Editing Freestyle music (section)

===1988: Pop crossover===
Freestyle's Top 40 Radio airplay started to really take off by 1987, and it began to disappear from the airwaves in the early 1990s<ref name="Gardner"/> as radio stations moved to Top 40-only formats. Artists such as [[George Lamond]], [[Exposé (group)|Exposé]], [[Sweet Sensation (trio)|Sweet Sensation]], and [[Stevie B]] were still heard on mainstream radio, but other notable freestyle artists did not fare as well. Carlos Berrios and Platinum producer [[Frankie Cutlass]] used a freestyle production on "[[Temptation (Corina song)|Temptation]]" by [[Corina (American singer)|Corina]] and "[[Together Forever (Lisette Melendez song)|Together Forever]]" by [[Lisette Melendez]]. The songs were released in 1991, almost simultaneously, and caused a resurgence in the style when they were embraced by Top 40 radio. "Temptation" reached the number 6 spot on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' Hot 100 Chart. These hits were followed by the success of [[Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam]], who had been one of the earliest freestyle acts. Their records were produced by [[Full Force]], who had also worked with [[UTFO]] and [[James Brown (musician)|James Brown]].

Several primarily freestyle artists released [[Sentimental ballad|ballads]] during the 1980s and early 1990s that crossed over to the pop charts and charted higher than their previous work. These include "[[Seasons Change (song)|Seasons Change]]" by Exposé, "[[Thinking of You (Sa-Fire song)|Thinking of You]]" by [[Sa-Fire]], "[[One More Try (Timmy T. song)|One More Try]]" by [[Timmy T]], "[[Because I Love You (The Postman Song)]]" by Stevie B, and "[[If Wishes Came True]]" by Sweet Sensation. Brenda K. Starr reached the Hot 100 with her ballad "[[I Still Believe (Brenda K. Starr song)|I Still Believe]]". Freestyle shortly thereafter gave way to mainstream pop artists such as [[MC Hammer]], [[Paula Abdul]], [[Bobby Brown]], [[New Kids on the Block]], and [[Milli Vanilli]] (with some artists utilizing elements of freestyle beginning in the 1980s) using hip hop beats and electro samples in a mainstream form with slicker production and [[MTV]]-friendly videos. These artists were successful on crossover stations as well as R&B stations, and freestyle was replaced as an underground genre by newer styles such as [[new jack swing]], [[Trance music|trance]] and [[Eurodance]]. Despite this, some freestyle acts managed to garner hits well into the 1990s, with acts such as [[Cynthia (singer)|Cynthia]] and [[Rockell]] scoring minor hits on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' Hot 100 as late as 1998. As this new music style took over many big cities in America, the labels that signed these artists such as [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], [[Warner Bros.|Warner Bros]], and other labels did not know how to market these artists originally.<ref name="Test">{{Cite web |last=Test |first=Irene |date=2014-03-31 |title=On the Cusp of a Comeback: A Return for Freestyle Music |url=https://crossfadr.com/2014/03/31/cusp-comeback-return-freestyle-music/ |access-date=2024-03-15 |website=Crossfadr |language=en-US}}</ref> Instead of pushing this style of music as a solidified sound, the labels separated the cities. This caused the Miami sound of freestyle music to be more popularized through the radio compared to NYC's sound at the time. The labels who pushed out low quality tracks ended up hurting themselves, instead of making the track a quality piece of music.<ref name="Test"/>