Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure ('The One'), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs—and rock and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi Hendrix, fostering improvisation in funk. Other musical groups, including Kool and the Gang,[6] Earth, Wind & Fire, Chic, B.T. Express, Loose Ends, Shalamar, The S.O.S. Band, Slave, The Whispers, Cameo, and the Bar-Kays began to adopt and develop Brown's innovations during the 1970s and adding R&B essences to the genre from the early 1970s, while others like Parliament-Funkadelic and Ohio Players followed Hendrix's path. Funk derivatives include the avant-funk, an avant-garde strain of funk; boogie, a hybrid of electronic music and funk; funk metal, a mix of funk and metal; G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and funk; Timba, a form of funky Cuban dance music; and funk jam. It is also the main influence of Washington go-go, a funk sub-genre. Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music. The meaning of 'funk' continues to captivate the genre of black music, feeling, and knowledge. Recent scholarship in black studies has taken the term 'funk' in its many iterations to consider the range of black movement and culture. In particular, L.H. Stallings's Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures explores these multiple meanings of 'funk' as a way to theorize sexuality, culture, and western hegemony within the many locations of 'funk': 'street parties, drama/theater, strippers and strip clubs, pornography, and self-published fiction.' Unlike bebop jazz, with its complex, rapid-fire chord changes, funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps (often alternating a minor seventh chord and a related dominant seventh chord, such as A minor to D7) with melodo-harmonic movement and a complex, driving rhythmic feel. Even though some funk songs are mainly one-chord vamps, the rhythm section musicians may embellish this chord by moving it up or down a semitone or a tone to create chromatic passing chords. For example, 'Play that funky music' (by Wild Cherry) mainly uses an E ninth chord, but it also uses F#9 and F9.

Funk basslines emphasize repetitive patterns, locked-in grooves, continuous playing, and slap and popping bass. Slapping and popping uses a mixture of thumb-slapped low notes (also called 'thumped') and finger 'popped' (or plucked) high notes, allowing the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, which became a distinctive element of funk. Notable slap and funky players include Bernard Edwards (Chic), Robert 'Kool' Bell, Mark Adams (Slave), Johnny Flippin (Fatback) and Bootsy Collins. While slap and funky is important, some influential bassists who play funk, such as Rocco Prestia (from Tower of Power), did not use the approach, and instead used a typical fingerstyle method based on James Jamerson's Motown playing style. Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone is an influential bassist. The result of these factors was a rhythm guitar sound that seemed to float somewhere between the low-end thump of the electric bass and the cutting tone of the snare and hi-hats, with a rhythmically melodic feel that fell deep in the pocket. On Brown's 'Give It Up or Turnit a Loose' (1969), however, Jimmy Nolen's guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. The guitar is used the way that an African drum, or idiophone would be used. Nolen created a 'clean, trebly tone' by using 'hollow-body jazz guitars with single-coil P-90 pickups' plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp with the mid turned down low and the treble turned up high. Funk guitarists playing rhythm guitar generally avoid distortion effects and amp overdrive to get a clean sound, and given the importance of a crisp, high sound, Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters were widely used for their cutting treble tone.