Soul and funk are the twin genres that changed the face of modern music in the mid 20th Century. Both had important social functions in re-affirming black pride in the face of oppression and segregation while championing positive energy: joy, dance and authenticity.

Soul was the first to come of age. An ever-changing fusion of secular and religious sounds, the early 60s saw artists blend emotionally-charged gospel with the more sexually-charged and maturing rhythm and blues (itself a derivation of New Orleanian mix between African and Caribbean rhythms and black church chants).

The result was a revolution in sound that forced all-powerful labels to finally recognize black artists. Until 1947, black music had been referred to as “race” music and the term “soul” gave pride back in the form of feel-good, hopeful records that unified communities and looked forward to better days.

By the mid 60s soul music had become a national sensation and began to fragment into subgenres like funk, which was also derived from the black church, containing call and response DNA and Southern preaching styles – whoops, cries, praising and togetherness.

The main difference was a shift in rhythm: funk artists moved away from the “backbeat” (an emphasis on the two and four beats in a measure) and towards the “downbeat” (a pattern stemming from the Afro-Cuban clave that placed emphasis on the one beat). This left space for instrumentalists to add syncopation and interlocking grooves. It was geared towards rhythm, even via percussive vocal techniques resembling West-African polyrhythms.

Funk was universal unapologetic blackness that implored people to get on up and dance. By the 70s and 80s it had grown psychedelic sub-branches that added solo guitar sections as well as influencing the international sound, with everything from Afrobeat to G funk and hip-hop using funk as a template for expression.

Without soul there would be no funk, and without either modern music would sound very different. They both represent transitional stages in the expression of the African-American journey and constantly fed into one another, forming the basis for 21st Century mainstream music.