Native name The Breaks | ||
Etymology Break (music element)
Amen break Other names The Orlando Sound
Progressive Breaks
Funky Breaks
Nu skool breaks Stylistic origins Breakbeat
Electro
Miami Bass
Hip hop
post-disco
freestyle
turntablism Cultural origins Late 1980s and 1990s: U.S.
Mid 1990s: U.K. Typical instruments Turntables
sampler
sequencer
synthesizer
drum machine
personal computer
keyboard | ||
Florida breaks, also referred to as Orlando breaks, The Breaks, or The Orlando Sound is a genre of breakbeat dance music that originated in central region of the State of Florida, United States. Florida Breaks originates from a mixture of hip-hop, Miami bass and electro that often includes recognizable sampling of early jazz or funk beats from rare groove or popular film. Florida's breakbeat style feature vocal elements and retains the hip-hop rhythms on which is based. The Florida breakbeat style however is faster, more syncopated, and has a heavier and unrelenting bassline. The beat frequently slows and breaks down complex beat patterns and then rebuilds in a way that is widely felt to be easier to dance to and creates an uplifting, happy, or positive mood in the listener.
Contents
Late 1980s - Early 1990s
The unique Florida style was first encountered during the late '80s inside the historic Beacham Theatre in Orlando. The breaks genre continued to gain popularity as a local underground music subculture became developed during Orlando's Summer of Love era from roughly 1989 to 1992 and simply "exploded" into prominence in mid-1993.
Mid 1990s popularity
The "Orlando Sound" was wildly popular among DJs and club goers in Florida and the sound was marketed as "Orlando friendly". The genre soon gained acclaim and became internationally popular in club culture during the mid 1990s. However, there did not seem to universal consensus on the exact elements that constitute the Orlando Sound,. The Orlando Sound was also known as Florida breaks after Nick Newton, an English breaks DJ and producer, called his 1996 record Orlando.
The genre received limited local radio play in Central Florida on radio stations WXXL (106.7 FM) and on college radio WPRK (91.5 FM), as well as WUCF (89.9 FM), WFIT (89.5 FM on Space Coast), and WMNF (88.5 FM in Tampa).
A compilation album of various Florida breaks artists called Sunshine State Of Mind was released in 1997
2000s
The international popularity of Florida breaks peaked and began to wane since 2000. However, the genre is still quite popular among those who remember the era in Central Florida and the genres unique roll in electronic music history is frequently celebrated.
The genre's inspirational influences have created regional and preference variations of the Breaks within Florida that have made the genre more difficult to define. The Orlando Sound of Central and Northern Florida were strongly influenced by new beat, trance and progressive house sounds and it is the progressive breaks that some older fans cherished while younger fans seemed to prefer a more simple electro breakbeat style. Producers in South Florida kept with a deep house flavor or retained more of the funk and hip-hop influence of Miami's so-called "ghetto-bass" that evolved and is sometimes called the funky breaks.
Florida Breaks artists
DJs Icey, DJ Stylus, Kimball Collins, Dave Cannalte, Andy Hughes, Chris Fortier, Dj's Friction & Spice K5, Rick West, Huda Hudia, Sharazz, Dynamix II, Robby Clark, Michael Donaldson, Sandy Fite, Chris Milo, Mark Snyder, Cliff Tangredi, Eli Tobias, D-Extreme, Baby Anne, and Peter Wohelski specialized in Florida Breaks.
Early Florida Breaks venues
AAHZ (Orlando), The Edge (Orlando). The Abyss (Orlando), The Club at Firestone (Orlando), The Beach Club (Orlando), Icon (Orlando), Simon's (Gainesville), Marz (Cocoa Beach), The Edge (Fort. Lauderdale), and Masquerade (Tampa) were early Florida Breaks venues.