It has been at least four years now since the last true article was written for and posted on Tastyfresh. Four years. Wow. In way, when Jamey Wright (the founder of Tastyfresh) stripped the site of everything but the message boards, part of Tastyfresh died. The interesting thing is that a new part of it grew out of that demise through the message boards. The boards brought the one thing that the old site lacked, community. I have often wondered how many people visited the site daily hoping that they were not the only person interested in the Christian side of dance music. Despite the fact that Tastyfresh has been without articles, news, and a music database for four years, we've come a long way.

If this is starting to sound a little bittersweet, I think you're right. The main reason why these sections were removed was specifically because at the time Christian dance music looked like a thing of the past. To many it still is. The facts are simple though. By as early as 1998, and perhaps earlier in some parts of the world, the only way to purchase Christian dance music was by special ordering it through your local shop or via N*Soul, which for all practical purposes was the only label out there. By the end of 2000, I believe only there were only four Christian dance releases. This was compared to an average of 8-12 that N*Soul alone released in previous years. The public's demand or rather the industry's desire to cater to it dried up. The labels had the desire to pump out the music, but there was no one willing to stock it.

After 1998 the market drastically changed. It went into a nose dive for the next couple of years, but the foundation that was set in the early 90's was still firm. We owe a lot not just to the artists of the early days, but the label execs, the distributor (Diamante/Butterfly), the stores, and even the radio stations who took a chance on this music and laid that foundation for us. But, all things change and change is actually a good thing. It was time for us to change. We needed to be shaken and for whatever reason, we got that change with the market slump. You can also look at it like this; any new industry has a big boom and then collapses for a time of restructuring. We just had out collapse and the restructuring in almost over.

The year 2000 and beyond is not just the start of a new millennium, but it is a new beginning for many things. So far, the US economy fell and started to rebuild itself, the US was introduced terrorism and is still struggling with how to respond to it, the RIAA is having to learn about new technology, and for the first time music lovers are faced with the ease of violating copyright laws without a second thought or concern. None of this is truly new, the US economy has always fluctuated, sometimes quite wildly, the US has also dealt with terrorist before as well as tragedy and the RIAA and music lovers dealt with this same issue a few years ago with the cassette tape.

By now, you should be asking "All of that is nice, but what does it have to do with Tastyfresh?" At least I hope that you are. Well, with the lack of availability of new music through the Christian market by 2000 combined with the new technologies in both music creation/production and digital distribution, we continued on. We have not totally severed our ties with the old market, but we have decided that we do not need it as much. Tastyfresh continued on without its articles, database and news just fine as a message board. For the first time, lovers of Christian dance music were able to hang out with the band on a daily basis. Those bands in turn could teach a new generation of musicians how to write music on a budget. Those who were new to it quickly caught on and combined the shared knowledge with their internet savvy and found ways to get that music out to people. Some of the new generation actually found ways to make money and control their own product independently. Others found a new home with not a Christian label, but rather a secular one. Still others took matters into their own hands and started their own labels. Times changed. We've come a long way.