Will there still be freestyle concerts in the next 20 years?

[TonySantiago]

This silly thread has completely gone off topic. Less is More. Squash all those sub genres and lables. Dance already has an identity crisis, so let's not make it worse.

I wouldn't necessarily call this thread "silly". It's just one to think on. God knows I've been arguing about this here in NYC to all of the freestyle fans as well as symposiums geared to the music.

And LET'S take it back if you want. Back in the 80's when dance music was HUGE on the radio, there were many genres and labels happening. House was starting to grow outside of Chicago, freestyle was making waves in Miami, Philly and NYC, Europe took the techno genre from Detroit and made their own thing with it. So if having these subgenres and labels is the reason why dance music had this "identity crisis" then we've been at this all along...the only exception being when disco was out.

I still can't go with the theory of Akon, Ne-Yo, or Lady GaGa as "freestyle" even though lyrically I could somewhat see the comparison. Freestyle isn't just a music but a background as well. Just go to a freestyle venue and see the crowd you have in there.....Latinos, Italians, Jewish mainly coming from predominant blue-collar, working class backgrounds in the outer boroughs (for Philly's sake, So. Philly and parts of So. Jersey). Go to areas such as Castle Hill/Soundview, a large Puerto Rican enclave in The Bronx, Throgs Neck or Morris Park in The Bronx, and you'll see what I mean. THAT'S the basis of the sound and if there is going to be any validity for a future genre that you can associate with that target audience, you have to get at those areas to the 20-something generation living there so as to bring about the proverbial "next level". Philly has that freestyle background too (Tazmania Records) so that's the basis.

That's why I can't accept the artists you've mentioned as freestyle KDM. They are pop/rhythmic but not freestyle.

But I wouldn't call this thread "silly" because it did make me think And isn't that what these boards are about? To bring out arguments and discuss them in a constructive fashion?

 

[DJ_Perry]

Uuuggghh.....you guys are gonna make my head explode with your book writing! I'm just saying, the common person is not hip to these silly buzz words: Electro-Pop Booty Freestyle-Bass BMore Tech-House. Trying to narrow every freakin song into a sub category is a turn off to any person that doesn't understand dance. They have enough trouble identifying House, Progressive, Trance, and so on.

When I heard freestyle, or early house music on the radio in the 80's; they simply called it Club Music, or it was part of Dance Party show. They didn't isolate it from their format. Therefore stations could get away with playing Depeche Mode, into Stevie B, into Run DMC. That wouldn't fly today because of all the attention we have put on labeling. Freestyle is a word I didn't hear until the 90's. Let's go back the roots and call the crossover stuff "Club Music", or "Rhythmic Dance". It's simple....less is more. If we want the average person to get it, then don't turn em off.

 

[TonySantiago]

Uuuggghh.....you guys are gonna make my head explode with your book writing! I'm just saying, the common person is not hip to these silly buzz words: Electro-Pop Booty Freestyle-Bass BMore Tech-House. Trying to narrow every freakin song into a sub category is a turn off to any person that doesn't understand dance. They have enough trouble identifying House, Progressive, Trance, and so on.

When I heard freestyle, or early house music on the radio in the 80's; they simply called it Club Music, or it was part of Dance Party show. They didn't isolate it from their format. Therefore stations could get away with playing Depeche Mode, into Stevie B, into Run DMC. That wouldn't fly today because of all the attention we have put on labeling. Freestyle is a word I didn't hear until the 90's. Let's go back the roots and call the crossover stuff "Club Music", or "Rhythmic Dance". It's simple....less is more. If we want the average person to get it, then don't turn em off.

I'm not writing a book here Just explaining from this POV. Less is more? Okay, I'm done

 

[Morpheux]

The funny thing is that even "freestyle artists" don't know where the term came from or who decided to label it that way. They were simply singing over the dance and club music of their time. When that sound fizzled they were pigeon hole and just about all could not shake the freestyle label and update their sound with what was out.

I find the tracks by Akon and Jay Sean to be an offshoot of the electro early 80's sound that freestyle came from.Just like breakbeat was as well.They're very similiar but not the exact same thing at the same time. Same concept- electro beats,love melodies,synth sound.Except now the auto tune sound is predominant. This is not much different than Jay Sean:

CRe-Christina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAcqW_hQjHY

 

[Wildstyle K]

I think one of the main problems here is that big gap in mainstream dance appeal throughout the early, mid, and some of the late 00's that was caused by the "hip hop hits takeover". If it weren't for hip hop to dominate and block most of everything else from the top charts during this time period, then we would've been able to observe a transformation and steady evolution in the dance sound from the 90's to now, which may have resulted in less labeling and genre definition confusion today. I could imagine that if this same gap happened between the 80's and late 90's, then people would not be willing to accept Planet Soul, Angelina, later Rockell, Jocelyn Enriquez, and even Corina's "summertime summertime" in 1997 as freestyle since it doesn't match the traditional slower multi-beats east coast freestyle sound people are mostly familiar with. In addition to that, I also bet the whole Canadian and Euro-Freestyle sound would've been pushed to the trance side and trance would've possibly "been responsible" of letting that Canadian and Euro-Freestyle sound co-habitate with it as a subgenre, the same way UK Funky and Bassline co-habitate with 2 Step in the U.K. under "Garage".

I remember when I used to wonder if Debbie Deb, Lisa Lisa, or Shannon were even aware that they were freestyle and also wondered when exactly did they "discover the news".

Unlike today where everything seems to be pop, the 90's seemed to be much more organized in terms of labeling, which made things so much easier for people who were in to a particular sound. You go to the store, you like booty bass or freestyle, BAM! Just look for the compilation that's full of it and there you go! SIMPLE. Nowadays, if you are interested in a particular uptempo sound, for example; specifically the Flo Rida "low", Jeremih "Birthday sex remix", Ciara "get up", Akon "Beautiful", Black Eyed Peas "boom boom pow"..etc etc etc. sound, there is NO WAY you are going to tell that you are getting that specific sound on any compilation, ESPECIALLY IF you are looking for artists similar to that sound and not those specific artists I've mentioned themselves. You will not be able to tell just by the tracklist that it is that sound - for all you know it could easily be some house, electro-pop, and other things you don't want thrown in. I guess the good thing though is that unlike back in the 90's when you were confined to going to a record store with a no return policy and having to buy something first to hear it, these days you could just shop and listen online at a lower cost, so all these specific labels aren't as necessary. As far as concerts, I guess just as long as you like the artists or the line up, that's all that really matters...

But could you imagine if our labeling was the way it was back in the days when you had to buy a whole cd just to see if it was really what it says it was? Could you imagine "DMA Pop Flava" instead of "DMA Freestyle Flava"? Could you imagine trying to find specific freestyle or booty bass or euro if everything fast was labeled under "club" or "uptempo"? What about "fast pop" or "booty pop" instead of "booty bass"? OR what if they just called it ALL techno, and you had to buy all the cd's to figure out for yourself what kind of dance it was? Thank goodness internet took over when it did because if not, we'd all be completely musically lost... especially in a record store.

Maybe this would not affect concerts, but it would prevent any specific sound from having the chance to become popular itself. On the other hand, if freestyle wasn't subgenre'd off, then it (and the dance scene in general) may have had a much bigger chance as just dance or club music as a whole, when you also include rhythmic dance or mainstream club stuff like Flo Rida and Pitbull. But I guess we've already tried this to some extent with the word "electronica".