The Best Punk Funk Bands

Punk funk artists list, with photos, ranked best to worst by votes. List of good punk funk bands includes a filter so you can sort by the groups’s label and what albums they've put out. This list of the top punk funk bands in the world includes all musicians who have released recordings that have gotten distribution, and is an up-to-date list. Punk funk groups and artists are shown below along with any additional genres in which their music belongs. If available, you can also see information about where all punk funk bands on this list got started. These are truly the greatest punk funk bands of all time, since the most famous punk funk artists ever are listed, and the order is decided by actual fans of the best punk funk music.

You can click on the punk funk band names to see more information about that particular notable punk funk group. If they're near the top of the best punk funk artist list, though, then they should have at least some information available. All the top punk funk bands named on the list also have discographies on their pages if you click on the punk funk band names themselves.

Funk punk rock bands like Talking Heads and Hillel Slovak are on this list and include images when available. Any artists you vote for graduate closer to the top of the list. The list includes funk punk like James Sigfried and Bush Tetras, giving you a breadth of choices.

All important, significant and iconic names in punk funk music history deserve your votes, so make sure to choose wisely. You can only vote once on this list.

The list includes all new punk funk bands, and if there are any missing on the list, you can always add them yourself. Just make sure they aren't already on the list and check your spelling, because this is already an accurate compilation of the best examples of punk funk, as well as a good place to start if you're asking yourself, or friends, exactly how to get into punk funk music. Especially since the bands at the top of the list will at the very least be the best choices if you're looking for a list of good punk funk bands with which to start out. No point in listening to them if they aren't actually good or even half-way decent punk funk bands.

This list answers the questions "who are the best punk funk bands of all time?" and "who is the greatest punk funk musician ever?"

If you know enough about the genre, please vote based on the quality of the band's music instead of just voting for the most popular punk funk bands that you might've heard of, but not really listened to closely enough to cast an informed vote.

After you've voted for the best artists, you can share this on Facebook, Twitter and more to get your friends' opinions. {#nodes}
Photo: flickr / CC0

  • Rick James
    Photo: user uploaded image
    1
    81 votes
    Rick James (born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his teen years. He was in a number of various bands and groups before entering the U.S. Navy to avoid being drafted in the early 1960s. In 1965, James deserted to Toronto, Canada, where he formed the rock band the Mynah Birds, who eventually signed a recording deal with Motown Records in 1966. James's career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted James on a one-year prison term related to the draft charges. After ...more
    • Genres (Music): New Wave, Disco, Pop music, Dance-punk, Rock music
    • Albums: Street Songs, Urban Rapsody, Motown Legends, Cold Blooded, Throwin' Down
  • The Pop Group
    Photo: user uploaded image
    2
    26 votes
    The Pop Group are a British post-punk band formed in Bristol in 1977. Regarded as a pioneering act of the post-punk era, The Pop Group released three albums and several singles before disbanding in 1981. In 2010, the band reformed.
    • Genres (Music): Noise rock, Punk rock, Punk funk, Avant-garde music, Avant-garde
    • Albums: Y, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?, Idealists in Distress From Bristol, We Are All Prostitutes, We Are Time
  • 3
    39 votes
    Fishbone is an American band formed in 1979 in Los Angeles, California, which plays a fusion of ska, punk rock, funk, heavy rock, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s. With their hyperactive, self-conscious diversity, goofy sense of humor, and sharp social commentary, the group gained a sizable cult following yet they were never able to earn a mainstream audience."Fishbone first assembled in 1979 with John Norwood Fisher (bass), his brother Philip "Fish" Fisher (drums), Angelo Moore (vocals, saxophones and theremin), Kendall Jones (guitar), "Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II (vocals, trumpet), and ...more
    • Genres (Music): Heavy metal, Reggae fusion, Hard rock, Ska punk, Ska
    • Albums: Truth and Soul, The Reality of My Surroundings, It's a Wonderful Life, Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe, Bonin' in the Boneyard
  • Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American funk music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the individual bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive funk style drew on psychedelic culture, outlandish fashion, science-fiction, and surreal humor; it would have an influential effect on subsequent funk, post-punk, hip-hop, and post-disco artists of the 1980s and 1990s, while their collective mythology would help pioneer Afrofuturism.The collective's origins date back to the doo-wop group the Parliaments, formed by Clinton in the late 1950s in Plainfield, New Jersey. Under the influence of ...more
    • Genres (Music): Psychedelic soul, P-Funk, Soul music, Psychedelic rock, Funk rock
    • Albums: Hydraulic Funk, T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Mothership), Dope Dogs, George Clinton Family Series, Part 1: Go Fer Yer Funk
  • A Certain Ratio are a post-punk band formed in 1977 in Manchester, England. While originally part of the punk rock movement, they soon added funk and dance elements to their sound. They are sometimes referred to as "post punk funk". The band's name is taken from the lyrics of Brian Eno's song "The True Wheel" from the 1974 album Taking Tiger Mountain.
    • Genres (Music): Dance-punk, Alternative dance, House music, Punk funk, Funk rock
    • Albums: To Each..., Early, Force, The Graveyard & The Ballroom, The Old & The New
  • Bush Tetras
    Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Fair use
    6
    22 votes
    Bush Tetras are an American post-punk band from New York City that was popular in the Manhattan club scene and college radio in the early 1980s but never achieved much mainstream success. Their music combined funk rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs.
    • Genres (Music): Dance-punk, No wave, Punk funk, Funk rock, Post-punk
    • Albums: Tetrafied, Beauty Lies, Very Very Happy, Boom in the Night, Wild Things