In the mid-1960s, James Brown was creating a new style of music — funk.
Instead of turning elaborate melodies, he turned his focus to syncopated rhythms with a strong emphasis on the down beat.
“Like James Brown says, funk is on the one,” said David Webb.
He’s the founder and CEO of the Funk Music Hall of Fame and Exhibition Center, and the creator and executive producer of the Dayton Scene Radio Show, a nationally syndicated program dedicated to funk.
“Funk music is part of the genre of gospel and blues,” Webb said. “It tells the story of Black movement and what's going on in the neighborhoods.”
The musical movement of funk was national, but Webb said no city contributed more than Dayton, Ohio.
“Ohio is the heart of it all,” Webb said. “And Dayton, Ohio, and Southwest Ohio is the nerve center of funk music.”
Dayton’s growing Black community
Like other metros across the Midwest, Dayton’s Black population surged during the mid-20th century as a result of the decades-long Great Migration.
Black people moved to the city seeking jobs at corporations like General Motors and the National Cash Register Co. (NCR).
Webb’s father and grandparents moved to the city from Tennessee.
“They moved to Ethel Avenue off of McCall,” Webb said, “because Dayton, Ohio, has so many factories and there was work for everyone.”
"[Funk] made the folks happy. It made them laugh. It made them dance. It made them be free.”Stephanie Thornton
By 1960, Black Americans accounted for about a fifth of Dayton’s population. And as they moved into the city, they brought their culture — and music — with them.
“When I was growing up, everyone in my neighborhood listened to the radio,” said Stephanie Thornton, a co-host of the Dayton Scene Radio Show. “It was nothing to hear the radios blasting James Brown or whoever. (Funk) made the folks happy. It made them laugh. It made them dance. It made them be free.”
Soon, folks in Dayton weren’t just listening to funk over the airwaves, they were making the beat their own.
Dayton’s contribution to funk
In 1973, the Dayton band Ohio Players had their first smash hit, “Funky Worm.”
“And that kind of catapulted other local musicians in Dayton, Ohio, to follow suit,” said Trent Darby, another co-host of the Dayton Scene Radio Show. “Soon after that, you had the group Slave. They came on the scene in 1977, with a No. 1 smash called ‘Slide.’”
The music kept coming.
Dayton-born groups like Sun, Faze-O, Lakeside and Zapp produced one hit after another, earning the city a reputation as the funk capital of the world.
“At one point Dayton, Ohio, on the billboard chart, had five records in the top 50 at one time,” Darby said.
These days, many of the tunes aren’t topping the charts the way they did in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but the genre still shows up in pop culture.
David Webb pointed to “Uptown Funk” featuring Bruno Mars as an obvious example. Plus, he said hip hop artists sample the genre all the time, pulling snippets from classics like “Funky Worm” and looping them to form the heartbeat of their music.
“Dayton, Ohio, is the most sampled city in America and possibly the world,” Webb said.
Now, he and people like Trent Darby and Stephanie Thornton are working to recognize the city’s musical influence through projects like the Dayton Scene Radio Show and to open a new home for the Funk Center.
Funk is a genre everyone can appreciate, Webb said. It tells the story of Black movement, and he wants to keep that avenue of storytelling open far into the future.
“Funk music is not going away,” Webb said. “We're keeping funk alive for generations to come.”
This story is part of the Black Excellence in Ohio series, made possible by the America 250-Ohio Commission.
