funk music
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
that involves both "choking" the guitar neck and strumming the strings percussively to create a distinctive-sounding
riff
A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or acc ...
commonly associated with the genre. The technique was popularized by the music of James Brown, later spreading to other genres and performers.
The name "chanking" is either a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsJimmy Nolen
Jimmy Nolen (April 3, 1934 – December 18, 1983) - accessed November 13, 2011 was an American
as a part of his signature "chicken scratch" sound. The technique appeared first with a double-chank on the first
backbeat
In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...
of each bar in "
Out of Sight
''Out of Sight'' is a 1998 American crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Frank, adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel of the same name. The first of several collaborations between Soderbergh and actor Georg ...
" (1964), and in "
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a song written and recorded by James Brown. Released as a two-part single in 1965, it was Brown's first song to reach the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Top Ten, peaking at number eight, and was a number-one R&B hit, top ...
" (1965), a song that typified much of Brown's subsequent work. "Chicken scratching" itself differs slightly: the fretting hand lightly squeezes the chord on the neck, then releases suddenly to produce a scratch chord. In particular, Brown used chanking against syncopated bass to produce a unique blend of sounds.
The technique of chanking spread from funk to
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
The Foundations
The Foundations were a British soul band (m. 1967–1970). The group's background was: West Indian, White British, and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single " Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number e ...
, also utilized the technique, which left its sound legacy in
Europop
Europop (also spelled Euro pop) is a style of pop music that originated in Europe during the mid-to-late 1960s and developed to today's form throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with revivals and ...