Club Music
by Atiya Jones
Just imagine it’s Friday night, your work week is done and now it’s time to party. You hit up one of New York City’s many hot spots and as soon as you walking in blasting on the sound system is Ricky Martin’s “Shake Your Pon Pon.” Most likely you will leave before you even reach coat check. Unlike when Mr. Martin hit American mainstream in 1998 with his Olympic classic Cup of Life, artists have began to fuse genres better to create career longevity and a variety of crossover options. Even though Martin’s music was just the thing to get a party going in 2000, he failed to realize he needed other genres to keep his music mainstream. Instead of having a Latin explosion where you can’t go anywhere without hearing Livin’ La Vida Loca there is Latin laced hip-hop beats Spanish r & b vibes, and numerous other blends.
Justin Timberlake the former boy bander was not only able to erase his clean
cut boy next door image; he took elements from latin, hip-hop, soul, and pop
music to make his debut album versatile enough to be played in hip-hop clubs,
Top 40 spots, or the smoothest of lounges. Teaming up with the Neptunes Justin’s
Like I Love You was played in hip-hop clubs, while Rock Your Body worked it’s
way into dance clubs. Getting more soulful by the minute Timberlake just teamed
up with Snoop and Charlie Wilson on Signs, which is good c-walking music as
Justin displays in the video. Falling into the same lines as Timberlake Christina
Aguilera has blended latin, rock, pop, and r & b music. Starting out with
sugary sweet pop, Aguilera is now nastier than Vanity before she find Christ.
While Dirty had many ladies on the dance floor taking their shirts off and
swinging them in the air like a helicopter, a song like Fighter might have
had the same audience rocking out.
Working with both Timberlake and Aguilera, sometimes spreading herself
a little to thin Missy Misdemeanor Elliot has made it her business to reinvent
popular music. From the day Misdemeanor stepped on the scene on Gina Thompson’s
The Things You Do with her “Hee Hee How Hee Hee How”, she has made
sure to keep the crowds jumping whether it’s on her own tracks or on
countless others like Madonna, Britney, or Janet Jackson. At one point it was
a necessity for a DJ to play Work It, Get Ur Freak On, or One Minute Man. And
just when you think “oh Missy’s new album isn’t doing so
good…” she shows up on remixes with Fabulous or Ciara. For the
last nine years Misdemeanor has refused to let a DJ’s set list go without
her on it somehow.
As Justin, Missy, Christina and even Mr. Martin crossover repeatedly none
have done it quite like Gwen Stefani. The L.A.M.B rocker dominated the airwave
when her group No Doubt Tragic Kingdom album went diamond in 1996 with hits
like Don’t Speak, Spider webs, and Just a Girl. These songs along with
others kept mosh pits going with their reggae, ska, and rock feel. Now off
on her own Stefani is still true to her No Doubt roots while adding hip-hop,
electro pop, and r & b to her mix. As Stefani’s first single What
You Waiting For? slowly moves from her No Doubt sound shei experiments with
some things that you can either love or hate..
As seen with Ricky Martin the history of these artists can be here today
and gone tomorrow at a blink of an eye, but as long as they’re here you
might as well dance.
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