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The History of Tastyfresh

Tastyfresh.com was started at the end of 1996 by US DJ Jamey Wright (Formant, DJ Seven, Faith Massive, Bandpass Feeling) and UK DJ Andy Payne. The idea was to create a news and information site to help Christians who were involved in or simply fans of the then growing Christian rave scene become informed about the music and the culture. It really made those of us who were around back then realize that we are a global community and could work together as long as God was our center.

Over the next several years, the site continued to grow. A list of radio stations, a CD and Vinyl database was created, music shopping guides were written, and eventually message boards were added. Once the message boards were added, a vibrant community emerged.

Unfortunately, at about the same time the message boards were added, the Christian dance industry took a nose dive. Like all new markets, the initial popularity is insane, but at some point the market becomes over saturated and to a certain degree, stagnates. In this market, we basically had one label releasing all of the music. While the bands signed to that label were diverse in nature, that same label released almost one album a month. The market bottomed out between 1998 and 2000. When it did, the stored would not stock the music accept in rare cases and the money to release music dried up.

This of course is an oversimplification of the whole issue, but in the end, Christian dance music seemed almost dead. It was around 2000 when Tastyfresh abandoned its news collecting and music database roll that it had held since 1996. All that was left were the then new message board and an occasional monthly webcast DJ Mix. After the RIAA pressured Congress and the FCC to start requiring that Internet broadcasters pay higher performance fees on a per listener basis than a traditional radio station would pay, Tastyfresh shut down its broadcasts as well to avoid trouble.

In 2000, really earlier, a new crop of Christian dance artists were being raised up. These people posted hundreds of songs on www.mp3.com and similar sites. These people found their way to the Tastyfresh boards via N*Soul Records website. Tastyfresh from 2000 until early 2004 became the main online community about Christian dance music. In fact, it not only was a community, but it was the place to find the latest songs by the artists, it was the place to voice your opinions about record labels and their inner workings and it was the place to debate culture, politics, one's faith and just about anything.

In March 2004, Tastyfresh.com re-launched as a news and information site with an online community of over 900 people. Christian dance music has seemingly come out of its first dark age. Since 2004, we have published almost 200 reviews and 220 articles and almost 9,000 people visit the site each month.

In 2007, Tastyfresh.com took its next steps of growth. The first step was Tastyfresh Presents… (Originally BTU Live Presents… Tastyfresh) a monthly podcast featuring mixes by Christian DJs and producers from around the world. In the first year alone, the podcast featured mixes from Joel Armstrong, 3kStatic, Kenneth Thomas and many more. 2008 started off with sets from Noel Sanger, Kyle Geiger, Andy Hunter ° and Tim Richards.

The second step taking in 2007 was that of the Cornerstone Music Festival. Since the mid 90’s there has been an EDM stage at the internationally known Cornerstone Music Festival. Management for that stage has changed hands several times over the years, but in 2007, the mantle of ownership passed to Tastyfresh.com. The stage was rebranded as Afterhours and a focus was put on turning the rickety old barn into a high tech club for 4 nights of the festival.

Since 2007, we have taken the stage to new heights by featuring such internationally know DJs as Kenneth Thomas, Topher Jones, Greg “Stryke” Chin and many others. By the last night of the festival in 2008, there were well over 100 people screaming to get into the Afterhours and we estimate that up to 1,500 people passed through the club each night.

Our focus is not to simply minister to the "Saved" but rather to take Christian dance music to where ever it will be accepted. Tastyfresh is here to help people develop their talents, skills and knowledge in regards to this scene so that we can accomplish exactly what God wants us to within the dance scene and dance culture.

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