"Let The Music Play," Shannon

[tozion]

What is there to say about this song? It's a classic and a hugely influential track, basically creating the freestyle genre. It had big R&B success too.

[discodude]

What a great song! I had loved the original as a kid and then I grew to love the remixes. Junior Vasquez's mix even incorporated some bits of the original to pay homage to it.

[duh5]

Classic! Absolutely love it.

[tozion]

"Let The Music Play" was ranked #54 on Slant Magazine's 100 Greatest Dance Songs.

Alongside Madonna's "Holiday," DC-born Jazz vocalist Brenda Shannon Greene's "Let The Music Play" helped redefine dance music in the anti-disco early-'80s, setting the stage for the troubled genre for the next decade. Producers Mark Liggett and Chris Barbosa, considered one of the founding fathers of Latin freestyle, merged the then-hip electro-funk sound with Latin rhythms, unwittingly creating the world's first freestyle song. Unmistakably an '80s creation, the track evades a precise time-stamp thanks to its futuristic staccato beats, thoughtful production, and the fact that it became a pop radio staple for more than a decade. The song has more lasting power than most of its countless copycats, including Shannon's own "Give Me Tonight."

[moonshadow]

It's almost strange to me how this could have been such a monster, monster hit. While it's indisputable that I love it, at the same time, having not experienced what a club jam this would have been in the fall of 1983 (and then national smash in early 1984), and having lived in a world where electronics in music is no longer such a novelty, I don't think I'll ever be able to truly understand exactly what this was like for the early 80s clubgoing population. I wonder if, when this was composed, Chris Barbosa realized what he was creating would define club trends for the rest of the decade.