In a Funk: A #threetunetuesday post
I don't know about you, but I have been in a bit of a funk lately. I feel like this is something that has been a bit widespread over the past several weeks. I've noticed that things have been a little slower on Hive.
Even @edicted indicated in this recent post that inspiration has been a bit lacking for him. I'm not implying that they are in a funk, I'm just pointing out that some of those feelings of "whatever" are out there in the universe and it isn't just me.
As I said, I have noticed that posting across the board has been down for a while now. I know for me a lot of it has to do with the season. Winter in Michigan is beautiful and bleak all at the same time. While staying inside and keeping warms sounds idyllically cozy, it also reduces the opportunities for gathering Hive content.
Oddly enough, this "funk" over lack of inspiration has inspired me for the theme of this weeks #threetunetuesday sponsored by @ablaze.
Besides some of the classics that they used to play on the "Oldies" channel, I wasn't introduced to funk music later in life. The creation of funk music is credited to James Brown and the music draws from gospel, R & B, jazz, and blues roots to create an upbeat dance music that relies heavily on deep bass lines and steady rhythms.
In fact, unlike traditional music that focuses on melody and harmony, funk music is all about the "groove". Hence the opening photo above.
As I said, my first introduction to funk music came from the local oldies radio station. Back when I was growing up, oldies meant music from the 50's through the 70's. Now that I am older, that category covers all the way up to the 90s.
Average White Band was pretty much a staple on that local oldies channel. This song Picking up the Pieces is one that I remember very well. Even this morning when I was thinking about writing this post, I had the hook stuck in my head. The funny thing is, at that time I wasn't sure of the name of the song, I knew the groove though.
Funk music just kind of sticks with you. Another odd observation about funk music. It seems to be a bit of an oxymoron. Blues music is usually pretty blue, but funk music is more often than not upbeat, despite the negative connotation of "being in a funk".
According to Google:
"The word funk is derived from the Latin 'fumigare' which literally means 'to smoke' and connotations link to 'odour' and 'musty'. It's adjective 'funky' was commonly used to describe jazz music as it was something that was 'earthy' or deeply felt."
My second introduction to funk music later in life came at the hands of none other than George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic. I'm sure many of you have heard the song Atomic Dog in passing. One of my favorite George Clinton songs is called Electric City, but I decided today to share "Flashlight" as it is one of the more popular songs.
If you have ever seen the movie PCU, you should be quite familiar with George Clinton. Staring Jeremy Piven, PCU is in my opinion one of the best college movies out there. It's an absolute must if you grew up during the 80's or 90's. The movie was actually released the year I graduated from high school, but it wasn't until probably five years later that I actually was introduced to it.
Lovingly coined Politically Correct University, there is still a lot of relevant stuff in it even today. Plus it's just a rollicking good time. If you get the chance to watch it, I highly recommend it.
Especially for the parts that George Clinton is in. His cameo in the movie is really great and while it seems random at first, by the end of the movie, it all makes sense.
Finally, I am going to leave you with some more modern funk music. Vulfpeck is a bit of a newcomer on the scene. I would argue they are maybe one of the only good things to ever come out of Ann Arbor Michigan. As you can tell, Vulfpeck relies quite heavily on the bass guitar as the driving force behind their music.
I actually wonder if @verhp11 is familiar with them given his love and skill at the bass guitar. I had actually never heard of Vulfpeck until a vendor was at my work installing a new public address system. To test out the speakers in each room he started blasting a Vulfpeck song through the system.
It was quite infectious.
If you do a little searching around YouTube, you will find some full shows that Vulpeck has done in the past. I highly recommend you check them out when you have an hour and a half to spare. Maybe put them on in the background.
It's interesting how even when you are in a funk, funk music can sometimes bring you out of it.
I'm feeling a bit better already!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
I think it's ebb and flow. Activity on here comes and goes. For better or worse, everyone was thinking the ETF would boost us into a bull market and when that didn't happen, a lot of folks just lost heart and ran away. It's understandable I guess. When you watch hundreds or thousands disappear from the paper balance in just a few days, it can be depressing. They'll be back. Probably also winter has something to do with it, as you mention.
I love me some good funk. I think everyone does. It's no accident that much of the Japanese jazz I post has a lot of funk in it. Love all of these. Wow, that last is something! I'm going to go look up more by them before bed.
Yeah, I think that has a lot to do with it as well. It doesn't help that a lot of us felt this could be the start of something big. Personally, I was expecting some more upward movement before things evened out. Like mid 50's or something like that.
I expected it to fall more, actually. Too many people were way too hyped about it. I didn't consider the old saying by the rumor, sell the news (as everyone else keeps saying about it now) but all the hype over it didn't sit right with me. I feel the same about the coming halving. There is so much hype over it pushing us into a bull market... I can't help but feel things won't go as everyone expects. I'm hoping it follows history and we see a boost afterwards, but I don't know if that will follow this time.
Like a lot of stuff in crypto I think the buy the rumor sell the news statement is too reliant on interpretation. People are just throwing darts at the board blindly these days.
haha exactly. It's a little like this...
Haha, that is pretty funny!
Some great funky tunes, that last one was really good. I think we have the pre halving lull right now, but things will pick up again.
I think there is a good chance of that as well. April is still a bit down the road yet. Though I can hardly believe we are almost at the end of January already.
We havent had too much of a bull market yet, it would be good to see some things rip at somepoint.
I agree!
Nice! I grew up right on the cusp of the popularity of funk. The popularity of it had pretty much died out once I started listening to my own music as a boy. I was introduced to it through an older friend of mine (@luckyfellow) and the DJ at our skating rink. The grooves are infectious.
I'm actually a bit concerned about Hive. I've been noticing fairly regular glitches now, the site is slow to load sometimes and photos and such aren't always displaying. I wonder if witnesses are dropping off? It would be a shame to let this place wither.
That is cool. Yeah, I can see how funk would be quite popular at the roll arena. I really love that we have pretty much every music available at the press of a button these days. I can't imagine how much different our childhood would have been if we had that.
Hive has definitely been a bit off. I think a lot of it has to do with what front end you are using. I mainly use PeakD, but it has some issues loading certain parts. Ecency seems to be quite stable, but it doesn't have some of the features that I use regularly on PeakD.
I only post using PeakD now since Imgur photo links stopped working with Hive. I find myself replying and voting with Hive though because the UI is a little less cluttered on mobile. Hopefully once the market takes off again and the Hive token will be listed on exchanges that can be accessed by Americans then things will pick up here. Historically active users have directly correlated to token price and accessibility.
Yeah, that is a good point. You should check out the Ecency app if you haven't already. They have a cool microblogging piece called Waves. I don't use it too much, but anytime I am away from my desktop or laptop, that's how I interact with the chain.
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out!
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I have a feeling it does. I often listen to house music when I'm working or when I need a break, so I think it's very similar to funk, isn't it?
I'm not talking about sound or composition. I'm talking about rhythm and groove. In fact, they both favor strong bass lines. Both have an African-American background and, above all, there are a lot of samples of funk music in House.
For my part, I prefer house music because I grew up with it. But I'm not against a bit of funk.
Yes, I can see how they are very similar!
Nice! I like Vulfpeck too, I hadn't heard of them before today. The great tunes today!
Thank you!
You're welcome!
I love funky and I play it too. I have listened to many songs by the groups you mentioned here.
Glad to hear it!
Hello bozz!
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STOPor to resume write a wordSTARTHi there Bozz, sorry been away (again) sometime. Busy with work and some cool musicprojects which left me little or no time to be online. I do know them, and love them... :)
I figured you might, but I wasn't sure!