Florida breaks, which may also be referred to as The Orlando Sound, Orlando breaks, or The Breaks, is a

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and U ...

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

that originated in the central region of the

State of Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to th ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Florida Breaks originates from a mixture of hip-hop, Miami bass and electro that often includes recognizable sampling of early

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mi ...

beats from

rare groove Rare groove is music that is very hard to source or relatively obscure. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, R&B and jazz funk, but is also connected to subgenres including jazz rock, reggae, Latin jazz, soul, rock music, northern sou ...

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 In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "plac ...

, and has a heavier and unrelenting bassline. The beat frequently slows and breaks down complex beat patterns and then rebuilds. The genre has been described as being easy to dance to while creating an uplifting, happy, or positive mood in the listener.

History

Late 1980s – early 1990s

The unique Florida style was first encountered during the late '80s inside the historic

Beacham Theatre The Beacham Theatre is a cinema built in 1921 by Braxton Beacham Sr. in the city of Orlando, Florida. The current address of the theater is 46 North Orange Avenue, and it is located at the southwest corner of Orange Avenue and Washington Stree ...

in Orlando. The breaks genre started to gain local popularity as a local underground music

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

developed during Orlando's Summer of Love era from roughly 1989 to 1992. Eddie Pappa, influenced by nights spent at the Beacham, honed his skill at The Edge when it opened in 1992 and is considered a pioneer in the Breaks genre. It gained prominence state-wide in 1993. By mid-1993, Large events at the Edge helped launch the popularity of the Florida breaks elsewhere in the U.S. Europe began to take notice of Orlando's expanding culture.

Mid 1990s popularity

The Breaks strongly influenced other producers who mixed breakbeat with progressive, and trance. This mixture became known as "The Orlando Sound." The sound gained acclaim and became wildly popular among DJs and club goers during the mid 1990s and was marketed internationally as "Orlando friendly." Nick Newton, an English breaks DJ and producer, called his 1996 record ''Orlando'' and the Orlando Sound was also referred to as Florida breaks. However, there did not seem to universal consensus on the exact elements that constituted ''the Florida Sound''. 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. For example, the Orlando Sound of Central and Northern Florida were strongly influenced by

new beat New beat is a Belgian electronic dance music genre that fuses elements of new wave, hi-NRG,Simon Reynolds: ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.'' Routledge 1999, , p. 124. EBM and hip hop (e.g. scratching).Ti ...

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

and

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

sounds. Producers in South Florida and Tampa kept with a

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music produce ...

flavor or retained more of the

and hip-hop influence of Miami's so-called "ghetto-bass" that evolved and is sometimes called the funky breaks. The genre received limited local radio play in Central Florida on

radio stations Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

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 The Space Coast is a region in the U.S. state of Florida around the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It is one of several "themed" coasts around Florida. All orbital launches from American soil carrying NASA ast ...

), and

WMNF WMNF is a non-commercial, community radio station operating in the city of Tampa in the U.S. state of Florida that broadcasts at the FM frequency of 88.5 MHz and streaming live. The station has been on the air since September 14, 1979, and has ...

(88.5 FM in

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

2000s

The international and local popularity of Florida breaks peaked and began to wane in 2000. However, the genre is still quite popular in Central Florida as well as among those who remember the era and the genres unique role in electronic music history.

Early Florida breaks venues

AAHZ at the

(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).

References

External links

Florida Breaks
from Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music {{Hip hop Breakbeat genres Music of Florida