Furious Sounds That Rocked Cinema Pt. 7: Funky Phenomenon

It doesn’t matter if you’re a genre film geek or not, it’s highly likely if you hear the opening sounds of this track, you’ll immediately know what film it’s from, or at the very least the song title before it’s uttered. While Melvin Van Peebles‘ independent socio-political art film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song (1971) is cited as the godfather of the 1970s black film movement, Gordon Parks’ private eye-crime film Shaft established the foundation of what we know as the popular 70s blaxploitation action genre. The super soulful/funky feeling Isaac Hayes‘ iconic music evokes is basically universal, whether you’re white, black, Asian or Latin when you blast this on your stereo you ARE John Shaft and nothin’ can stop you from kickin azz and takin’ names! The score and the film marked a sea change in pop culture bringing African Americans into the fore of 70s cinema.