Funk music deserves more respect, a CU professor argues in his new book

In The NoCo

Funk music deserves more respect, a CU professor argues in his new book

By In The NoCo,

Published February 12, 2025 at 5:33 AM MST

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Reiland Rabaka, University of Colorado professor and author of the new book The Funk Movement: Music, Culture, and Politics. He stands in front of a hall at CU that houses the Center for African American Studies wearing a red and black jacket and a close-fitting black hat. — "Funk grows out of the larger impulses of Black popular movements, Black protest movements at the time," says Reiland Rabaka, University of Colorado professor and author of the new book *The Funk Movement: Music, Culture, and Politics*. "Funk was the radicalization of rhythm and blues... that expressed some deeper cultural impulses going on in Black America in the late 1960s all the way through the 1970s."

In the late 1960s, a new movement of Black music grew out of the end of the civil rights era. Black artists declared their 鈥淏lack power鈥� and rocked the airwaves with the sound of funk.

Funk music was more than just a genre with excellent grooves. It had deeper social and political meaning. Funk began as a and would ultimately lay the foundation for the hip0hop and R&B we listen to today.

This is the argument in the , called The Funk Movement: Music, Culture, and Politics.

Rabaka is a professor of African, African American, and Caribbean studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also the founder and director of the at CU, and hosts a podcast called .

He joined Erin O'Toole to talk about the importance of funk, and why it deserves respect for its singular impact on music and culture.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC鈥檚 new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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