The Bay Area Music Scene
Bay Area didn’t really have much of influential music history, even with other genres’ growth. Pre-’60s, the mood in the bay was considered pretty intoxicating; World War II had just ended many people were trying to find new homes and immigration. As such, this was a time for rapid cultural expansion and influence to begin. Due to the influx of people wanting to become something in the bay, the mid-1960s brought an influential figure who paved the way for black pop music.
Sylvester Stewart, known professionally as Sly Stone, brought a new musical blend to the psychedelic music scene of San Francisco. Stone and his family of artists not only blended jazz and funk with rock and RnB but, in doing so, created one of the most diverse and integrated bands of the era. Their new style brought new guitar technology to rock like an echo chamber, vocal distortion, fuzz box, and wah-wah pedal, to name a few. Their music was so influential that the king of Pop Micheal Jackson, bought rights to his music in 1984. The Psychedelic funk sound of Stone’s music conscious and political messages resonated deeply within the soul, funk, and hip hop communities and helped redefine black music. Stone’s music paved the way for many future African American bands. Tower of Power was one of these bands that followed Stone’s footsteps.
Tower of Power(TOP) originated from Oakland in 1968. Similar to Stone, TOP was very ethnically diverse; it included white, black, and Latino artists. They brought with them many signature sounds, most notably their renowned funk horns, the groovy bass, and just the general origin of the Oakland Funk sound. TOP’s success has warranted them years of service, to the point that they still tour to this day. With so many years of experience, TOP has worked with a plethora of artists and many of the biggest names of each decade, but nothing speaks more influential than its effects on hip-hop, the biggest music genre of the modern-day. There have been countless samples used by popular artists during the rise of hip-hop like De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Arrested Development, etc., as well as some more modern artists like Drake, Will. I.Am Rick Ross, etc. When new trends emerged, TOP would sometimes fall out of favor, but their iconic sounds allowed them to stay in demand as backing groups of the industry's big names. The band had been together for 50 years(due to the unfortunate death of Francis Rocco this year)and curated and influenced Soul Music as they went. These artists curated the bay area sound, which influenced much of American pop/rock music without them, much of popular music would not be the same.
