KC & The Sunshine Band: Funk or Disco?

What do you think?

 

Disco, Hard to change rock and roll minds, time to disco's down to the show. But there are elements of funk, groove, blues, rock, jazz all mixed in pretty much all music from that era....

 

Yes.

 

Really good band whatever you call it.

 

Funky disco, or disco-y funk. The two styles are not mutually exclusive. In songwriting terms, probably a bit closer to disco, but in performance, closer to funk. Most disco acts couldn't really play live because they were studio creations made by armies of session musicians. But KC & The Sunshine Band were more like a funk act in that they could easily translate their sound to the stage without relying on backing tracks.

Years ago, I came across an interview with Harry Wayne Casey, in which he discussed working in a record store before he broke it big. A common problem he saw was that people would come in looking for a song they'd heard on the radio, but if the title wasn't obvious, they couldn't buy it because they didn't know what it was called. Right then and there he decided he would never lose a sale for that reason. So now you know why the chorus of every KC & The Sunshine Band has the song title repeated over and over. You can accuse them of being inane, but at least you always know the titles of their songs.

 

Excellent assessment.

 

I define funk fairly specifically (Ohio Players; Sly and the Family Stone; Parliament-Funkadelic, et al). KC had funk elements, but at the end of the day, they were more disco than funk. Y'know, to me.

 

It's in reality Funk Disco or Disco Funk. There's disco lyrics but these people are funk musicians under the skin and had the goods to play it live without backing tracks. These musicians had chops.

 

What I digged is, back then the bands actually had instruments, and had doo wop singers in the back grounds, wow imagine that. and who didn't dig disco dollies on rollerskates, disco balls, and smoke machines. Gotta love that Farah Fawcett hot blonde hair!

 

Disco was one evolutionary arm of funk. KC & the Sunshine Band are a little more in the transitional phase of that than many.

 

I think I like it, uh huh, uh huh.

 

Dunno. They make my radio get loud...all I need really.

 

What do you "Funk"?

 

"Disco"
And they were proud of it!
KC sure was funky back-in-the-day for a white boy though, i gotta say!

[from a fellow white boy]

 

When I was a kid I saw them in the 70s at the Houston Rodeo - they were definetely both.

 

Hey, you got funk in my disco!

Well you got disco in my funk . . . .!


and so forth . . .

 

But could KC survive in the wild?

 

Disco to the max....

 

They were one of a kind and did their own thing. They were a sunshine band.

 

Tasty!

 

its funk... i mean i was listening to the jbs album from 1974 and it sounds like watered down kc! and EVERYONE says the JBs are funk. but because the faces of KC were white (KC and Fitch) everyone thinks they are disco.... they get no respect for whatever reason.. but they get plenty from me..it was a heck of a band!

 

In my head it's Funk.

 

Throw some Funk, R&B, Black and White Soul, and Disco in a blender = KC and the Sunshine Band

 

--or--

Who says a funk band, can't play disco?

Who says a disco band, can't play funky?

. . . just watch them dance, watch them dance

 

Its entertainment bro's, don't over think it. Thinking too much ages you. I recall the late great James Brown the king of everything groovie, might have ushered in disco. Now rock the boat, don't tip the boat over. LOL!