brianmei
New member
Tony posted on another site something about freestyle, and I had to respond. Posting the copy here:
> What can we do to improve our music >musically? How
can we make it fresh? Should we slow it >down? Speed it up? How do
we upgrade our sound? Mature >our sound? Progreess our sound?
Slow it down, no, unless you slow it down to the point where it is a slow
song. Speed it up?- yeah, I went to 100's of clubs in the last year and
saw lots of stuff, and many people won't dance to it. But it also depends
on the clubs and stuff. Tracks like "Until Tomorrow" by Adriana would
usually keep most floors packed in Sacramento, (one thing to note about
"Until Tomorrow" it was not a superfast beat, but it had lots of movement
in it, sounds that almost acted as beats and made you want to dance (if
that makes any sense at all). I would like to see freestyle get exposure at
raves, because that's where a lot of the future dance music listeners
frequent, but in order to do this it would have to be faster than old
school, and maybe even a little faster than today's, and sound a little
progressive. The other option-keep it the same speed?-yeah to that too.
Again I'll bring up this song-"No one knows" by Susan Santiago-huge song
in Sac, and I had many people calling in thinking it was a new song. Songs
can remain like that and still have success, but they must be a GOOD
QUALITY song like this one. "Until Tomorrow" did well in Sac as well, so
you can see that both speeds can do well if the song is good. We need
catchy melodies and lyrics, THAT IS VERY KEY. I can give you an
example, Gillette's song "Sex Tonight"- if it did not have the line "Does
anybody wanna have sex tonight", that song wouldn't have done sh*t.
> Are we falling behind, and being left >behind by other
dance genres? Is there sound more fresh >than ours? What do we do?
I love old school, but except for those rare-Susan Santiago-like songs, I
don't think it will fare well. Right now dance music is mostly getting
exposure in the US in clubs, raves, and some radio mixshows. There is
some good freestyle out there right that doesn't need to be changed, but
unfortunately radio stations and labels won't touch it.
BUT I WILL GO OFF ON THAT A LITTLE MORE FURTHER DOWN IN THE
POST. Most radio stations and labels are going more for that
trance/house/disco-house sound right now, (though Florida is providing
some hope with it's breakbeat and yes, even downright freestyle). So for
a quick fix, some people might try adding some trancy elements to the
music and speeding it up (might get more spins in clubs), but don't lose
the freestyle feel. I can give an example, "Can U Show Me" by The
Wiseguy Orchestra had a little bit of a trancy feel to it, but I was liking it
as a freestyle lover, because a lot of those elements remained. Another
thing-I've been listening to some of the freestyle coming out from
overseas, and it gets me really hyped up. I think I like some of the
scratching and funky stuff they put in there (i.e., Pandera-"Celebrate The
Summertime" freestyle remix) . It livens the song up and gets me all
pumped up. But sometimes a plain beat and melody does that for me, but
adding stuff like that might be another way to spice up the music. Hey
maybe add a quick little rap in there. Just some ideas.
One thing I noticed with the younger crowd is that they don't seem to be
into the "cheesy" love-song lyrics. Kind of like what happened with rap/hip
hop. It moved from a MC Hammer, Young MC ("Bust A Move" ) , to
hardcore gangsta rap. Just as dance music has done in the last decade,
moving from "softer" sounding freestyle, to hardcore pounding trance,
house and progressive house. But you notice what happened with hip hop
and rap? There remained a softer sound, a sound which appealed A LOT
with women (i.e., Ja Rule/Jennifer Lopez- "I'm Real", & other r&b songs too
) . Radio loves songs that appeal to the women. That is why I still see a
future for freestyle, because that appeals to the 18+ female crowd very
strongly which is very important to radio stations and advertisers
especially. Todays hardcore techno is appealing mostly to a younger
crowd, and radio stations would definitely like to have an older crowd- an
18+ crowd is going to attract the advertisers over a 12-18 crowd for
example.
> How can we compete? Why does radio >not support our
music?
OK, here is where I go off, and I don't get mad often, "Why does radio
(also include some music labels) not support our music?" Answer-
BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAIN STUPID. Some of what I read above explains
some reasons why they should play freestyle. I see some of today's
dance stations trying the hard sound, and that will miss a lot. I noticed
with our stations that we started out with a good mix of old school
freestyle, new school freestyle, and harder dance mixed in with some pop
here and there, and I think we were attracting the crowd we wanted. But
then we went to more of a harder dance sound, and I could tell we lost
the slightly older crowd from around 18-34 and it became primarily a
14-22 crowd. And I see some stations making mistakes. But labels, radio
stations, etc always want to jump onto the next big trend, recently it has
been trance, house, progressive, etc. I can remember reading a few years
back how jungle was going to be the next big thing, and would be heard
on radio everywhere. But where the f*ck is it now? We would get 100
times more requests for freestyle than we would for jungle/drum n bass.
Anyway FREESTYLE WOULD DO WELL IF GIVEN THE CHANCE BY LABELS
AND RADIO!!! Another reason why freestyle is getting little airplay is due
to money. Money for promotion, and money to pay off the people at radio
stations. I can tell you right now, that if I had the big bucks that some
labels have, I could get a freestyle song I was pushing on the air. Without
that money, I would have no chance. Program Directors are taking money
every day from labels who want their record on the air. I've seen it
happen. Fortunately, I had the chance to work at a radio station that for
the most part was all about the music. We actually took requests from
listeners, and yes instant requests. No radio stations do that anymore,
when you hear a radio station play a phone bit where the caller requests
a song and they play it, it means that that song was coming up anyway,
and the caller just happened to request that song right before it was
about to be played. (But don't quit requesting freestyle, they won't get
your song on when you ask for it, but they will keep track and enough
requests may eventually get a song in the mixshow or on rotation).
Example, Gigi D'Agostino-I'll Fly With You, our station had played that
song for half a year and thousands of times before hardly any station
touched it. But then another station tries it, and they get too many calls
to ignore it. Then another station tries it, and they have to add it due to
the demand. Finally it spreads nationwide. We started playing that almost
a year ago, and just 3 weeks ago as I was traveling through the U.S. I
was surprised to see some stations advertising it as new music. But
anyway, you radio stations wake the F*CK up!
>In my opinion, freestyle needs a
>face lift, and the first thing we must do is forget the >oldschool sound,
and stop trying to re-create it. We can >still create freetyle music, by
keeping some elements that >make it sound freestyle, for example the
percussion, and >adding new flavor to it.
I've seen some recent freestyle songs out there that would have done
well today if they had major bucks to push it. Just a few examples of
songs I think would do good on radio:
Sharyn Maceren-"One and One"
Paradigm/Stefanie Bennett-"Back 4 My Love"
Rosalinda- "Goodbye"
Christina Marie- "Turning Away"
Julissa- "I must go on"
Or something with the sound of (i.e., M:G- I can remember seeing one of
her songs on the top 10 chart at Camelot Music a few years back.).
> I know people want and crave the >oldschool sound, but
artist and producers cannot make a >living of played out music. It is an
art to create a new >sound, and I think it is time for freestyle to do so.
This >is the only way we can show the talent our artis posses, >and our
hope to bringing freestyle what it once was.
> In your opinion what should we do?
Well I hope I answered your questions.
And to all you radio stations & labels who doubt freestyle- you suck!
> What can we do to improve our music >musically? How
can we make it fresh? Should we slow it >down? Speed it up? How do
we upgrade our sound? Mature >our sound? Progreess our sound?
Slow it down, no, unless you slow it down to the point where it is a slow
song. Speed it up?- yeah, I went to 100's of clubs in the last year and
saw lots of stuff, and many people won't dance to it. But it also depends
on the clubs and stuff. Tracks like "Until Tomorrow" by Adriana would
usually keep most floors packed in Sacramento, (one thing to note about
"Until Tomorrow" it was not a superfast beat, but it had lots of movement
in it, sounds that almost acted as beats and made you want to dance (if
that makes any sense at all). I would like to see freestyle get exposure at
raves, because that's where a lot of the future dance music listeners
frequent, but in order to do this it would have to be faster than old
school, and maybe even a little faster than today's, and sound a little
progressive. The other option-keep it the same speed?-yeah to that too.
Again I'll bring up this song-"No one knows" by Susan Santiago-huge song
in Sac, and I had many people calling in thinking it was a new song. Songs
can remain like that and still have success, but they must be a GOOD
QUALITY song like this one. "Until Tomorrow" did well in Sac as well, so
you can see that both speeds can do well if the song is good. We need
catchy melodies and lyrics, THAT IS VERY KEY. I can give you an
example, Gillette's song "Sex Tonight"- if it did not have the line "Does
anybody wanna have sex tonight", that song wouldn't have done sh*t.
> Are we falling behind, and being left >behind by other
dance genres? Is there sound more fresh >than ours? What do we do?
I love old school, but except for those rare-Susan Santiago-like songs, I
don't think it will fare well. Right now dance music is mostly getting
exposure in the US in clubs, raves, and some radio mixshows. There is
some good freestyle out there right that doesn't need to be changed, but
unfortunately radio stations and labels won't touch it.
BUT I WILL GO OFF ON THAT A LITTLE MORE FURTHER DOWN IN THE
POST. Most radio stations and labels are going more for that
trance/house/disco-house sound right now, (though Florida is providing
some hope with it's breakbeat and yes, even downright freestyle). So for
a quick fix, some people might try adding some trancy elements to the
music and speeding it up (might get more spins in clubs), but don't lose
the freestyle feel. I can give an example, "Can U Show Me" by The
Wiseguy Orchestra had a little bit of a trancy feel to it, but I was liking it
as a freestyle lover, because a lot of those elements remained. Another
thing-I've been listening to some of the freestyle coming out from
overseas, and it gets me really hyped up. I think I like some of the
scratching and funky stuff they put in there (i.e., Pandera-"Celebrate The
Summertime" freestyle remix) . It livens the song up and gets me all
pumped up. But sometimes a plain beat and melody does that for me, but
adding stuff like that might be another way to spice up the music. Hey
maybe add a quick little rap in there. Just some ideas.
One thing I noticed with the younger crowd is that they don't seem to be
into the "cheesy" love-song lyrics. Kind of like what happened with rap/hip
hop. It moved from a MC Hammer, Young MC ("Bust A Move" ) , to
hardcore gangsta rap. Just as dance music has done in the last decade,
moving from "softer" sounding freestyle, to hardcore pounding trance,
house and progressive house. But you notice what happened with hip hop
and rap? There remained a softer sound, a sound which appealed A LOT
with women (i.e., Ja Rule/Jennifer Lopez- "I'm Real", & other r&b songs too
) . Radio loves songs that appeal to the women. That is why I still see a
future for freestyle, because that appeals to the 18+ female crowd very
strongly which is very important to radio stations and advertisers
especially. Todays hardcore techno is appealing mostly to a younger
crowd, and radio stations would definitely like to have an older crowd- an
18+ crowd is going to attract the advertisers over a 12-18 crowd for
example.
> How can we compete? Why does radio >not support our
music?
OK, here is where I go off, and I don't get mad often, "Why does radio
(also include some music labels) not support our music?" Answer-
BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAIN STUPID. Some of what I read above explains
some reasons why they should play freestyle. I see some of today's
dance stations trying the hard sound, and that will miss a lot. I noticed
with our stations that we started out with a good mix of old school
freestyle, new school freestyle, and harder dance mixed in with some pop
here and there, and I think we were attracting the crowd we wanted. But
then we went to more of a harder dance sound, and I could tell we lost
the slightly older crowd from around 18-34 and it became primarily a
14-22 crowd. And I see some stations making mistakes. But labels, radio
stations, etc always want to jump onto the next big trend, recently it has
been trance, house, progressive, etc. I can remember reading a few years
back how jungle was going to be the next big thing, and would be heard
on radio everywhere. But where the f*ck is it now? We would get 100
times more requests for freestyle than we would for jungle/drum n bass.
Anyway FREESTYLE WOULD DO WELL IF GIVEN THE CHANCE BY LABELS
AND RADIO!!! Another reason why freestyle is getting little airplay is due
to money. Money for promotion, and money to pay off the people at radio
stations. I can tell you right now, that if I had the big bucks that some
labels have, I could get a freestyle song I was pushing on the air. Without
that money, I would have no chance. Program Directors are taking money
every day from labels who want their record on the air. I've seen it
happen. Fortunately, I had the chance to work at a radio station that for
the most part was all about the music. We actually took requests from
listeners, and yes instant requests. No radio stations do that anymore,
when you hear a radio station play a phone bit where the caller requests
a song and they play it, it means that that song was coming up anyway,
and the caller just happened to request that song right before it was
about to be played. (But don't quit requesting freestyle, they won't get
your song on when you ask for it, but they will keep track and enough
requests may eventually get a song in the mixshow or on rotation).
Example, Gigi D'Agostino-I'll Fly With You, our station had played that
song for half a year and thousands of times before hardly any station
touched it. But then another station tries it, and they get too many calls
to ignore it. Then another station tries it, and they have to add it due to
the demand. Finally it spreads nationwide. We started playing that almost
a year ago, and just 3 weeks ago as I was traveling through the U.S. I
was surprised to see some stations advertising it as new music. But
anyway, you radio stations wake the F*CK up!
>In my opinion, freestyle needs a
>face lift, and the first thing we must do is forget the >oldschool sound,
and stop trying to re-create it. We can >still create freetyle music, by
keeping some elements that >make it sound freestyle, for example the
percussion, and >adding new flavor to it.
I've seen some recent freestyle songs out there that would have done
well today if they had major bucks to push it. Just a few examples of
songs I think would do good on radio:
Sharyn Maceren-"One and One"
Paradigm/Stefanie Bennett-"Back 4 My Love"
Rosalinda- "Goodbye"
Christina Marie- "Turning Away"
Julissa- "I must go on"
Or something with the sound of (i.e., M:G- I can remember seeing one of
her songs on the top 10 chart at Camelot Music a few years back.).
> I know people want and crave the >oldschool sound, but
artist and producers cannot make a >living of played out music. It is an
art to create a new >sound, and I think it is time for freestyle to do so.
This >is the only way we can show the talent our artis posses, >and our
hope to bringing freestyle what it once was.
> In your opinion what should we do?
Well I hope I answered your questions.
And to all you radio stations & labels who doubt freestyle- you suck!
