Pioneering Performers and General Characteristics

Although James Brown is universally recognized as the creator of funk music with seminal recordings such as 1967's "Cold Sweat"♫ and 1968's "Say It Loud, I'm Black, and I'm Proud"♫ , before these recordings he played an essential role in the birth of soul music with early songs such as "Please, Please, Please"♫ (1956), "Try Me"♫ (1958), and his cover of the Five Royales' "Think"♫ (1960). Brown and his backing group, The Famous Flames, started off singing in the hard gospel quartet tradition pioneered by groups such as The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and The Dixie Hummingbirds. When The Famous Flames switched to secular music, R & B vocal groups such as Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, who also displayed considerable gospel roots, became primary influences. Brown's very first recording, "Please Please Please,"♫ took the first verse of the Orioles' version of "Baby Please Don't Go,"♫ slowed it down, made it the basis of the whole recording, and arranged it as a series of emotionally intense one-bar call-and-response utterances between Brown and The Famous Flames. As seen in the video below, the net effect foregrounded emotional display to an unprecedented degree in the history of popular music.