Freestyle music or Latin Freestyle, also called Latin Hip Hop in its early years, is a form of electronic music which emerged in the early 1980s and declined around the early 1990s.
The music first developed primarily in its founding cities New York City and Miami in the early 1980s. Initially, it was a fusion of the vocal styles found in 1970s disco music with the syncopated, synthetic instrumentation of 1980s electro, as favored by fans of breakdancing. Specifically, Freestyle's true roots are traced back to Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock" (1982) and Shannon's "Let the Music Play", which debuted in 1983. It was also influenced by sampling, as found in hip hop music. Freestyle music exprienced its peak of commerical and mainstream success from 1987-1990. Hip-Hop, Rap, Rock, Pop and other styles of Dance music such as Eurodance and House caused its decline. A resurgence of Freestyle became in the mid-late 1990s. Freestyle music has since spread to Europe and other U.S. such as San Franscisco. It continues to be popular and successful in New York City and Miami.
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