Sunday, June 17, 2012

Teddy Riley









Teddy Riley’s influence on electronic music has often been overlooked.  Electronic music by the mid 80’s almost ran its course. It had already fused with Hip-Hop, Pop and Rock music and was sure to eventually fade away.

Born on Oct 8, 1967 Edward T. Riley would go on to study electronic music at Manhattan School of Music and composition at Columbia University.
His first success came at the age of 17 when he produced Kool Moe Dee’s single “Go See the Doctor,” which reached number 89 on The Billboard Hot 100.

After a string of successful hits Teddy Riley brought New Jack Swing to the forefront. He used a SP 1200 and Roland 808 drum machine to accompany R&B/Gospel vocals. Mr. Riley is also known for using synthesizers and an occasional vocoder.

As electronic music slowly faded away Mr. Riley began to fuse it with R&B, which was never done. Today we recognize this as Hip-Hop/R&B. It’s influences can be heard in the many genres of music that Teddy has dabbed in.  He has produced a who’s who of people including Madonna, Boy George and Bobby Brown to name a few. His biggest contribution to the world of electronic music is when he used his style on Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album, which is the most successful New jack Swing album of all time with over 32 million copies sold.

As a listener Teddy Riley made a profound impact on my life. He changed the way I felt about fusing Hip-Hop R&B with different genres.  He made it cool for African Americans to listen to Boy George and to be able to listen to non-hardcore rap.

As a professional I see Teddy Riley as the person who took electronic music and made it acceptable in all forms of music, which has not been done by any other artist/producer.  In a sense he was the lifeline that gave electronic music the blood vessels to carry on it legacy.


2 comments:

  1. Thank you Big Dave for posting such a great article!

    When I read you article, I was remind of so many songs that I have enjoyed over my lifetime. Kool Moe Dee's "Go See The Doctor" is one of my favorite and most memorable songs of my lifetime. I was a teen-ager when it came out. I loved the bass line, and the hook "3 days later...." I can still recall the bassline from memory, and I think its the only Kool Moe Dee song I ever really liked, as its the only song I can recall of of the cassette tape I have of that album. But I never knew that Teddy Riley produced that song. You just gave me a knew found respect for that man.

    Sometimes, it takes the ability to look back in history before you can recognize a persons greatness. When I look back in History I see Teddy Riley with a long track record of memorable hits. Along with Kool Moe Dee, he worked on the cult class Dougie Fresh Album "The Show". So I can also call Teddy Riley a Hip Hop Pioneer.

    Furthermore, you were spot on when you mentioned the way he fused electronic music with R&B. The Blackstreet albums was amazing, and still remains to be one of my all time favorite albums. I dont even listen to RNB like that, but the way Teddy Riley used those synths, and drums, and fused them with the vocoded vocals was vanguard for that time. It just sounded good, and still does.

    Then I think about his work with Guy. I can't tell you the name of all of their songs, but I do remember Teddy's Jam..."Jam, Oh Jam, Jam, Jam, Jam for Me, Teddy Jam oh. This song was good, and I do think Teddy Riley was under recognized. Probably because of his association with Hip Hop, which at the time was not recognized as a legitimate form of music by the RNB world.

    Darrin Jackson
    blog.darrinjackson.com

    ***Note***This is a re post. I had trouble posting in Safari. My comment kept disappearing. So I this is a re post in Firefox. I posted this as a possible solution for others with the same problem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for leaving a comment Darrin. I do think Teddy was somewhat under recognized. I suspect that where some of his cockiness comes from.On the other hand he proudly let the world know darn near every time he spoke.
    I really appreciate this man. He gave us Hip-Hip/R&B because other people weren't doing it right.

    ReplyDelete