Future Funk: An Amorphous Internet-Based Electronic Music Genre

Future Funk - Genre Origin, History, Playlists

Future Funk is almost exactly what's in the name: bringing the future to the past. In its various forms, this style of electronic takes elements of the old school and infuses it with new-age experimental sound design and beats. Initially, it wasn't clear what exactly future funk is, as there are a few implications of what exactly it is.

Sо, let's take a dive into the origin and history, review the sounds, and set the record straight on the difference between disco-based future funk and hip-hop based future funk. By the end, I hope that you'll feel more informed and inspired by these creations of the internet.

What Is Future Funk?

Often considered the revenge of 2010 internet-born genre Vaporwave, Future Funk is a disco-inspired variant that borrows the best from the past. It often takes disco tunes from the 70s and 80s and stacks building blocks of modern production on it. This style of music is not to be confused with hip hop based, sample-heavy genre coined around 2012. There has been a clear line drawn between the two, which is outlined in the sections below.

Somehow Vaporwave, Future Funk, and Lo-Fi Hip Hop are all grouped under these internet music scenes that use Japanese anime imagery on their youtube mixes, playlists, and album art. Some of them with obscure fonts on the video and song titles. Do not underestimate the internet's affinity for Japanese anime culture, but as we explore below, there's a clear Japanese influence in Future Funk.

Genre Aesthetics & Tempo

Future Funk is a simple way to take funk and soul from the 70s and 80s and slap a disco beat on it in the range of 115 - 130 BPM. Music sampled doesn't just come from 70s and 80s Funk from America, but also from 80s subgenre J-Funk, or "Japanese Funk". This was a small wave of Funk in the 80s out of Japan, which combined funk and pop. For many reasons, Future Funk resembles Vaporwave in its visual portrayal, often including Japanese anime in the thumbnails of Future Funk tunes and mixes. How cultures build on top of each other is apparent through this subgenre.

Artists of Future Funk

As might be expected of an internet music scene, the names of the artists tend to resemble online aliases, as you'll see in our list of notable Future Funk artists below:

• Macross 82-99
• Yung Bae
• Android52
• Future Girlfriend
• GHOST DATA

Among many other underground artists among this internet scene, these prominent players have supported the growth of Future Funk. Take a look at the playlists below to get to know the genre more.

Future Funk Playlists

The "Other" Future Funk?

The Funk is fully alive today -- in a variety of forms. What's known as a disco-inspired internet movement "Future Funk" is also known as a sample-based electronic hip hop movement pioneered by a select group of American producers. "Future Funk" is also used to describe a style of hip-hop based electronic music that's revived old-school funk and soul records. One example is Denver-based organization Keats//Collective, which coined "Future Funk" back in 2012 in their "Future Funk Fridays" compilations, which featured instrumental hip hop tunes and beyond.

Other forms of "Future Funk" come from Detroit-based producer GRiZ who famously put funk and soul records on top of glitch-hop tunes and more. Here, we'll make the differentiation between "Future Funk", "Electro Funk", and "Electro Soul", as it only seems to be discussed on social media and various forums around the internet. To start, it's important to look at a movement that came out of Colorado.

The Predecessor: Electro Soul

As mentioned, the term "Future Funk" has also been used to describe hip-hop based electronic music out of the United States. Various events lead to the growth of this movement, notably the strong upswing of American 'EDM' culture, including dubstep, between 2010-2012.

Despite "Future Funk" being coined in 2012 to describe hip hop based electronic music, a more vital predecessor likely inspired this movement. Enter "Electro Soul". Fort Collins-based producer Pretty Lights created sampled-heavy electronic infusions and coined the term "Electro Soul" that brought together big electronic production, gritty hip hop influence, and psychedelic jam-band elements. The spread of this movement came from going against the status-quo regarding music distribution -- giving it away for free. Due to the risk of copyright violations, Derek Vincent Smith (Pretty Lights) put all of his records out for free on the internet, which helped spark a boom in music culture across the United States, as fans in the live music-rich city of Denver came out to these shows. As Pretty Lights caught the wave of American dance music, notably between 2010-2012, he helped inspire the entrance of new players to this movement. Artists like Gramatik and GRiZ have been major influences on the growth of a musical interchangeably known as "Future Funk", "Electro Soul", and "Electro Funk".

[ More: Interview With Grammy-Nominated Funk Band Lettuce ]

Electro Funk, Hip Hop & Soul Artists

The movement of sample-based electronic hip hop music has inspired a big wave of musical culture in the past years. Since the pioneer of this style has been on hiatus since 2018, with his last release in 2013, many more artists have come to the table. Below is a shortlist of some notable new players:

• The Floozies
• Manic Focus
• Daily Bread
• Sunsquabi
• Marvel Years

Learn more about current sounds and styles from the UK to the US and beyond in the funk-inspired electronic music playlist below:

"Funky Flavors" by Stereofox

[ Keep reading: Chillstep Music: Genre Origins, Artists & Best Playlists ]