(upbeat music) (graphic pops) - Hello and welcome to The Journal.

I'm Steve Kendall.

Bowling Green State University is celebrating an American original music genre with the The Funk Music in Popular Culture Conference.

It will feature the Independent Lens film, "We Want the Funk!"

We're joined by Dr. Matthew Donahue from the BGSU Department of Popular Culture.

Thanks for being here, Matt, again- - Great to be here.

- You've been on here numerous times to talk about these things.

And this is a story when we start, as we delve into this, we're gonna find out that Ohio, and we could we'll talk about this later, but Ohio did have a lot of, in part in the funk music revolution and its origins.

But talk about funk in general because you hear things, you hear music.

Maybe you don't think it's funk music, but it actually is, or it has its roots in that.

So, just talk about how this came about, this particular genre.

- Sure.

Yeah.

Funk music really draws on so many different sources.

Blues, rhythm and blues, soul, gospel, jazz music.

And, of course, by the late 1960s rock music.

And that's when funk music really kind of started to gain steam and gather attention, particularly with Sly and the Family Stone- outta San Francisco.

- [Steve] Ahhh... okay...humph!

- But then by the early 1970s, really funk music kind of really became established.

And quite a lot of artists from what we often refer to as the Midwest Funk Zone, which is the area that we are in, because Ohio, as well as Detroit, Michigan, had a huge impact in terms of funk music, particularly during that period of the early 1970s.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- [Matt] So, we're talking artists like the Ohio Players.

- [Steve] Sure.

- [Matt] Lakeside, Slave, Faze-O And then you have individual artists like, Skip Little Axe McDonald, who's in a group called the Ohio Hustlers, which was sort of a play on the Ohio Players.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Who then eventually ended up going on and becoming hugely influential in terms of the Sugar Hill Records label, which is often associated with rap music.

But rap music really- is a derivative - [Steve] A derivative.

- [Matt] Of funk music, essentially.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- [Matt] And then of course then from Detroit, you have George Clinton with Parliament and Parliament Funkadelic, and then, you know, also have the Cincinnati connection with Bootsy Collins.

So, there is kind of a unique connection- - [Steve] Yeah.

- To our region of the country in terms of funk music.

- And I know that as we're looking through the events that are gonna take place during this seminar, there is a thing, it talks about the I-75 connection, and you've just sort of outlined it, Detroit, all the way down to Cincinnati and all along the way.

And then the groups out of Northeast Ohio too.

If you try to categorize funk style, you talked about rhythm and blues, blues.

Where does it fall, though?

Is is it more, is it more blues?

Is it more rhythm and blues?

Is it more jazz, or is it just, it's just an amalgamation of all of those.

You can't single out one main influence.

- It really is an amalgamation of all of those.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And I think really as, particularly as we kind of reached the 1970s, it also incorporated rock elements.

- [Steve] Sure.

- But also sort of like glam rock elements with quite a bit in terms of the whole theatrics element.

- [Steve] Right.

- And of course.

- [Steve] And the outfits and all of that, yeah.

- [Matt] And Parliament Funkadelic really kind of ruled the day (Steve laughs) in terms of that.

- [Steve] Sure.

- [Matt] Because they had these, elab, just like KISS, who blew up during that period in terms of rock music and coming out- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Of the whole glam rock, hard rock scene, you know, had these elaborate stage shows.

Well, so too, did Parliament Funkadelic, George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And so it was kind of, it was very much sort of theatrical, but also incorporating these rock elements.

And what's fascinating is that by the mid to late 1970s, then disco music, basically also used funk music as the basis for- - [Steve] Sure.

- [Matt] Its kind of imprint in popular music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Disco music basically took the hook of funk music and repeated it and repeated it- and repeated it.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And as we get to the late 1970s, then we get into, in the early 1980s, then we get into rap music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And the early origins of rap music really coming out of Sugar Hill records really falls back on funk music- - [Steve] Yeah.

- Because a lot of times what those musicians were doing, the core house band for Sugar Hill Records, Doug Wimbish, Keith Leblanc, Skip Little Axe McDonald, so that would be Doug Wimbush on bass, Keith Leblanc on drums, Skip Little Axe McDonald on guitar.

They, basically were playing sort of funk music.

But then different rappers would come- - [Steve] Yeah.

- Over and rap lyrics over the funk music that they were making- - [Steve] Basically the rhythm track.

- And then.

- [Steve] Or whatever, yeah.

- And then as we find then later on.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- In terms of rap music and elements of rap music, you know, and using funk music as the basis, then when sampling became so popular in terms of the development of that particular style, then you found a lot of rap artists basically sampling- funk artists.

- [Steve] Yeah, those rifts that they had created.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Exactly.

- Well, you know, it's interesting because you mentioned Sly and the Family Stone, and of course most people probably became familiar with them from- the Woodstock film.

- [Matt] Absolutely.

- They got the real start.

And they were probably looked at more as a soul operation.

But the reality is there was a lot of that funk influence that we now would call funk that sort of was their foundation.

- It really was.

And I mean, it really was, and it came out of that period of time, particularly during the late 1960s where we see a lot of those musical styles- kind of blending together.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And also into the 1970s where we start to see a lot of those musical styles blending together.

So, it's sort of like rock plus.

So, it's like rock.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And then in the case of funk, it's sort of like rock plus, you know, rhythm and blues- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Jazz music, soul music, gospel music, even in some cases.

I mean, you could even go back to like Miles Davis's album, Bitches Brew- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Which came out in the late 1960s.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Around the same time, Sly and the Family Stone was also kind of blowing up.

Miles Davis always also used some of these kind of early intonations of funk music on that particular album.

Again, that was like a combination of rock plus jazz.

But what's fascinating too is then again, we get through into the 1970s with all those Ohio groups from Dayton, I can't emphasize that enough, how influential those groups were.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- But then, of course, then by the 1980s, you also have Roger Troutman from Roger and Zapp, who was also doing a lot of recordings in the late 1970s, but a lot of the Roger Troutman recordings, either his solo stuff under Roger Troutman or under the group Banner Zapp or Roger and Zapp, as they were often called, were absolutely the backbone for what would be- used for rap music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And hip hop music.

And then you go into even contemporary artists today, like Bruno Mars- - [Steve] Right.

- [Matt] He's incorporating funk music into- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Into his style - [Steve] Yes.

Yeah.

Well, and I thought it was interesting too, you know, you mentioned the fact that late sixties, early seventies, the charts began to reflect the fact that you were seeing all of these different genres.

There wasn't just a top 40 pop chart.

It started to have all these influence.

Miles Davis comes in and becomes familiar to the rock crowd, who probably, well, Miles Davis is jazz.

We don't, you know, jazz, come on, nobody... And yet, somehow now he becomes almost a rock star among the rock people.

- [Matt] It's true.

- [Steve] As you said, he's incorporating all of these influences and people are probably experiencing and not even realizing how far back some of that influence goes in his music.

- [Matt] It's true.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- It's true, and definitely, and again, I mean, the seventies for funk music was really, you know, some people say it was the golden era.

I would say really it goes beyond that period- of the 1970s.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- But definitely that period of the 1970s, particularly for a lot of those Ohio groups, again that I mentioned before.

- [Steve] Sure.

- The Ohio Hustlers, the Ohio Players, Lakeside, Slave, Faze-O, a lot of those groups really blew up out of that whole scene.

But then they found a new lease on life in the eighties, nineties, and into the two thousands with a lot of rap and hip hop artists basically sampling their music and incorporating their music as the basis for their song.

So, like for instance, Tupac Shakur, and Dr. Dre collaborated on a song called, California Love.

Well, the original song, California Love, was a song by Roger and Zapp.

- [Steve] Wow.

- [Matt] It basically was a song that that sampled that particular tune and that sort of gave that song a whole new lease on life.

So, that's just one example.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] There's so many examples.

But it, basically allowed for music fans to sort of rediscover a lot of those artists.

Parliament, Funkadelic, James Brown, Roger and Zapp, Skip Little Axe McDonald, all those artists kind of had their careers rejuvenated by music fans saying, "Hey, you know, what's this sample from?"

- [Steve] Yeah.

"This sounds like this-" - Who is this guy?

- Who is this guy?

- [Matt] Yeah, exactly.

- [Steve] When we come back, we can talk about it.

Because it's interesting you mention that because my guess is, and we'll talk about this when we come back, that people were hearing that music thinking it was brand new, oh, this is new music.

And the reality was, it might be a rift from 1969 that's underpinning a rap song.

So, we can talk about that when we come back.

Back in just a moment with Dr. Matthew Donahue.

We're talking about the, "We Want the Funk!

", Funk Music in Popular Culture, a seminar's gonna take place later this month at Bowling Green State University.

Back in just a moment.

Thanks for staying with us on The Journal.

Our guest is Dr. Matthew Donahue, who's from the Bowling Green Department of Popular Culture.

And coming up later this month, April 25th and 26th, there's the Funk Music in Popular Culture Conference.

You know, we were talking about the influence of music and growing up in the Midwest, you mentioned the Detroit down to Cincinnati Connection, all of that.

But a lot of Motown music, that became influential in this too, because you had James Jamerson, people like that, the bass player, the drummers, all of those with that beat that for a lot of people was a new sound.

And yet, it's probably really runs threads through all of this music that we see, like funk music.

And, and you mentioned too, they tapped the name at Motown, the house band.

- Well, really, I mean, definitely the house bands for a lot of these infamous record labels, famous record labels played- - [Steve] Yeah.

- Such a key role in our popular music.

And of course, that applies also to funk music, right?

So, you have, you know, Chess records doing blues, rhythm and blues.

They had their own house band.

You have Motown records with the Funk Brothers.

They had their own house band.

Stax Records also they- had their own house band.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- And Stax, by the time we get to Stax, it's sort of like this crossover between soul and funk as well.

But then what's fascinating, kind of tying in one of our keynote speakers, Doug Wimbish- - [Steve] Yeah.

- He was in the house band for Sugar Hill Records.

- [Steve] Right.

- And Sugar Hill Records really started as a record label previously called All Platinum Records.

And All Platinum Records had the group Wood, Brass, and Steel.

And that consisted of Doug Wimbish on bass and Skip McDonald, Harold on guitar, Harold Sargent on drums, and a number of other players.

But eventually that morphed into Sugar Hill Records.

So, then the house band for Sugar Hill records became Doug Wimbish on bass, Keith Leblanc on drums, Skip Little Axe McDonald on guitar, and a number of other players.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] But what's fascinating is that basically they were sort of using their inspiration from funk, from Wood, Brass and Steel, the group that they were in previously, and others to create their own kind of sound, which later became the sound of rap music, which is also fascinating.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] So, they were basically making funk music, but then different rappers would lay over, you know, raps and rhymes- on top of over the music.

- [Steve] Yeah, on top of it.

- [Matt] That they were making.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And then what we find too is that really also what's fascinating in terms of Mr. Wimbish's contributions, and Doug Wimbish is one of our amazing keynote- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Speakers at the event, is that he also kind of, his whole career kind of has used funk music as sort of the base literally of a lot these different crossover musical genres.

So, for instance, you know, the group Living Colour that he's in, that's sort of like rock funk.

- [Steve] Right.

- [Matt] The group Tackhead that he's in, that's sort of like dub reggae, rock funk, you know?

And so there's all these sort of elements, kind of these threads going through of funk music amongst, you know, some of these major players- out there.

- [Steve] Sure.

Yeah.

Because because I noticed too, in his list of credits- is the Rolling Stones.

- [Matt] It's unbelievable.

- [Steve] Who covered all genres of music from country to whatever.

And, of course, would tap somebody like him to provide that sound and that influence.

- [Matt] We're really lucky to have Doug Wimbish participate at this conference because he has had an amazing 50-year career.

He's worked with everybody and anybody in the music industry- like you mentioned.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- [Matt] Rolling Stones, the solo work for Jagger, Tackhead, Living Colour, the Eurythmics, Carly Simon, Seal, so, many groups.

- [Steve] Right.

- [Matt] And a huge influence in popular music.

And that's why it's important to bring up the kind of the house band players, because really it's the house bands for a lot- of these record labels - [Steve] Yeah.

- That are the, you know, that are the basis for the music that comes out on those labels.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] People hear the music.

- [Steve] Right.

- [Matt] They're familiar with the vocalist, you know, oftentimes, or they might be familiar with the band, but they're not as familiar with the house band who are making the music.

- [Steve] Who laid the foundation for whatever song, and it's been embellished.

And then other people go out and play it live.

Yeah.

- [Matt] And that's why I have to, we have to definitely, you know, recognize, pay special recognition to the Sugar Hill Records House Band, which also is also Tackhead, which is Mr. Wimbish's other group, which is, you know, Adrian Sherwood doing the mixing on the controls, SuperStar from On-U Sound Records.

Bernard Fowler from the Rolling Stones, SuperStar, he does the vocals.

Doug Wimbish on bass, Keith Leblanc on drums, Skip Little Axe McDonald on guitar.

So, in that particular group, that one of Mr. Wimbish's many musical projects, that's sort of like a funk super group- if you will.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- And it's just amazing to have somebody on that level- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Who's coming to Bowling Green State University to talk about his career and his life and times- in music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Because he's, as you said, he's touched people, well, you, you wouldn't think, oh, Carly Simon used a funk bassist on her songs.

It's like, you just wouldn't make that connection because you wouldn't consider her music to be funky to some degree, but yet there it is.

And his work with the Rolling Stones and the other groups you mentioned it flows through all of that.

And we just take it for granted, oh, there's a beat, there's a bass track, there's a, you know, a guitar part.

And it has its roots in this kind of thing.

Much, much like, as you mentioned, Sly and the Family Stone, who a lot of people looked at as almost like a pop act in a way because of their notoriety from Woodstock, and they were on the top 40 charts, but it was a different, it was a genre of music that somehow fit, and yet people wouldn't make the connection.

Oh, that's got a basis in funk and became that kind of influence.

- [Matt] Well, what we find too is a lot of it crossed over into popular culture by the 1970s, particularly in what was referred to as the Blaxploitation films.

- [Steve] Sure.

- The Black Action films.

- [Steve] There's a mention of, there's a presentation on that as well.

- [Matt] Yeah, there is.

I mean, for instance, you know, a lot of folks became familiar with funk music by that crossover of funk music serving as the soundtrack for a lot of those black action films, blaxploitation films.

So, for instance, Curtis Mayfield doing the soundtrack- - [Steve] Yeah, Super Fly.

- Of Super Fly Super Fly.

Or James Brown doing soundtrack work for some of those movies.

Earth, Wind and Fire, their first introduction- in popular music.

- [Steve] Yeah!

- Was through the black action film of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Roy Ayers doing the one, Coffy, the film Coffy, providing the soundtrack for that, or Isaac Hayes with the soundtrack- for Shaft.

- [Steve] Shaft.

I was gonna say, yeah.

- You have all of this kind of crossing over going on in the media, what we often refer to as media convergence.

And that was also- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Just another way- for funk music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] To kind of reach the masses.

So, it, you know, went from like, sort of like the recording industry and then into the film industry, but then back into the recording industry and then back sort of into- the film industry - [Steve] Oh yeah.

- [Matt] With the whole video- connection.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And once videos- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] On MTV kind of exploded, a lot of the rap groups- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Would then give recognition to the artists with whom they were inspired by or sampling.

- [Steve] Yeah.

When we come back, there's one television series, incredibly popular series that probably most people wouldn't connect the intro music to being funk music.

And we can talk about that when we come back.

Back in just a moment with Dr. Matt Donahue from Bowling Green State University, as we talk about the Funk Music in Popular Culture seminar and conference that's gonna be taking place later this month.

Back in just a moment.

You're with us on The Journal.

We're talking about the Funk Music in Popular Culture conference coming up later this month, April 25th and 26th at Bowling Green State University.

Our guest is Dr. Matt Donahue.

We left that one segment.

We kind of teased about the fact that incredibly, one of the, probably the most popular television shows in the history of television intro was a funk music baseline.

So, tell us what that was- - [Matt] Well, of course.

- [Steve] For people who might not have guessed already.

- [Matt] Yeah.

I mean, Seinfeld- I mean, you know.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- [Matt] There's a great example of just, you know, a little bit of funk kind of getting through- - [Steve] Yeah.

Into that massive popular main culture, yeah.

- Absolutely.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

And plays through the show, not just, but just that little riff.

- [Matt] And there's loads of little examples of that.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And throughout our popular music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And popular culture.

And that's what's so fascinating about different music genres kind of crossing over- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Into other media forms.

- [Steve] Yeah, they sort of bleed into each other.

And I think, as we said, we've talked about a lot of people don't even know, oh, I've been listening to every time I watch Seinfeld, I was listening- to funk music.

- [Matt] Exactly.

- [Steve] Oh, who knew?

- [Matt] It's true.

- [Steve] You know, one of the things too, you talk about how it moves through things.

You know, we've tracked it through like this, you know, with its roots back in music, blues, jazz, whatever, through the sixties, seventies, eighties, then you get to alternative music, which again, people say, "Oh, it's a brand new genre, it's so different."

Whatever, but the reality is a good chunk of that, and some really popular groups drew deeply on funk music to get the sound that people are familiar with.

- [Matt] Absolutely.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Yeah.

- I mean, big time.

I mean, really the group that, of course, really kind of, you know, floated to the top was the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And they really were derivative of this kind of punk funk, alternative heavy metal wrap, kind of all that's amalgamation of all with George Clinton producing their first two albums.

- [Steve] Wow!

- And so that kind of goes into some of that.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- But what's fascinating is that Ohio had its own answer to the Red Hot Chili peppers.

So, there was a group called Big Hunk O' Cheese, and then there was another group called The Great Barbecue Gods- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And that was Ohio's answer to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Because all of this type of music was going on all around the country at the same time.

And then that further exposed a whole new generation to funk music- essentially.

- [Steve] Right.

- But it was through the alternative music lens, if you will.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- Incorporating elements of punk, funk, heavy metal rap, a little bit of everything.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And then fascinating too, by the nineties, you get into this crossover of sort of like funk music with like trip hop and a style of music called acid jazz.

There was a very famous group in our region of the country called Universe Crew.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And they incorporated a lot of these elements of funk, trip hop, acid jazz, all styles kind of blending together.

So, it also kind of pays tribute to those old school artists.

So, for instance, you know, Universe Crew was very much influenced by what Parliament Funkadelic was doing, or you get into groups like Big Hunk O' Cheese and The Great Barbecue Gods, they were this alternative kind of style, but they were also influenced by the funk artists that had come previously- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] Groups like, you know, Sly and the Family Stone incorporating these rock elements.

So, it goes just beyond, you know, what people would normally think is just kind of straight funk music, James Brown- - [Steve] Right, yeah.

- Sly the Family Stone, you know, Ohio Player stuff.

What's fascinating is how it kind of bridged into other styles of music and other artists.

And Ohio has had such a deep, rich history, not only with the originators, people like Skip Little Axe McDonald and the group, the Ohio hustlers, or the Ohio players, or Roger and Zapp or Lakeside or Faze-O, but then during that whole alternative music generation, groups like Big Hunk O' Cheese, The Great Barbecue Gods, the Love Cowboys, also during that alternative music era also kind of coming out on the scene- - [Steve] Yeah.

- And exposing a whole new generation of music listeners to the sounds of funk music.

- Yeah.

And I guess when you look at the evolution like that, you know, people say, "Oh wow, that's a new sound," and it is, and it's a new sound to them, but it's also a new sound because admittedly it's drawing on all of these other pieces, all of this other development, but it's how it's all incorporated and put together that makes it now sound uniquely, itself, in 1995 or 2015 or 2025.

Yeah, pieces of all of that musical history.

And I guess that's kind of the amazing thing about any music, is how it isn't just one influence, it isn't one sound, every piece of sound draws on this vast depth of musical styles and people that have either written, produced, composed, sung, whatever.

And that influence carries through to all these things you've talked about.

When you look at where this is going, so what technically or theoretically, what's the future?

What is funk music gonna influence next?

We don't know, probably.

- Well, I think it's definitely gonna continue- in terms of inspiring.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

- And being the basis for a lot of rap- hip hop music for certain.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Sure.

- I think through, you know, conferences like ours and the film that's being featured, We Want the Funk at the conference, I think that will also inspire a whole new generation of people to kind of- - [Steve] Yeah.

- Gravitate towards the music and musicians and such.

And it really goes into this whole idea of music as the universal language.

I think that really is the core tenet.

Kind of going back to what- you mentioned in terms.

- [Steve] Yeah.

Yeah.

- Of all these different genres kind of coming together.

That's really the key.

I mean, music is the universal language.

It's great way to break down, you know- - [Steve] Yeah.

- These barriers that really are almost really more imaginary- if you will.

- [Steve] Right.

Yeah.

- I think that, you know, you get a group of people from all different backgrounds and you play some great music, everybody's gonna be drawn- to the great music - [Steve] Sure.

Yeah.

Regardless of where they think, where they think it comes from, or where, they don't even know- where it comes.

- [Matt] Exactly.

- [Steve] They just like it.

- [Matt] Exactly.

- And yeah, they're influenced, and again, because I know we wanna talk about something else, but, you know, you listen to even like the Doobie Brothers, the bass lines by the guy that was the base player for them, that's not rock-based, that's not country-based, that's not, whatever.

That is funky soul rhythm and blues bass underneath there.

And yet you hear those wonderful guitar riffs and, you know, the kind of chinking guitars, but underneath is that bump de bump, that riffing going on that you wouldn't equate with, you know, China Grove in a way.

But there it is, it's kind of a funky song rhythm-wise.

- [Matt] Absolutely.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And I mean, again, it really goes back to this idea that, you know, one area of popular music during that period of the 1970s, it was like rock plus.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And so in the case of funk music, it was sort of like rock plus, blues, rhythm and blues, soul, you know, gospel, kind of all coming together.

And a lot of those artists kind of gaining inspiration from a lot of those different styles, a lot of the artists from those different styles.

- [Steve] Yeah so, if, if people wanna make sure they don't miss this conference, as I mentioned a couple of times, it comes up later in April, but kind of run through the days and times a little bit in general so people know they don't miss it.

Because it is free, it's open to the public and it's free.

- [Matt] Absolutely.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] So, we want to just make sure that everybody's aware.

The Funk Music in Popular Culture Conference is taking place on Friday, April 25th and Saturday April 26th in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union in Room 314.

The event is free, it's free for all ages.

And on Friday at 5:30 in the Student Union Theater, will be a film screening of the Independent Lens- documentary film.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- "We Want The Funk!"

And on Saturday in the Student Union Theater at three o'clock will be a special presentation, a legacy interview with Doug Wimbish from Living Color, Tackhead, the Rolling Stones.

And we're working on a special live performance with Mr. Wimbish- - [Steve] Oooh!

- But we'll break that out when we get into our conference directly, we'll be able to announce that to the folks directly.

But we're really, really looking forward to the event.

And what's fascinating too is because it really, this conference highlights a lot of Ohio's connection to- - [Steve] Right.

- [Matt] Funk music.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] And that's something that we often try and do with a lot- - [Steve] Sure - [Matt] Of the conferences that the Department of Popular Culture has been featuring and doing over these years, which is also to provide a connection to, Ohio's connection to- - [Steve] Yeah.

- [Matt] These popular culture styles.

- [Steve] Great.

Great, well, yeah, and people can find all this online.

It's real simple to track down.

But yeah, it sounds like some really cool stuff's gonna take place.

So, thank you so much.

- [Matt] Thank you for having me.

- Yeah.

Dr. Matt Donahue from the BGSU Department of Popular Culture.

You can check us out at WBGU.org And of course you can watch us each week on WBGU-PBS.

We'll see you again next time.

Goodnight and good luck.

(upbeat music)