A hard, driving bass, and lyrics that speak bluntly about the black street experience. An unadulterated African rhythm.
   A glimpse of the outrageous - who can forget the Ohio Players song Funky Worm? In the words of Lakeside, it was `all the way live.'

   The Dayton funk music sound grew out of the lives, culture and experiences that many black baby boomers shared. It's no secret that popular culture reflects the times. And artists, whether they are musical, visual or literary, routinely draw on life experiences.
   But clothes and fashions do also.
   In 1968, America was dealing with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the shifting of the civil rights movement into something more demanding. Across the nation, blacks were expressing their frustration with racism through riots. They were also asserting a newfound pride and independence. And that came through in the clothes and styles of the times.
   Michael Sampson, now 43, was starting high school just as blacks began to assert their newfound rights. In West Dayton, `We had the Afrocentric thing happening. We definitely were into the identity. Everybody had an Afro pick or an Afro comb in their pocket. `
   Sampson said, W.S. McIntosh, one of the organizers of the 1963 picket against Rike's department store, was the owner of a `head shop' where people could buy black lights, black greeting cards, other things that had to do with black culture. It was there that Dayton blacks may have first learned about tikis, small figurines and masks of African gods on a chain.
   `With your tiki and your Afro you were good to go,' he said, adding that there were some who wore dashikis as well as a symbol of their blackness. `There were a number of influences coming together that made us proud of who we were,' Sampson said.
   Throughout Dayton, young black artists `picked up on that sense of `black is beautiful,' and took the feeling of success of the civil rights movement and tried to express it through art,' said Margaret Peters, 62, a historian and author of the book Dayton's African American Heritage. In 1968, Jeraldyne Blunden founded the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. Clarence Young III founded Theater West.
   In the arts, blacks felt invincible and empowered. Jesse Scott, 27, a graduate assistant in the popular culture department at Bowling Green State University, said `If you look at Shaft or any of Pam Grier's movies, you can see how we became heroes. It's about blacks saving themselves when the system in place doesn't.'
   That might explain why Generation X musicians and moviemakers today look back on the `old school' for inspiration. Newjack musicians such as R. Kelly routinely sample the Isley Brothers, and crooners like Chico DeBarge and D'Angelo evoke Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield. Films like Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown set the '70s mood with Foxy Brown star Grier in the lead.
   If measured in terms of national popularity, Dayton's greatest cultural expression by black baby boomers was in R&B music. During the '70s and early '80s, nine funk bands from Dayton reached national prominence, including the Ohio Players, Lakeside, Heatwave, Slave and Zapp featuring Roger Troutman.
   In September, the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce will open an exhibit chronicling the evolution of `the Dayton sound.' Indiana University ethnomusicologist Portia Maultsby, curator of the exhibit, is writing a book on the phenomenon.
   `People are familiar with the Motown sound, the (Memphis) Stax sound, the sound of Philadelphia and Prince and the Minneapolis sound, but people have never realized `the Dayton sound,'' said Sampson, spokesman for the museum.
   That sound, Sampson said, was rawer and less refined than the Motown sound or music of the '50s, and it had an infectious rhythm. Lakeside popularized the slang of Dayton blacks, telling the world to take a Fantastic Voyage to the `Land of Funk,' referring to an area in West Dayton, he said. And Roger popularized the `talkbox' voice device heard recently in the rap songs of Dr. Dre and Tupac. Key to the popularity of Dayton funk was airplay on WDAO-AM (1210), the nation's first FM station with a black/urban format, said John `Turk' Logan, 49, general manager of Central State University's radio station, WCSU-FM (88.9).
   Dayton bands built their reputation on the local chitlin circuit, playing venues such as Roosevelt High School and Union Hall. Johnnie Wilder, of the group Heatwave, sang in the glee club and choir at Chaminade High School. And in 1978, before the group kicked off a national tour, where were they found rehearsing? In a garage in West Dayton.
   According to Scott, members of his generation look a little wistfully at the good old days. Even today, artists reflect the era and often pour their discontent into rap music. It's just continuing a trend. `Black popular music reflects the politics of the time,' Scott said.

Icons and trends of black baby boomers 1960s Afros and afro picks Malcolm X Dashikis Long, dangling earrings Nehru jackets `The Motown Sound,' featuring the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin Singer James Brown The Black Panthers Muhammad Ali The Black Power movement 1970s Activist Angela Davis Ankle-twisting platform shoes Corn rows TV sitcom `Good Times' with John Amos and Esther Rolle Blaxploi-tation's Richard Roundtree in `Shaft' TV miniseries `Roots' with LaVar Burton and Ed Asner Breakdancing Bell-bottom pants Angela Davis Basketball's `Dr. J' - Julius Erving The rise of Dayton funk - Ohio Players, Heatwave Cooley High movie Fat Albert cartoon Parliament/Funkadelic Stevie Wonder Earth Wind and Fire The Jackson Five Comedian Richard Pryor Don Cornelius and Soul Train Big cars - Cadillacs, Buick 225s Disco The Bump 1980s Singer Michael Jackson jheri curls Spunky's nightclub Roger Troutman and Zapp Prince The Electric Slide Comedian Eddie Murphy The Cosby Show Singer Luther Vandross Singer Whitney Houston Oprah Black Entertainment Television Growing popularity of rap Boom boxes Spike Lee's movie Do The Right Thing Earvin `Magic' Johnson Jesse Jackson 1990s Actor Denzel Washington Sports figure Michael Jordan Sport-utility vehicles Bald heads Hair weaves John Singleton's movie Boyz N the Hood e Old School, which is the return in popularity of musical groups from the '70s Actor Wesley Snipes