Freestyle music, also called Latin freestyle or (initially) Latin hip hop, is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia, primarily among Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. It experienced its greatest popularity from the late 1980s until the early 1990s. A common theme of freestyle lyricism originated as heartbreak in an urban environment typified by New York City.
The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. Alongside fellow English acts The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim, as well as American duo The Crystal Method, they were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.
Billy Ray Cyrus is an American country singer, songwriter and actor. Having released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, he is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and became the first single ever to achieve triple platinum status in Australia. It was also the best-selling single in the same country in 1992. Due to the song's music video, the line dance rose in popularity.
The Bomfunk MC's is a Finnish hip hop group that was active between 1998 and 2005, before reuniting in 2018. The group's frontman is the rapper B.O. Dubb, and the main producer is Jaakko Salovaara, known as JS16.
The Cover Girls are an all-female, New York City-based freestyle music group that achieved most of its chart success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Among the group's best-known songs are "Show Me", "Because of You", "Don't Stop Now", "Funk Boutique", "Wishing on a Star", and "Thank You".
Brenda Shannon Greene, known professionally as Shannon, is an American singer and songwriter of freestyle and dance-pop music. She is best known for her single "Let the Music Play", which topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in 1983 and was certified gold.
The Freestylers are a British electronic music group, consisting of producers Matt Cantor and Aston Harvey. They have released five studio albums and a number of mix compilations for, among others, Fabric and BBC Radio.
"Let the Music Play" is a song recorded by American singer Shannon and released on September 19, 1983 as both her debut single and the lead single from her 1984 debut studio album of the same name. Written by Chris Barbosa and Ed Chisolm, and produced by Barbosa and Mark Liggett, "Let the Music Play" was the first of Shannon's four number ones on the US Dance Club Songs chart, reaching the top spot in October 1983. It also became a huge crossover hit in the US, peaking at number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1984. It was Shannon's only Top 40 hit in the US. Some mark "Let the Music Play" as the beginning of the "dance-pop" era.
Kathy Sledge is an American singer–songwriter and producer. Sledge is best known as the youngest and founding member of Sister Sledge, an American vocal group which is made up of her sisters that formed in 1971.
"Get Ready for This" is a song recorded by Belgian/Dutch music group 2 Unlimited. It was released in 1991 as the lead single from their debut album, Get Ready! (1992). Originally, the single was produced as an instrumental, titled the "Orchestral Mix". It became a hit and conscious of their popularity, Wilde & De Coster wanted a more accessible, formatted formula for their project to grow. Ray was then asked to write lyrics and add a rap to the track. On Ray Slijngaard's suggestion, Anita Doth joined as the female vocalist.
That Petrol Emotion were a London-based Northern Ireland-originating band with an American vocalist, Steve Mack. It featured the O'Neill brothers from celebrated Derry pop-punk band The Undertones plus ex-members of fellow Derry bands Bam Bam and The Calling and The Corner Boys. They recorded five albums between 1986 and 1994, exploring an eclectic fusion of alternative rock, post-punk, garage rock and dance music which in part anticipated and overlapped with the dance-pop era of the 1990s.
"Celebration" is a 1980 song by American band Kool & the Gang. Released as the first single from their twelfth album, Celebrate! (1980), it was the band's first and only single to reach No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Suzanne Casale Melone, better known by her stage name Lil Suzy, is an Italian-Puerto Rican American freestyle/pop singer who was mainly active in the 1990's. Lil Suzy is best known for the singles "Take Me in Your Arms", "Promise Me", and "Can't Get You Out of My Mind".
Steven Bernard Hill, known professionally as Stevie B, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer who was influential in the freestyle and hi-NRG dance music scene of the late 1980s, mostly in Miami. He had a 1990 number-one hit ballad, "Because I Love You ".
Laura Marie Marano is an American actress and singer. She is known for her role in the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally as Ally Dawson. Marano was one of the five original classmates in Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. She starred in Without a Trace for three seasons and Back to You. Marano starred in the indie film A Sort of Homecoming, the Disney Channel Original Movie Bad Hair Day, and the Netflix original movie The Perfect Date.
Collage is a freestyle duo, featuring vocalist Anthony Monteleone and producer/songwriter Adam Marano in 1993, who also ran the Viper Records label for which Collage recorded. Viper's parent label Metropolitan issued the Viper's Freestyle Hit Parade compilation in 1994; it helped break the Collage single "I'll Be Loving You" nationally. The song went to number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, "I'll Be Loving You" received significant Top 40 airplay on the handful of radio stations across the U.S. that had not abandoned the format in the early 1990s, due to rapidly changing musical tastes. Among the radio stations playing the song at the time are WRVQ "Q94" in Richmond and WBSS "Boss 97" in Atlantic City, N.J., in addition to Rhythmic stations such as WQHT "Hot 97" in New York, Wild 107.7 in San Francisco, Q97 in San José, CA KHTN Modesto’s 104.7 FM, San Diego’s Z90, Channel 933 and WPOW "Power 96" in Miami. It is largely considered to be the final freestyle dance release to receive airplay, concluding a nearly 10-year period, in fall 1994. Internationally, the song can be heard today on such stations as "Planet 107.5" in San Jose, Costa Rica, which played the song at 1:35pm on 28 July 2022. To this date, the song continues to be a major spin in many of the old school radio stations around the U.S.
Ross Shor Lynch is an American actor, singer, and musician. He was the lead vocalist of the pop rock band R5 and is one half of the band the Driver Era. As an actor, he rose to recognition for his debut role as Austin Moon on Disney Channel's comedy television series Austin & Ally and for his role as Brady in the network's Teen Beach Movie film series.
T.P.E. was a project of dance-pop and Freestyle music formed in 1991 by music producer Adam Marano, who also was the only member of the project. T.P.E means The Philadelphia Experiment. and it was one of the first projects created by Adam Marano before creating what would become his most famous project, the Collage. T.P.E. released four singles; the most popular of them being the song "Then Came You", which reached No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991.
"Then Came You" is the debut single from dance-pop and freestyle project T.P.E. from their album T.P.E. Featuring Adam Marano, released in 1991. This was the only single from T.P.E. to reach the charts, peaking at number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
