Freestyle music

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about a genre of electronic dance music. For the freestyle form of rhyming in music, see freestyle rap.

Freestyle
Other namesLatin freestyle,
Latin music
  • electro[1][2]
  • boogie[1]
  • hip hop[2][3][4]
  • synth-pop[4]
  • hi-NRG
  • post-disco
    • Cultural originsEarly 1980s, United States: New York/New Jersey metropolitan area,[2][3] Philadelphia and Miami[5][6][7] (especially among
    Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans)
    Derivative formsNYC hard house[1][4]
    Regional scenes
    Other topics

    Freestyle,

    Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s.[2] It experienced its greatest popularity from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. A common theme of freestyle lyricism originated as heartbreak in an urban environment typified by New York City
    .

    An important precursor to freestyle is 1982's "

    Latin American artist is "Please Don't Go" by Nayobe from 1984. From there, freestyle gained a large presence in American clubs, especially in New York and Miami. Radio airplay followed in the mid 1980s.[11]

    Performers such as

    Sweet Sensation gained mainstream chart success with the genre in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but its popularity largely faded by the end of the decade. Both classic and newer freestyle output remain popular as a niche genre in Brazil (where it is an influence on funk carioca
    ), Germany and Canada.

    History

    1982–1987: Origin

    Freestyle music developed in the early 1980s, primarily simultaneously in the Hispanic (mainly

    Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the New York City area and Philadelphia
    .

    1988: pop crossover

    Freestyle's Top 40 Radio airplay started to really take off by 1987, and it began to disappear from the airwaves in the early 1990s

    James Brown
    .

    Several primarily freestyle artists released

    One More Try" by Timmy T, "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" by Stevie B, and "If Wishes Came True" by Sweet Sensation. Brenda K. Starr reached the Hot 100 with her ballad "I Still Believe". Freestyle shortly thereafter gave way to mainstream pop artists such as MC Hammer, Paula Abdul, Bobby Brown, New Kids on the Block, and Milli Vanilli (with some artists utilizing elements of freestyle beginning in the 1980s) using hip hop beats and electro samples in a mainstream form with slicker production and MTV-friendly videos. These artists were successful on crossover stations as well as R&B stations, and freestyle was replaced as an underground genre by newer styles such as new jack swing, trance and Eurodance. Despite this, some freestyle acts managed to garner hits well into the 1990s, with acts such as Cynthia and Rockell scoring minor hits on the Billboard Hot 100 as late as 1998. As this new music style took over many big cities in America, the labels that signed these artist such as Columbia, Warner Bros, and other labels did not know how to market these artist originally.[16]
    Instead of pushing this style of music as a solidified sound, the labels separated the cities. This caused the Miami sound of freestyle music to be more popularized through the radio compared to NYC's sound at the time.

    Post-freestyle era

    Freestyle remained a largely

    Pitbull
    collaborated with Miami freestyle artist Stevie B to create an updated version of Stevie B's hit, "Spring Love".

    Currently, freestyle music continues to have a thriving fanbase in certain parts of the country, with New York City Italian-American DJs such as Bad Boy Joe and Louie DeVito helping to maintain an active freestyle scene in the NYC metro area.[17] In cities like New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, recent concerts by freestyle artists have been extremely successful, with many events selling out.

    Influence on other genres

    NYC hard house

    Not to be confused with Chicago hard house, nor UK hard house.

    As Latin freestyle in the late 1980s and early 1990s gradually became superseded with house music, dance-pop, and regular hip hop on one front and

    rave scene.[1]

    Terminology

    The genre was recognized as a subgenre of hip-hop in the mid-1980s.[18] It was dominated by "hard" electro beats of the type used primarily at the time in hip-hop music. Freestyle was more appreciated in larger cities.[18][19]

    Freestyle scenes

    New York

    "

    Let the Music Play" by Shannon, is often named as the genre's first hit, and its sound, called "The Shannon Sound", as the foundation of the genre, although also known as the beginnings of the electro genre which then gave birth to techno. Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" was arguably the first freestyle song produced. "Let the Music Play" eventually became freestyle's biggest hit, and still receives frequent airplay. Its producers Chris Barbosa
    and Mark Liggett changed and redefined the electro funk sound with the addition of Latin-American rhythms and a syncopated drum-machine sound.

    In March 2013, Radio City Music Hall hosted a freestyle concert. Top freestyle artists included in the line-up were TKA, Safire, Judy Torres, Cynthia, Cover Girls, Lisa Lisa, Shannon, Noel, and Lisette Melendez. Originally scheduled as a one-night event, a second night was added shortly after the first night was sold out in a matter of days.[20]

    Miami

    Radio stations nationwide began to play hits by artists like

    Madonna. "(You Are My) All and All" by Joyce Sims became the first freestyle record to cross over into the R&B market, and was one of the first to reach the European market. Radio station WPOW/Power 96 was noted for exposing freestyle to South Florida in the mid-'80s through the early '90s, as well as mixing in some local Miami bass
    into its playlist.

    '

    Tolga Katas is credited as one of the first persons to create a hit record entirely on a computer,[21]
    and produced Stevie B's "Party Your Body", "In My Eyes" and "Dreamin' of Love". Katas' record label Futura Records was an incubator for artists such as Linear, who achieved international success after a move from Futura to Atlantic Records.

    Philadelphia

    The groundbreaking "Nightime" by Pretty Poison featuring red headed diva Jade Starling in 1984 initially put Philadelphia on the freestyle map. Their follow-up "Catch Me I'm Falling" was a worldwide hit and brought freestyle to American Bandstand, Soul Train, Solid Gold and the Arsenio Hall Show. "Catch Me I'm Falling" broke on the street during the summer of 1987 and was the #1 single at WCAU (98 Hot Hits) and #2 at WUSL (Power 99) during the first two weeks of July. Virgin Records was quick to sign Pretty Poison helping to usher in the avalanche of other major label signings from the expanding freestyle scene.

    Several freestyle acts followed on the heels of Pretty Poison emerging from the metropolitan Philadelphia, PA area in the early 1990s, benefiting from both the clubs and the overnight success of then-Dance friendly Rhythmic Top 40 WIOQ. Artists such as T.P.E. (The Philadelphia Experiment) enjoyed regional success.

    California

    Freestyle had a notable following in California, especially Los Angeles, the Central Valley, San Francisco Bay, and San Diego. California's large Latino community enjoyed the sounds of America's East Coast club scene, and a number of California artists became popular with East Coast freestyle enthusiasts. In Northern California, primarily San Francisco and San Jose, they leaned toward a similar rhythm dance to hi-NRG, so most of the Californian freestyle emerged from the southern regions of the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

    Timmy T, Bernadette, Caleb-B, SF Spanish Fly, Angelina, One Voice, M:G, Stephanie Fastro and The S Factor were from the Bay Area, and from San Diego were Gustavo Campain, Alex Campain, Jose (Jojo) Santos, Robert Romo of the group Internal Affairs, F. Felix, Leticia and Frankie J.

    The Filipino American community in California also embraced freestyle music during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Jaya was one of the first Filipino-American freestyle singers, reaching number 44 in 1990 with "If You Leave Me Now". Later Filipino-American freestyle artists include Jocelyn Enriquez, Buffy, Korell, Damien Bautista, One Voice, Kuya, Sharyn Maceren, and others.

    Canada

    Freestyle's popularity spread outward from the Greater Toronto Area's Italian, Hispanic/Latino and Greek populations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was showcased alongside house music in various Toronto nightclubs, but by the mid-1990s was replaced almost entirely by house music.

    Lil' Suzy released several 12-inch singles and performed live on the Canadian live dance music television program Electric Circus. Montreal singer Nancy Martinez's 1986 single "For Tonight" would become the first Canadian freestyle single to reach the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while the Montreal girl group 11:30
    reached the Canadian chart with "Ole Ole" in 2000.

    Elsewhere in the world

    Performers and producers associated with the style also came from around the world, including Turkish-American Murat Konar (the writer of Information Society's "Running"),

    Arthur Baker, producing and co-writing the track "Confusion"; Erasure and the Der Deutsche mixes of their song "Blue Savannah"; and the Pet Shop Boys, whose song "Domino Dancing" was produced by Miami-based freestyle producer Lewis Martineé. Australian act I'm Talking utilized freestyle elements into their singles "Trust Me" and "Do You Wanna Be?
    ", both becoming top ten hits in their native Australia.

    Record labels

    Prehistory
    Golden age Latin freestyle era

    See also

    References

    1. ^
      ISBN 1593764774
      . Retrieved August 10, 2018.
    2. ^ a b c d e f g h Loza, Susana Ilma (2004). Global Rhetoric, Transnational Markets: The (post)modern Trajectories of Electronic Dance Music. Page 245. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
    3. ^
      ISBN 9781439900918
      . Retrieved June 30, 2018.
    4. ^
      ISBN 9783931126001. Quote: "The other unavoidable influence [on NYC hard house] was latin freestyle. A blend of hip hop, synth pop and salsa, latin freestyle was big in NY in the mid and later eighties, and little known anywhere else. Among the best known tracks is Jellybean Benitez's "Dreams of Santa Anna" and Benitez kicked off the whole latin freestyle movement with his sessions at the Funhouse in Manhattan. The labels were Sleeping Bag Records
      and Cutting." Retrieved August 10, 2018.
    5. ^ Katel, Jacob (September 11, 2013). "Miami Freestyle: 13 Best Acts of All Time". Miami New Times.
    6. ^ "History of Freestyle Music". music.hyperreal.org.
    7. ^ "Freestyle: An Oral History". Red Bull Music Academy Daily. September 21, 2013. Archived from the original on March 12, 2019. Retrieved March 1, 2019.
    8. ^
      ISSN 0886-3032
      . Retrieved August 10, 2018
    9. ^ [1] name=Ordells/>|Baltimore<ref=Eddys Accessed March 7, 2020
    10. ISBN 9781439900918
      "The music was called freestyle or, in a nod to its ethnic roots, Latin freestyle or Latin hip-hop."
    11. ^ Michael F. Gill. "The Bluffer's Guide to Freestyle." Archived February 16, 2022, at the Wayback Machine Stylus. August 13, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
    12. ^ "Hot 100". Billboard.com. Rovi Corporation. February 25, 1984. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
    13. ^ "All Music - Please Don't Go - Nayobe". AllMusic.
    14. ^ a b Gardner, Joey. "History of Freestyle Music". hyperreal.org. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
    15. ^ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11712 [dead link]
    16. ^ Test, Irene (March 31, 2014). "On the Cusp of a Comeback: A Return for Freestyle Music". Crossfadr. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
    17. ^ "On the Cusp of a Comeback: A Return for Freestyle Music". March 31, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
    18. ^ a b Gill, Michael F. (August 13, 2007). "The Bluffer's Guide to Freestyle". Stylus. Archived from the original on October 29, 2007. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
    19. ^ Verán, Cristina (April 11, 2006). "Let the Music Play (Again)". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
    20. ^ "The Freestyle & Old School Extravaganza Sells Out Radio City Music Hall". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
    21. ^ "Producer On Demand (PROD)". StarMentors Music Artist Career Development and Mentoring, LLC. December 12, 2017. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
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