Bounce Music

"Because anything can be bounced, it’s something that says New Orleans..."

By Jiarra Jackson

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When Youth Radio’s Jiarra Jackson talks about her native New Orleans coming back to life, she loves to explain how bounce music is the ultimate pick-me-up for young people. In fact, in the months she spent away from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, listening to mixed tapes of bounce music made her feel at home again. In this essay, Jiarra explains the roots of bounce music.

Here in New Orleans, we like to bounce pretty much anything from Jazz, Opera, Classical Music, and we just put a slow song to a fast beat. Alright, I’m going to show you how to bounce a song. First you take a song like this by Vanessa Carlton, A Thousand Miles.

We know the song is a bit old, but once you bounce that song, it’s like the number one song in the club that everybody wants to dance to.

So then, you take a beat from one of the hottest DJ’s in New Orleans, such as DJ Blackie Mile.

Then you mix them together, so you have taken a slow song and put it with this fast beat and you have something that you can bop in the club.

A bounce dance, I would kind of like say is, picture yourself in a room by yourself and no one else is around. And you're moving your shoulders up and down. You want to beat your chest like you are coughing. And you know how you are doing this crazy dance? That is what you would do to bounce music.

Everyone from Atlanta who says this is their music, “It’s the same thing." I’m saying, “You’re wrong.” Because the beats are all from New Orleans artists. When people ask me why do we bounce songs in New Orleans, I say, “Why not?” Because anything can be bounced, it’s something that says New Orleans, and New Orleans people love to dance. And there are only so many songs that are out there. So we take songs that have already been published, and you bounce it and it becomes a new song.

The reason why I like A Thousand Miles is because when I first heard this song, it was very slow, I loved singing this song. And then when it was bounced, it was even better. Not only can I sing my favorite song, I can dance to my favorite song.