Get down

Get down is a stance, posture or movement in many traditional African cultures and throughout the African diaspora. It involves bending at the waist and knees, bringing the body low to the ground in moments of ecstasy or intensity. Bending at the knees and waist is an expression of profound spirituality and connectedness to the earth. It also indicates suppleness and conveys qualities and values of vitality, youthfulness and energy.

In Gahu choreography, often dancers move counterclockwise in a circle of alternating men and women; their performance includes "long passages of a lightly bouncy basic 'step' leavened with brief 'get down' sections in which the dancers lower their center of weight and move with intensified strength and quickness."

The term "get down" in popular music and slang is directly related to this particular element of the African aesthetic, filtered through the African-American experience. Use of the term by white Americans since the middle-20th century, though, is credited to the influence of a white disc jockey, Bill "Hoss" Allen, who used it on his nightly soul music shows on Nashville, Tennessee station WLAC.

KC and the Sunshine Band

KC and the Sunshine Band is an American musical group. Founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida, its style has included funk, R&B, and disco. Their best-known songs include the disco hits "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "Keep It Comin' Love", "Get Down Tonight", "Boogie Shoes", "Please Don't Go" and "Give It Up". The band took its name from lead vocalist Harry Wayne Casey's last name ("KC") and the "Sunshine Band" from KC's home state of Florida, the Sunshine State.

1970s

The group was formed in 1973 by Harry Wayne Casey (KC), a record store employee and part-timer at TK Records in Hialeah, Florida (an independent city in Dade County, Florida). KC originally called the band KC & The Sunshine Junkanoo Band, as he used studio musicians from TK and a local Junkanoo band called the Miami Junkanoo Band. He was then introduced to Richard Finch, who was doing engineering work on records for TK. This was the beginning of the Casey-Finch musical collaboration. The initial members were just Casey and Finch. Guitarist Jerome Smith (June 18, 1953 - July 28, 2000) and drummer Robert Johnson, both TK studio musicians, were added later.