Talk:Freestyle music

older talk entries

I think that there are two types of freestyling that need to be addressed here. First is freestyle as a genre of music, which the entry addresses. The second that should be covered is Freestyling as an improvisational form of hip hop. This is the type that this baked lass refers to in her "freestyle" (I doubt she remembers writing it). I found the freestyle entry by following a link from the the wikipedia entry about the rapper Jin. Just to clear up confusion I think that both definitions of freestyle should be covered. Thank you.

www.NewYorkFreestyle.com

What about Stevie B in Hitlist?

To me Stevie B always seemed to be one of the Top10 Artists of Latin Freestyle next to Artists like Johnny O. Am I false?

--213.23.134.62 20:21, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

i think the hitlist needs an overhaul and needs to consult some charts, and reference them so that we can be a bit more objective about it. --Yoasif 22:55, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

Charts (Billboard charts etc.) themselves don't necessarily show the impact, especially in underground genres like freestyle, which from my prospective was somewhat of a word of mouth genre. Not to demean big stars from smaller ones, but Jimi Hendrix had a huge impact on music but technically he was a one-hit wonder. --Maya Levy 19 January 2006

Edited the hitlist. Infohunter 00:48, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

No you removed half the list arbitrarily. Until the time someone actually backs up artist addition/removal based on chart placement, I will revert to this consensus version of the list.  ALKIVAR™ 01:05, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree about the hit list. It's very random. Also "Together Forever" by Lisette Melendez is credited by many for reviving freestyle music in the 90s and was a big hit. Much more representive of freestyle music in this article than "Time Passes By". So I'm removing "Time Passes By" because of duplicate entry. --Bigplankton 21:28, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

"Together Forever" spent 10 weeks at the top of New York Dance charts. [1] --Bigplankton 21:43, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I added Corina's "Temptation" to the list because it peaked at #12 on Billboard Hot 100 and was a number #1 dance hit. [2]--Bigplankton 21:50, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I added Pittsburgh as a city because the gay bars here played freestlye HEAVILY in the late 80s/90s when no where but NY and Chicago or LA would.

Freestyle Artists

"Furthermore, many DJs who played the music, such as Jellybean, Tony Torres, Raul Soto and Roman Ricardo were Hispanic. However, those on stage performing the songs were not, neither were most of the producers making the music."

I think the second sentence in that quote is erroneous. If you look at the list of the most popular and well-known freestyle artists, almost all of them were of Latino/Hispanic heritage. The ones who were not Hispanic (e.g. Anthony Monteleone of Collage and Gioia Bruno of Expose) were Italian. There's a reason why Freestyle music's audiences were primarily Hispanic and Italian Americans. Those audiences identified with the artists because the artists grew up in the same "ethnic" communities as their audiences. Artists like Information Society and Samantha Fox were some of the very few non-Hispanic, non-Italian artists to gain popularity in the freestyle genre.

On a more interesting note, Freestyle music also gained some popularity among Asians and Asian Americans as well (in part because of artists like Filipina American Jocelyn Enriquez). Lots of Asian pop music (particularly J-Pop or K-Pop artists like Jinusean, Utada Hikaru, etc.) definitely were influenced by freestyle music. I went to high school in central Jersey, and had several friends in Edison. Nightclubs and social gatherings in the Edison area often play freestyle music or trance. Teknosoul02 00:40, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Jimi Hendrix a one hit wonder

I seriously doubt that - See Joel Whitburn's book on Top 40 songs. Freestyle's peak years were between 1985-1992.. Collage's I'll be loving you is the last Hot 100 chart record reaching the mid 50s or 60s in 1994 or 1995. Fans pining for freestyle's comeback are no different from people wishing for the return of glam metal, progressive rock, grunge, swing, etc. Music marches on and leaves past trends behind. Of course there are some that will integrate pieces of music of years gone by into their current repertoire. Pop music (which is currently dominated by rap) remains pretty much current. People are downloading what's out there and it's usually pop-punk (Fall Out Boy, etc), American Idol stuff, some country and mostly hip hop and hip hop r&b.

P. Diddy's rise in New York, the arrival of the Dirty South beats and then Crunk in the Southern U.S. and Gangsta Rap on the West Coast spelled the death knell for freestyle in the U.S. Sampling also made it easier to construct songs. This article is excellent and in fact very accurate.

76.199.67.153 17:57, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Classics

I really think somebody who knows alot about freestyle history should make a Classics ( rival of freestyle)article...i would if i had all the 411 on that one. user:homan05

comeback

was there not a little a mini comeback of freestyle music in the late 90's particular in 97, 98 with hits like rockell and collage cant we try(98) and Jocelyn Enriquez Do You Miss Me(97)--Wikiscribe (talk) 18:49, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Kraftwerk removed!

If you want to put that in again, please have good evidence for it. For me it is nonsense: the "Numbers" piece was krafted (sic!) in 1981, when FS was not even too widely known in NYC. *If* you want to name a track, maybe go for "Musique non stop"/"Techno pop" or such stuff. But not "Numbers". -andy 92.230.14.202 (talk) 19:15, 29 October 2008 (UTC)