Florida breaks

Last updated

Florida breaks, which may also be referred to as The Orlando Sound, Orlando breaks, or The Breaks, is a genre of breakbeat dance music that originated in the central region of Florida, United States. [1] Florida Breaks draws on hip-hop, Miami bass and electro. It often includes samples of early jazz or funk beats from rare groove or popular film. It often features vocal elements. [2] Compared to the hip-hop on which it is based, [1] the style is faster, more syncopated, and has a heavier and unrelenting bassline. [2] The beat frequently slows and breaks down complex beat patterns and then rebuilds. [2] The genre has been described as being easy to dance to while creating an uplifting, happy, or positive mood in the listener. [2]

Contents

History

Late 1980s – early 1990s

The style emerged during the late '80s at the Beacham Theatre in Orlando [2] and gained popularity in the local underground music subculture during the city's Summer of Love era, roughly 1989 to 1992. [3] [4] Genre pioneer Eddie Pappa, influenced by nights spent at the Beacham, honed his skill at The Edge when it opened in 1992. In 1993, it gained prominence state-wide and, propelled by large events at the Edge, elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe. [5]

Mid-1990s popularity

External audio
Nuvola apps arts.svg Nick Newton's - Planet Acid combines acid, electro, and breakbeat elements for a grittier Florida sound.

The Breaks influenced producers who mixed breakbeat with progressive and trance, producing a mixture that became known as "The Orlando Sound" or Florida breaks. [5] The sound became popular among DJs and club goers during the mid-1990s. It was marketed internationally as "Orlando friendly." [2]

English breaks DJ and producer Nick Newton released a 1996 record Orlando. [5]

There is only general consensus on the defining elements of the genre, which spawned regional and preference variations. [2] For example, the Orlando Sound of Central and Northern Florida were influenced by new beat, trance, and progressive house sounds. Producers in South Florida and Tampa chose a deep house flavor or retained more of the funk and hip-hop influence of Miami's "ghetto-bass" or funky breaks. [2] [6] [7]

The genre received limited local radio play in Central Florida on radio stations WXXL (106.7 FM) [2] and on college radio WPRK (91.5 FM), [2] as well as WUCF (89.9 FM), WFIT (89.5 FM on Space Coast), and WMNF (88.5 FM in Tampa). [5]

2000s

The international and local popularity of Florida breaks began to wane in 2000, [2] though it remains popular in Central Florida. [1] [4]

Early Florida breaks venues

AAHZ at the Beacham Theatre (Orlando), [1] The Edge (Orlando). [1] The Abyss (Orlando), [1] The Club at Firestone (Orlando), [2] The Beach Club (Orlando), [5] Icon (Orlando), [2] Simon's (Gainesville), [8] Marz (Cocoa Beach), [5] The Edge (Fort. Lauderdale), [8] and Masquerade (Tampa). [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drum and bass</span> Type of electronic music

Drum and bass is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre grew out of the UK's jungle scene in the 1990s.

Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rave</span> Dance party

A rave is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, trap, break, happy hardcore, trance, techno, hardcore, house, and alternative dance. Occasionally live musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as go-go dancers and fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large subwoofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by laser light shows, projected coloured images, visual effects and fog machines.

Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.

The term booty bass can refer to several different, loosely related genres of music:

Miami bass is a subgenre of hip hop music that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The use of drums from the Roland TR-808, sustained kick drum, heavy bass, raised dance tempos, and frequently sexually explicit lyrical content differentiate it from other hip hop subgenres. Music author Richie Unterberger has characterized Miami bass as using rhythms with a "stop-start flavor" and "hissy" cymbals with lyrics that "reflected the language of the streets, particularly Miami's historically black neighborhoods such as Liberty City, Goulds, and Overtown".

Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop music, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Jungle is a genre of electronic music that developed out of the UK rave scene and Jamaican sound system culture in the 1990s. Emerging from breakbeat hardcore, the style is characterised by rapid breakbeats, heavily syncopated percussive loops, samples, and synthesised effects, combined with the deep basslines, melodies, and vocal samples found in dub, reggae and dancehall, as well as hip hop and funk. Many producers frequently sampled the "Amen break" or other breakbeats from funk and jazz recordings. Jungle was a direct precursor to the drum and bass genre which emerged in the mid-1990s.

Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high tempos.

Hardcore is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorted sawtooth kick, the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass, the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes, the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music. It would spawn subgenres such as gabber.

Electro is a genre of electronic dance music directly influenced by the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machines, with an immediate origin in early hip hop and funk genres. Records in the genre typically feature heavy electronic sounds, usually without vocals; if vocals are present, they are delivered in a deadpan manner, often through electronic distortion such as vocoding and talkboxing. It palpably deviates from its predecessor boogie by being less vocal-oriented and more focused on electronic beats produced by drum machines.

Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create seamless selections of tracks, called a DJ mix, by segueing from one recording to another. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in what is sometimes called a live PA. Since its inception EDM has expanded to include a wide range of subgenres.

Danny Robledo, better known as Hypno5ive or Hypno5 is an alternative music DJ, artist, promoter, designer and publisher of a music website of the same name that offers news and reviews focusing on industrial, ebm, darkwave, gothic, post-punk and alternative genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dance music</span> Music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music. While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient history, the earliest Western dance music that we can still reproduce with a degree of certainty are old-fashioned dances. In the Baroque period, the major dance styles were noble court dances. In the classical music era, the minuet was frequently used as a third movement, although in this context it would not accompany any dancing. The waltz also arose later in the classical era. Both remained part of the romantic music period, which also saw the rise of various other nationalistic dance forms like the barcarolle, mazurka, ecossaise, ballade and polonaise.

Drum and bass is an electronic music genre that originated in the UK rave scene having developed from breakbeat hardcore. The genre would go on to become one of the most popular genres of electronic dance music, becoming international and spawning multiple different derivatives and subgenres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J-Break</span> Musical artist

J-Break is an American music producer and DJ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beacham Theatre</span> Movie theater in Orlando, Florida

The Beacham Theatre is a cinema built in 1921 by Braxton Beacham Sr. in the city of Orlando, Florida. The current address of the theater is 46 North Orange Avenue, and it is located at the southwest corner of Orange Avenue and Washington Street. The building's current lack of impressive architecture is offset by its significant cultural history. The Beacham Theatre was considered an important contributing structure when the Downtown Orlando historic district was created in 1980 and the building was granted local landmark status in 1987.

Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music and a subgenre of house music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 125–135 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many DJ Mag Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki, and Deadmau5.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Le-Huu, Bao (November 28, 2015). "AAHZ respects the breaks that made Orlando global, overdue propers for DJ Stylus (The Beacham)" . Retrieved December 1, 2015. The AAHZ days, though absolutely foundational, were an elementary phase in the late '80s and early '90s that heavily featured European house sounds. But the breaks – a breakbeat subgenre braided of hip-hop, Miami bass and electro – was the Orlando sound, our original chapter and contribution to the EDM world. And when the breaks surged in the mid '90s, it was the Orlando dance scene at its apex, when we weren't just playing the leading sounds but making and exporting them. When it comes to breaks, the names that really jump out on this heavyweight lineup are Icey and Stylus, the two DJs who actually specialized in the style.{blog of Orlando Weekly's music column}
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Gettelman, Parry (February 9, 1997). "The Orlando Sound: Although Hard To Define, It's Hot Among Lovers Of Underground Dance Music". orlandosentinel.com. The Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  3. Kelemen, Matt (September 2, 1998). "Wizards of Aahz: The Florida winter had ju..." orlandoweekly.com. The Orlando Weekly. Retrieved November 30, 2015. Collins could not be aware of it at the time, but those Saturday nights -- eventually known as "Aahz"-- would kick-start an underground culture and spawn countless DJ careers. Orlando would never be the same...By 1991-1992, Orlando experienced its own "summer of love" through the culture that sprang up around the weekend acid-house nights at the Beacham Theatre presided over by Collins and Dave Cannalte, and nurtured by Beacham promoter StaceBass...only New York, San Francisco and L.A. had similar scenes, and they were characterized by warehouse parties. Orlando had a headquarters in the heart of its downtown district...From then on the crowds would refer to the Beacham as "Aahz" no matter what the owners called it.
  4. 1 2 Moyer, Matthew (November 21, 2017). "Orlando lord of the dance Kimball Collins is serious about throwing a party". orlandoweekly.com. The Orlando Weekly. Retrieved September 23, 2019. The last thing on DJ and Orlando dance music linchpin Kimball Collins' mind back during the fabled Orlando Summer of Love in the early 1990s was that he would someday be responsible for preserving the legacy of Florida Breaks...Collins explains that this is...a celebration of an era when Orlando was ground zero for a new type of dance music, and a survey of how that music has changed over the years: "Florida, and Central Florida in particular, gravitated heavily to all types of genres that relied on a type of break-beat from electro, techno, freestyle, Miami bass to straight-up U.K. rave breaks. Those influences went on to develop what would soon become the signature 'Florida break-beat sound.' That explains [Orlando audiences'] love of breaks and why we are happy to do another...event celebrating this style"
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ferguson, Jason; Le-Huu, Bao (July 2, 2013). "Dance dance revolution". orlandoweekly.com. The Orlando Weekly. Retrieved July 28, 2016. The 1990s was formative in the electronic dance music awakening of America, and that fire-catching cultural momentum would vault Orlando to the vanguard of it all. As one of the premier global epicenters of the rave big bang, the city found itself on equal footing with not just New York or Los Angeles but also with the trailblazing U.K. scene (English breaks DJ-producer Nick Newton named his 1996 record Orlando), even siring its own sound (Florida breaks).
  6. Gentile, Jessica (November 4, 2014). "Florida Breaks in the 1990s: Beats Get Sleazy in the Weirdo Armpit of America". thump.vice.com. VICE. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
  7. Ireland, David. "Electronic Music 101: What Are Breakbeats?". Magnetic Magazine. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  8. 1 2 3 Gentile, Jessica (November 5, 2014). "The Essential Rave Nightclubs of Floridian History". thump.vice.com. VICE. Retrieved February 27, 2017.