Fort Myers rapper Plies. Outlaw country singer Creed Fisher. Funk/soul stars Tower of Power. Breakout “America’s Got Talent” star Lindsey Sterling. Even a string quartet playing Taylor Swift songs by ...

The foundations of funk were laid down in the mid-1960s, when James Brown began to emphasize the first beat of each measure in his stage-tested and frenzy-inducing R&B songs. Before the decade’s end, ...