Downbeat - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term Downbeat has several meanings including as a description of a beat in music, and as a genre or style of music.
Wikipedia goes on to say...
James Brown’s signature funk groove emphasized the downbeat – that is, with heavy emphasis "on the one" (the first beat of every measure) – to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat, familiar to many R&B musicians, that placed the emphasis on the second beat.[2 According to the New York Times, by the "mid-1960s Brown was producing his own recording sessions. In February 1965, with “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” he decided to shift the beat of his band: from the one-two-three-four backbeat to one-two-three-four. “I changed from the upbeat to the downbeat,” Mr. Brown said in 1990. “Simple as that, really.”
The above passage, courtesy of Wikipedia, recounts accurately one definition of Downbeat, but Funk was not the only calling card received by the Downbeat 5.
Across the ocean from the 60’s uptown sound of James Brown, British bands were spawning in Cuban heeled boots, and keenly tailored suits, stomping out what was then referred to as Beat Music. The Beatles were the first to gain recognition, with their Mersey Beat, but each hamlet across the empire soon claimed their own Beat bands. For example, in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, the Alan Price Combo was hijacked by some no-nonsense Geordies at a club called the Downbeat, where they soon became immortalized as the Animals.