: North Allegheny - posted: November 8, 2017
I think the simplicity of the music is very appealing and acts as a solid base for this type music.

Jason Ginocchi from: North Allegheny - posted: November 8, 2017
I never really picked this song apart and always saw it as just a catchy pop song but this podcast showed me that it is actually funk and has many underlying elemnts that contribute it being funk that i have never noticed

Trevor Fenk from: North Allegheny - posted: November 10, 2017
Everything that Bruno Mars tiuches turns to gold. The song "uptown funk" is fantastic!! a good remix of this song is "Uptown Puffs" haha

Kirthana Kannan from: North Allegheny - posted: November 10, 2017
I think it's fascinating that funk music can have as little as two chords, yet still be complex and turn out to be such a great song.

Margaret Johnson from: North Allegheny - posted: October 28, 2018
Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman is a great example of a song with a vamp. The trumpets wailing in the beginnning is one you will never forget.