another dichotomy I've seen made is funk (JB, Meters, etc) vs fonky (P-Funk)
like all such things it shouldn't be taken as a hard and fast division but it's a useful conceptual framework
fonky seems to have much less of that unresolved tension, as Funkadelic. again I'm sure there are technical reasons why that's so. much closer to rock.
it's interesting to trace those traditions on thru the 80s
JB looms massively, as he always will, over everything in any way funky, but you'd have to say P-Funk etc was a much bigger direct influence on boogie, synth funk and etc
i.e. Atomic Dog, Zapp, and so on
whereas the continuation of funk proper was in the largely white avant-funk crew, until it resurfaced in rap
I don't agree with this! first three funkadelic albums are rock. funk rock but fundamentally rock. or black rock after rock got whitened, if you will. it's only when funkadelic start cribbing licks from deep funk and james brown that they actually become funky in the retroactive teleological sense we understand it today. so to say that synth funk has more to do with p-funk than it does James Brown seems to be making it an either/or, which i don't think is the case.