ABSTRACT

This chapter, based on a case study of Dayton Street Funk, employs ethnographic methods combined with the analysis of library and archival sources, recordings and other artefacts to explore the construction of identities in black popular music. of central focus are the ways in which identities – manifested in the sonic, lyrical and visual dimensions of musical performance – juxtapose and superimpose markers of a region, city and local African-American communities. The emergence of funk parallels the transition of American society from the era of sanctioned racial segregation known as Jim Crow (1890s-1960s) to the 1970 decade of ‘integration’ and ‘affirmative action’. It also parallels the shift from an industrial to a technological and service-oriented society. Both of these developments helped shape and define the multiple layers of identity associated with funk during its nearly two decades of popularity.