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60 free Funk trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Funk started as a word for sweat and a bad smell, then became the most influential rhythm of the last sixty years. This quiz follows it from the New Orleans drummers who first said 'play it funky' through James Brown's command to hit the one, the Isley Brothers and Sly and the Family Stone, the Mothership landing at Parliament-Funkadelic shows, Bootsy Collins's star-shaped bass, Earth, Wind & Fire's kalimba and horns, and on to electro-funk, Prince's Minneapolis sound and the G-funk samples that powered West Coast rap. Expect questions on the players as much as the hits: which Brown drummer Pee Wee Ellis credited with modern funk, which pedal shaped 'Maggot Brain', why Maurice White named his band after his zodiac sign, what Bootsy's brother was nicknamed, which barbershop the Parliaments rehearsed in, and which Parliament song has a title nobody can pronounce. Easy questions suit anyone who has danced to 'Shining Star'; the expert tier is for people who argue about Westbound versus Casablanca pressings. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on funk, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins and Earth, Wind & Fire, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. No lyrics are quoted.
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Q 01Before it named a music genre, what did the word 'funk' originally refer to?
A strong odor
In Black communities the sweaty connotation was a compliment: honest, hard-working effort on the bandstand produced a superlative performance.
Q 02James Brown's command 'On the one!' told his band to hammer which count?
The first beat of every measure
Traditional soul accented the backbeat; shifting the weight to the downbeat is the single most-cited definition of what makes funk funk.
Q 03Which 1964 James Brown single is credited with launching his one-three beat shift toward funk?
Out of Sight
Two 1965 hits followed and cemented the style; by 'Cold Sweat' in 1967 he had thrown out the twelve-bar blues form altogether.
Q 04In which city were Dyke and the Blazers, who released 'Funky Broadway' in 1967, based?
Phoenix, Arizona
Wilson Pickett covered the song the same year and took it into the pop top 10.
Q 05What is Tower of Power's 1970 debut album, titled after the band's home turf, called?
East Bay Grease
The band formed in Oakland in 1968; the other three titles are real later Tower of Power albums.
Q 06Which New Orleans band defined the city's funk with 1969's 'Sophisticated Cissy' and 'Cissy Strut'?
The Meters
The instrumental 'Cissy Strut' has a half-swung feel that funk drummers still study, and a Hammond B-3 organ carrying the hook.
Q 07Which 1969 Isley Brothers R&B No. 1 is cited as bridging Brown, Hendrix and Sly Stone?
It's Your Thing
The Isleys recorded it on their own T-Neck label right after leaving Motown, which is partly why it sounds so unbuttoned.
Q 08Which Motown producer's psychedelic soul hits include 'War' and 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone'?
Norman Whitfield
He pushed the Temptations from three-minute pop-soul into long, funky, socially charged epics at the end of the 1960s.
Q 09Rose Royce scored a No. 1 hit in 1976 with which purely dance-funk record?
Car Wash
It was the title song of the 1976 comedy film of the same name, starring Richard Pryor.
Q 10Which singer, heavily influenced by James Brown, is credited with creating Afrobeat?
Fela Kuti
The Nigerian bandleader fused Brown's grooves with highlife and jazz into songs that often ran past ten minutes.
Q 11Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 single 'Planet Rock' launched which minimalist, machine-driven subgenre?
Electro-funk
Its DNA came from Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra rather than from horn sections and slap bass.
Q 12Which singer is nicknamed the Queen of Funk?
Chaka Khan
She fronted Rufus before going solo; 'I'm Every Woman' is one of the disco hits built on funk riffs.
Q 13Digital Underground's 'The Humpty Dance' is built on a sample of which Parliament song?
Let's Play House
George Clinton returned the compliment by branding the group 'Sons of the P', which became the title of their second album.
Q 21Which James Brown drummer did Pee Wee Ellis credit as the basis of modern funk?
Clyde Stubblefield
His break on 'Funky Drummer' became one of the most sampled pieces of drumming in hip-hop.
Q 22Parliament's 1975 song 'Chocolate City' is a metaphor for which US city?
Washington, D.C.
The track floated the idea of a Black president three decades before it happened.
Q 23Which Parliament song's title contains the made-up word 'Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop'?
Aqua Boogie
It topped the R&B chart in 1978 despite a title almost nobody could say twice.
Q 14Which producer is considered the progenitor of G-funk?
Dr. Dre
He has said that in the 1970s everyone was 'getting high, wearing Afros, bell-bottoms and listening to Parliament-Funkadelic'.
Q 15Prince formed which band, first meant as his opening act, to showcase the Minneapolis sound?
The Time
Morris Day fronted the group, which later stole scenes from Prince in Purple Rain.
Q 16Which percussive keyboard drives Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' and Bill Withers' 'Use Me'?
Clavinet
Its strings are struck by rubber tips, which is why it sounds halfway between a guitar and a harpsichord.
Q 17Which synthesizer was most often used for funk synth bass lines?
Minimoog
Bernie Worrell's Minimoog on Parliament's 'Flash Light' is the template that later boogie and G-funk copied.
Q 18Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel shaped his famous distorted lead sound with which pedal?
Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone
It is the same fuzz box Keith Richards used on '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'.
Q 19Which guitar hero temporarily lived in the Isley Brothers' household and tutored a young Ernie Isley?
Jimi Hendrix
He was playing in the Isleys' backing band then, years before the Experience.
Q 20James Brown's longtime guitarist who developed the 'chicken scratch' rhythm technique was who?
Jimmy Nolen
He got his clean, trebly tone from hollow-body jazz guitars with P-90 pickups run through a Fender Twin Reverb with the treble cranked.
Q 24To dodge radio obscenity rules, the Ohio Players titled a song with a sound-alike for a banned word. What was it?
Fopp
Funk lyricists leaned on double entendres and near-homophones throughout the 1970s to get spins.
Q 25Which all-Black rock band did Rolling Stone call 'funk-metal pioneers'?
Living Colour
Vernon Reid's group hit big with 'Cult of Personality' in 1988.
Q 26Which New Orleans-born drummer is said to have been the first to use the word 'funky' to tell musicians to play more syncopated and danceable?
Earl Palmer
He went on to become one of the most-recorded session drummers in Los Angeles.
Q 27Which harmony-driven Parliament-Funkadelic spinoff group was made up of women?
Brides of Funkenstein
Parlet was the other female vocal spinoff in George Clinton's orbit.
Q 28George Clinton's original doo-wop group, the Parliaments, took its name from what?
A cigarette brand
Clinton was fifteen when he formed the group in Newark in 1956.
Q 29What was George Clinton's Plainfield, New Jersey barbershop, where the Parliaments rehearsed, called?
Silk Palace
Future Funkadelic guitarist Garry Shider was a customer there as a child.
Q 30Which musician coined the name 'Funkadelic' after the band moved to Detroit?
Billy Bass Nelson
Clinton had temporarily lost the rights to the name 'the Parliaments', so the backing band was pushed to the front.