Thursday, March 14, 2013

Freestyle on Wordsmithonia Radio


I'm a huge fan of Freestyle music, have been since I was a kid, and probably will be until the day I die.  Now I know some of you may not know what I'm talking about, so I will give you the basics before I give you a couple of great songs for you to listen to.

Freestyle, or Latin Freestyle, came out of the dance-pop, electronic music of the 80s.  It mainly developed in the Latino communities on the coasts, and many of the greatest stars of the music were from those cultures.  Freestyle music is dance music, it makes you move and puts you in the mood to have a great time.  It includes a lot of percussion and synthesizer, which makes it great for shaking your butt.

Some of my favorite artists from the genre are Stacey Q, Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, Sheila E, Shannon, Cover Girls, Expose, George Lamond, Sweet Sensation, Stevie B, Safire, Lisette Melendez, Judy Torres, Johnny O, and Cynthia.  It was only a matter of time before artists like MC Hammer, Paula Abdul, and Bobby Brown started to borrow the style for their own.  Freestyle eventually gave away to such movements like New Jack Swing, but can still be heard on a few major radio stations across the country.















5 comments:

Staci said...

I honestly had no clue that this genre had a name!! I loved Sheila E and Lisa Lisa!!

Angela's Anxious Life said...

Spring Love, Bad of the Heart, Glamorous Life, and Let Me Be the One are amazing songs. I love your music posts. In fact... that is how I ended up following your blog. I saw you on Get Glue and would always see the songs you checked into and then checked out your blog from there. Too bad Pandora is going to be charging for music now. I am going to try iHeartRadio radio now and see what that is like.

Angie

Heidenkind said...

I have never heard of this freestyle music. Thanks! I love learning new things. :)

Rich Mom, Rich Dad. Poor Mom, Poor Dad. said...

Ermagherd!I am such a huge fan of Freestyle! I have a ton of compilation CDs. I absolutely ADORED Stevie B, Lil Suzy, Buffy, etc. What a fabulous posting. Brought a HUGE smile to my face!

Unknown said...

I am a major R&B fan, who recently moved to South Florida. I thought I had left all the R&B radio stations back in New York, but boy was I wrong. X102.3 is my new favorite station for the hottest and latest R&B tracks. It’s easy to get hooked on this www.thex1023.com