On any given night in New Orleans, Big Freedia is working the mic and crowds of mostly women can't get enough. Transformed by the upbeat dance music, the ladies move non-stop and uninhibited until the 20-30-minute set is over, and what's amazing is that with all this ass-shaking and sexual energy flooding the club, the guys fall back and just let the women do their thing on the dance floor.
A performer with over a decade of experience on the bounce music scene, Big Freedia explained in a phone conversation with the Windy City Times, "It speaks to women so much because, well, I know that when I'm in concert the women feel protected and comfortable with my music. They feel like they can let themselves go and dance. I'm very protective of them when they're dancing. It's like they're performing with me so I think women definitely need someone who is not afraid to stand up for them while they're doing their thing and having a good time ... without any guys touching them or coming up to them or just harassing them."
Bounce music is more than 20 years old and has become as deeply imbedded in Nola culture as jambalaya and Mardi Gras. After Hurricane Katrina displaced people all over the country Big Freedia said she and her fellow bounce rappers received a constant stream of requests from bounce fans for the music. "They were like feigning for bounce music all over, asking to have it e-mailed or sent. 'I need to hear some New Orleans bounce music,' because we were displaced all over. It provides a sense of home to people."
Possibly due to this displacement, bounce music has started to penetrate beyond the New Orleans boundaries in the last several years. Mainstream hip-hop artists have sampled the music, bounce performers are touring the country and several media outlets have written features about the music and culture.
Bounce music is constantly evolving with each new performer, but it is characterized by a call and response style and is constructed over two beats that can be transformed indefinitely to create a high energy, party flavor. Prominent bounce performers, many of them gay, queer or transgender, are working tirelessly to bring bounce music to the mainstream.
Big Freedia is one of these prominent bounce performers and she works six nights a week at two to three clubs a night, while still maintaining her day job as an interior decorator; she counts the New Orleans mayor's office as a client.
Big Freedia grew up listening to bounce music. A native of New Orleans, she grew up on Josephine Street, singing gospel music and, in 1999, she said she became obsessed with bounce music after friend Katy Red blew up the scene with her performances. Big Freedia started out performing background vocals for Katy Red and then ventured out on her own.
She now hopes to see bounce music gain the visibility that she believes it deserves. "I would like to see it be totally mainstream. I'd like to see me on the red carpet ... I think it is really close. We are getting a lot of attention, a lot of calls."
Although the music and culture of bounce music is often classified by its regional affiliation and the performance aspect is deeply tied to the experience, on tour in New York City it became apparent that bounce music is easily gaining acceptance and fans across the country. Prior to the show, fans took to the Internet and learned Big Freedia's songs and the dance moves. "The similarity is, most of them make me feel like I am right at home."
Big Freedia acknowledged that getting the performance to come across on a recording can be a challenge: "It comes with a feeling and when that feeling comes, I try to go catch the feeling and go record at that time. My voice is very different and unique. When I am on the mic, no matter if it is at the studio or at the club, you think I'm on the mic live. You don't know if I am there or not. People tell me that all the time. You can be at the club and one of my songs coming on and I'm not even at the club, you actually think I'm at the club."
As bounce music emerges Big Freedia has seen reporters try and classify what they are seeing, referring to bounce performed by gay, queer or transgender performers as Sissy Bounce, calling it a subcategory of bounce music, but Freedia said, "The whole thing of that is at the end of the day its all bounce music. There is no separation between sissy bounce and bounce music. Sissy bounce is just a title, for three individuals actually, in the bounce game. It's just a title that they call our music sissy bounce because of our personal preference, but its not sissy bounce. It's just bounce music at the end of the day. There is no such thing as sissy bounce."
While hip-hop and rap music are well-known for being less than friendly to the LGBT community and performers, gay, queer and trans bounce artists seem to overcome this challenge and have gained acceptance in the clubs and wider bounce scene.
"It's predominantly women, period. A ton of men love it, but the fan base is 80 percent women. Gay guys and girls love it."
Freedia encourages people to give bounce music a chance and be open to the experience. "Probably by the second song you are getting more into it, definitely by the third one we're captivating you," Freedia said. "You're, like, excited. You might be a little bit afraid of it, but by the end of the show we're going to change your mind about it."
The Decibelle Music and Culture festival is the first performance for Big Freedia in Chicago and she said the show will be a very different, mind-blowing experience: "Try the experience of it. ... Don't judge it from a distance. Come and check it out and you may even enjoy it. You may like it. You may love it. But, I just grant you this, I will do my best to make sure everybody, once they leave, had themselves a good time."
The performance is scheduled for 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 16, at Subterranean, 2011 W. North. Tickets are $10.
There will be a Nola Sissy Bounce Dance Workshop Saturday, Oct. 16, 5-6 p.m. at The Black Noise Production Space, 500 W. Cermak, Suite 405, in collaboration with The Savoire-Faire LGBTQ Festival 2010. The suggested donation is $5-20.
For more on the Decibelle Music and Culture Festival, which takes place Oct. 14-16, see www.decibelle.org .
