Freestyle music
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Freestyle is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the United States in the 1980s. It experienced its greatest popularity from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. It continues to be produced today and enjoys some degree of popularity, especially in urban settings. A common theme of freestyle lyricism is heartbreak in the city.
Notable performers in the freestyle genre include Stevie B, Corina, Timmy T, George Lamond, TKA, Noel, Company B, Exposé, The Cover Girls, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Laissez Faire, Information Society, Pretty Poison, Sa-Fire, Trilogy, Shannon, Johnny O, Coro, Lisette Melendez, Judy Torres, Rockell, and many others. The music was largely made popular on radio stations such as WKTU in New York City.
Freestyle music developed primarily in the impoverished Latin communities of Upper Manhattan and The Bronx in the early 1980s, later spreading throughout New York's five boroughs and into New Jersey. It initially was a fusion of synthetic instrumentation and syncopated percussion of 1980s electro, as favored by fans of breakdancing. Sampling, as found in synth-pop music and hip hop, was incorporated. Key influences include Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock" (1982) and Shannon's "Let the Music Play", the latter of which was a Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit as early as 1984. By 1987, freestyle began getting more airplay on US pop radio stations. Songs such as "Come Go with Me" by Exposé, "Show Me" by the Cover Girls, Company B's "Fascinated", "Silent Morning" by Noel and "Catch Me (I'm Falling)" by Pretty Poison brought freestyle into the mainstream. House music, based partly on disco rhythms, was by 1992 challenging the relatively upbeat, syncopated freestyle sound.Pitchfork consider the Miami Mix of ABC's single "When Smokey Sings" to be proto-freestyle.
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