“Blaxploitation films were the first to regularly feature soundtracks of funk and soul music as well as primarily black casts. Variety credited Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, released in 1971, with the invention of the blaxploitation genre while others argue that the Hollywood-financed film Shaft, also released in 1971, is closer to being a blaxploitation piece and thus is more likely to have begun the trend.
Blaxploitation includes several subtypes of films including crime (Foxy Brown), action/martial arts (Three the Hard Way), westerns (Boss Nigger), horror (Abby,Blacula), comedy (Uptown Saturday Night), nostalgia (Five on the Black Hand Side), coming-of-Age/courtroom drama (Cooley High/Cornbread, Earl and Me), and musical (Sparkle).
Following the example set by Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, many blaxploitation films feature funk and soul jazz soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats, and wah-wah guitars. These soundtracks are notable for a degree of complexity that was not common to the radio-friendly funk tracks of the 1970s, and a rich orchestration which included instruments rarely used in funk or soul such as the flute and the violin.”
“For their seventh volume The Beatfonics Crew wanted to explore the world of Blaxploitation movement, an African-American film genre that emerged in the United States in the ‘70s, but also a music genre, given the significant quantity and quality of soundtracks recorded and the high level of the composers.” – The Beatfonics Crew
No Comments