Rare groove: Difference between revisions

Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure pop or jazz music.^[1][2] Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco.^[3] Vinyl records that fall into this category generally have high re-sale prices. Rare groove records have been sought after by not only collectors and lovers of this type of music, but also by hip hop artists and producers.^[4] Online music retailers also sell a selection of rare groove in digital formats. This availability and ease of access has brought about a resurgence of the genre in recent years, as evidenced by the inclusion of the term 'rare groove' in the Oxford dictionary.

The term was coined by British DJ Norman Jay^[5] after his "The Original Rare Groove Show" on pirate radio station Kiss 94 FM (the progenitor of Kiss 100 London).^[6] The show was a collaboration with DJ Judge Jules and featured a mainly urban soundtrack from the 70's and 80's mixed with early house music.^[6] The rare groove scene began when DJ's presented an eclectic mix of music that placed a particular emphasis on politically articulate dance-funk recordings connected to the Black Power movement.^[7] Pirate radio stations and DJ's participated in a "recovery, repackaging and retrieval" of obscure music that reflected, related to or translated inequalities of race and gender and the struggles of the civil rights movement. Music that had failed to gained acceptance in a previous time was given a "new lease of life" by DJ's on pirate radio stations. Rare groove also provided a musical space where the 'symbolic capitol' of the music became very important.^[8]

Sampling is one of the biggest aspects of hip hop and rap, and these types of records provide breaks for artists to use in their songs.^[9] Examples of rare groove samples, such as Eazy E's "Eazy Duz It" (which samples the The Detroit Emeralds, Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Isley Brothers, Sly & the Family Stone, The Temptations and even Richard Pryor), can be found in modern hip hop and drum and bass.

After the collapse of funk influenced disco, many musicians who had made a name for themselves under disco's mainstream success had the spotlight taken away from them. Many of these artists have had their songs remixed and remastered by house music artists. Much of the obscure music "rediscovered" as samples in newer house or hip hop tracks is labeled "rare groove" retroactively.^[10]

When hip-hop embraced sampling in the late 1980s, it prompted a slew of so-called "breaks and beats" bootleg albums that featured the original records appropriated by hip-hop producers. Jean-Jacques Perrey's 1960s Moog oddity EVA took this path out of oblivion: sampled on a Gang Starr track, widely bootlegged, officially compiled and eventually employed to flog Lucozade. Now that hip-hop relies less on samples, the job of introducing obscurities back into pop's bloodstream falls to a new wave of diggers.^[10]

— Dorian Lynskey delves into the dusty underground world of the 'diggers', The Guardian

An example of this appears in the popular 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Set in the early 1990s,^[11] the game features the voice of character actor Ricky Harris^[12] as DJ Johnny "The Love Giant" Parkinson "Diggin' through the crate for some serious Old School funk jams"^[13] on Master Sounds 98.3, a fictional radio station playing rare groove^[13] sampled by 1990s hip-hop artists.

• Groove (music)

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