There's no opposition with freestyle at all. In FACT, the recent Freestyle & Old School Extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall had both shows sold out! Being that I was your age during the peak of freestyle Nick, let me explain some things. Morpheux, please chime in if I'm missing anything.
Back in the mid 80's to the early 90's freestyle (aka: Latin Hip-Hop) was huge. At the time there were also many Top 40/Urban stations playing it (Hot 103/97 New York, Power 96 Miami, Q-102 Philadelphia, Boss 97 Atlantic City). Most of those acts were able to cross over into the pop side (Stevie B, Expose, Lisa Lisa). Record labels were cranking the music out left and right. But in the early 90's 2 things had happened.
1) Production - In the beginnings, the labels did put out quality stuff and radio was on it. But along the way it seemed as if production in terms of the sound, artists, etc. had dropped off. All of a sudden a lot of records that should have NEVER been made were pushed out there and that helped kill things.
2) Radio - The stations that were dance were bailing out of the format in the early 90's most going for that next big money maker...hip-hop. Hot 97 in NY did that, Power 106 in L.A. did that. Even smaller markets such as Providence, RI which had a dance station out of Kix 106 bailed out. Other stations such as Q-102 in Philly went CHR.
In the mid 90's when 'KTU came back on 103.5, there was a small resurgence of the music with artists such as Rockell, Lina Santiago, Jocelyn Enriquez, etc but it was nowhere NEAR the explosion of the peak. And many people around my age never forgot. They still swear to it.
IMHO, I do believe some people in the music industry think of freestyle as a "joke". NO ONE dares mention it at music conventions such as the WMC. There also has been a lot of "drama" within that certainly hasn't helped the cause for freestyle over the past few years. Yet fans who grew up with the music never forgot and treasure artists such as Judy Torres, George Lamond, Coro, Cynthia, etc as "family". And I think the younger generation who weren't born during this time are discovering it but in some ways still think of this as their "parents/grandparents" music.
I think there can be TWO audiences in that sense. Those who support the classics will ALWAYS do so. And so as they should. But I think if anything can evolve for the next generation, it has to be a new sound, new young teen/twenty something artists and the name "freestyle" should be dropped entirely. Call it whatever (my coined term is "FreeDM") but make it something that can relate to today's youth as it was back in the 80's/90's when I was in my late teens/twenty something point in my life.
I can go ON and ON and ON with this, I'll never tire talking about it. But for the sake of folks that may complain that this thread is too long, I'll hold off.
But in general.....I think freestyle may be coming back STRONGER in terms of the classics. Which could be a good thing if somehow taking that element can evolve into a new sound for the millenial generation.
