Guest Musicology Lecture with Brian Wright

Part of the Hollander Distinguished Lectures in Musicology series.

Ain’t That a Groove: James Brown’s Bass Players and the Birth of Funk

This presentation chronicles the development of funk bass playing across James Brown’s recorded output in the 1960s and early 1970s—from his initial successes in R&B, to his crossover appeal during the Civil Rights Movement, and finally to his becoming an outspoken advocate for Black Pride. Working together, Brown and his bassists crafted danceable bass lines that helped establish funk as one of the most culturally significant styles of Black popular music. At the same time, their stories reveal the thorniness of Brown’s collaborative process, as well as funk’s complex relationship to the larger conflicts surrounding Black politics and identity.

Brian F. Wright is Associate Professor of Music History at the University of North Texas. He holds a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from Case Western Reserve University and is a former research assistant for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archive. His book-length history of the electric bass, The Bastard Instrument, received the 2025 Deems Taylor / Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Book in Pop Music, and his work has appeared in the Journal of the Society for American Music and the Journal of Popular Music Studies, as well as in Vintage Guitar and Bass Player Magazine.

See the full bio on Brian F. Wright at the UNT College of Music website.