LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Funk: P-Funk
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P-Funk concerts were lavish occasions. They brought the glam rock phenomenon of David Bowie and KISS to black music, raising the bar for their contemporaries like Earth, Wind and Fire and Kool and the Gang. From 1975 through 1977, the Mothership Tour featured a giant spaceship that landed onstage with Clinton inside, who would then emerge dressed in an outrageous costume. Later, the Motor Booty Affair featured a host of amphibious characters who could “dance underwater and not get wet.” The collective nature of the band came through in concert, with often nearly 30 people performing on stage at once with extravagant props and outlandish costumes. Several spin-off groups were formed, such as Bootsy’s Rubber Band, the Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet and the Horny Horns. P-Funk even extended their work into the realm of film, with never-released features showcasing an actual Mothership “landing” in New York City’s Times Square.
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In the 1980s, many of the core elements that formed the foundation of the P-Funk formula began to be usurped by electronic machines and synthesizers. Horn sections of saxophones and trumpets were replaced by synth keyboards, and the horns that remained were given simplified lines, and few horn solos. The classic keyboards of funk, like the Hammond B3 organ and the Fender Rhodes piano began to be replaced by the new digital synthesizers such as the Yamaha DX7. Electronic drum machines began to replace the "funky drummers" of the past, and the slap and pop style of bass playing were often replaced by synth keyboard bass lines. As well, the lyrics of funk songs began to change from suggestive double entendres to more graphic and sexually explicit content.
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The mid-1970s marked a turning point for P-Funk. In 1974 when George Clinton left Funkadelic’s label Westbound for Warner Brothers Records and simultaneously resurrected the Parliaments. Dropping the “s”, he signed Parliament to Casablanca Records, the up-and-coming label that featured KISS, Donna Summer and the Village People. Going back to their R&B roots, Clinton beefed up their sound adding such legends as former James Brown band members, trumpeter Maceo Parker and trombonist/arranger Fred Wesley. Other new band members included singer and guitarist Glen Goins, drummer Jerome Brailey and guitarist Michael Hampton. Parliament's Chocolate City (1975) established P-Funk as a force in the music community, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in mere days.
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In the 1970s, a musician called George Clinton developed a new type of funk music with his bands Parliament and Funkadelic. Clinton's music mixed funk musical styles with jazz music and psychedelic rock. The term "P-Funk" is often used to describe the music played by George Clinton's bands. Other well-known funk bands from the 1970s included Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power, and Kool & the Gang.
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In the 1970s, a new group of musicians further developed the "funk rock" approach innovated by George Clinton, with his main bands Parliament and, later, Funkadelic. Together, they produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by jazz and psychedelic rock. The two groups had members in common and often are referred to singly as "Parliament-Funkadelic." The breakout popularity of Parliament-Funkadelic gave rise to the term "P-Funk," which referred to the music by George Clinton's bands, and defined a new subgenre.
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