Frank Kogan

I'm always worried that I'm not making sense to the reader who doesn't have the least idea what I mean by — for instance — "freestyle" and "Italodisco" (among hundreds of other terms and names and cross references that make criticism unintelligible). Rather than try to explain everything — I'm just not up for it today — I'll link a few examples here, some vintage 1980s–early '90s freestyle tracks. I'm not putting any Italodisco tracks, since the Rocket 101 song I embedded in the post really is a great example of generic Italodisco. Italodisco has similar riffs to freestyle but doesn't pile them atop one another as much and doesn't go as wild with the beats or as heart-rending in the vocals. (And despite the excellent term "Italotrot" that we're affixing to Hong Jinyoung's "Love Tonight," its riff is the sort that could happily grace many a freestyle track.) Anyway, I hope these help:

New York:

Cover Girls "Inside Outside"

Judy Torres "Come Into My Arms"

Cynthia "Change On Me"

Lisette Melendez "A Day In My Life (Without You)"

Miami

Debbie Deb "When I Hear Music"

Sequal "It's Not Too Late"

Company B "Fascinated"

For more on Italodisco here's the Wikipedia link.

*The genre "freestyle" is not to be confused with "freestyle" in hip-hop, which refers to live, improvised or at least off-the-cuff raps.

UPDATE: Here's how I described "freestyle" back when Glam sampled Chuli & Miae sampling the Cover Girls:

Freestyle is one of the names given to a Latino dance music style that came out of Miami and New York in the '80s, the Miami version using a lighter touch and being more interracial, the NY version being heavily, dolorously Latino, but both sites drawing massively on the Robie-Baker electrofunk used by DJ Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock." Freestyle added twisting intertwining riffs and wild beats, with New York City bringing melodies of deep and passionate sadness.