House music
Encyclopedia
House music is a genre of electronic dance music
that originated in Chicago
, Illinois, United States
in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay
communities; first in Chicago
circa 1984, then in other locations such as New York City
, New Jersey
, Toronto
, Montreal
, London
, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles
and Miami. It then reached Europe
, and since the early to mid-1990s, it has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.
Early house music was generally dance-based music characterised by repetitive 4/4 beats and rhythms centred around drum machine
s, off-beat hi-hat
cymbals and synthesized basslines. Whilst house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic, minimalistic, and less structured around the song rather than a repetitive rhythm. House music today, whilst keeping several of these core elements, notably the prominent kick drum on every beat, varies a lot in style and influence, ranging from the soulful and atmospheric deep house
, to the more minimalistic microhouse
. House music has also fused with several other genres creating fusion subgenres, such as Euro house
and tech house
.
House music, after enjoying significant underground and club-based success from the early 1980s onwards, emerged into the UK mainstream pop market in the mid to late 80s. Popularity quickly followed in Europe, from the late 80s to early 90s, and it became a global phenomenon from the mid 90s onwards. It proved to be a commercially successful genre and a more mainstream pop-based
variation grew increasingly popular. Artists and groups such as Madonna
, Janet Jackson
, Björk
, and C+C Music Factory
incorporated the genre in their work. After enjoying significant success in the early to mid-90s, house music's popularity started to decline by the latter part of the decade; nevertheless, the genre still remained popular and fused into other subgenres which were popular. In Europe, the genre remained highly popular into the 2000s, with groups and artists such as Daft Punk
and Justice
performing in the genre, and obtaining commercial success and critical acclaim. In the 2000s, a house subgenre known as electro house achieved popularity. Today, house music remains popular in both clubs and in the mainstream pop scene.
The common element of house is a prominent kick drum
on every beat (also known as a four-on-the-floor beat), usually generated by a drum machine
or sampler
. The kick drum sound is augmented by various kick fills and extended dropouts. The drum track is filled out with hi-hat
cymbal-patterns that nearly always include a hi-hat on quaver off-beats between each kick, and a snare drum
or clap sound on beats two and four of every bar. This pattern derives from so-called "four-on-the-floor" dance drumbeats of the 1960s and especially from the 1970s disco drummers. Producers commonly layer sampled drum sounds to achieve a more complex sound, and they tailor the mix for large club sound-systems, de-emphasizing lower mid-range
frequencies (where the fundamental frequencies
of the human voice and other instruments lie) in favor of bass and hi-hats.
Producers use many different sound-sources for bass sounds in house, from continuous, repeating electronically generated lines sequenced on a synthesizer, such as a Roland SH-101
or TB-303
, to studio recordings or samples of live electric bassists, or simply filtered-down samples from whole stereo recordings of classic funk tracks or any other songs. House bass-lines tend to favor notes that fall within a single-octave range, whereas disco bass-lines often alternated between octave-separated notes and would span greater ranges. Some early house productions used parts of bass lines from earlier disco tracks. For example, producer Mark "Hot Rod" Trollan copied bass-line sections from the 1983 Italo disco
song "Feels Good (Carrots & Beets)" (by Electra featuring Tara Butler) to form the basis of his 1986 production of "Your Love" by Jamie Principle
. Frankie Knuckles
used the same notes in his more famous 1987 version of "Your Love", which also featured Principle on vocals.
Electronically generated sounds and samples
of recordings from genres such as jazz
, blues
, disco
, funk
, soul
and synth pop are often added to the foundation of the drum beat and synth bass line. House songs may also include disco, soul, or gospel
vocals and additional percussion such as tambourine
. Many house mixes also include repeating, short, syncopated, staccato chord-loops that are usually composed of 5-7 chords in a 4-beat measure.
Disco
, which blended soul
, R&B
, funk
, was heavily adorned with celebratory messages about dancing, love, sexuality, and drugs all underpinned with repetitive arrangements and a steady bass drum beat. Some disco songs incorporated sounds produced with synthesizer
s and drum machine
s, and some compositions were entirely electronic; examples include Giorgio Moroder
's late 1970s productions such as Donna Summer
's hit single "I Feel Love
" from 1977, Yellow Magic Orchestra
's synth-disco-pop productions from their self-titled album (1978) and Solid State Survivor
(1979), several early 1980s disco-pop productions by the Hi-NRG
group Lime
, and Charanjit Singh
's Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982) which anticipated the sounds of acid house
music (though not a known influence on the genre).
Disco was an influence on House, which was also influenced by mixing and editing techniques earlier explored by disco DJs, producers, and audio engineers like Walter Gibbons
, Tom Moulton
, Jim Burgess
, Larry Levan
, Ron Hardy
, M & M
and others who produced longer, more repetitive and percussive arrangements of existing disco recordings. Early house producers like Frankie Knuckles
created similar compositions from scratch, using samplers
, synthesizers, sequencer
s, and drum machines.
The hypnotic electronic dance song "On and On", produced in 1984 by Chicago DJ Jesse Saunders
and co-written by Vince Lawrence
, had elements that became staples of the early house sound, such as the 303
bass synthesizer and minimal vocals. It is sometimes cited as the 'first house record', although other examples from the same time period, such as J.M. Silk's "Music is the Key" (1985) have also been cited.
called The Warehouse
which existed from 1977 to 1983. The Warehouse was patronized primarily by gay black and Latino men, who came to dance to disco music played by the club's resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles
, and then followed him to his new club, The Power Plant, in 1983. In the Channel 4
documentary Pump Up The Volume, Knuckles remarks that the first time he heard the term "house music" was upon seeing "we play house music" on a sign in the window of a bar on Chicago's South Side. One of the people in the car with him joked, "you know, that's the kind of music you play down at the Warehouse!", and then everybody laughed. South-Side Chicago DJ Leonard "Remix" Rroy, in self-published statements, claims he put such a sign in a tavern window because it was where he played music that one might find in one's home; in his case, it referred to his mother's soul & disco records, which he worked into his sets. Farley Jackmaster Funk was quoted as saying "In 1982, I was DJing at a club called The Playground and there was this kid named Leonard 'Remix' Roy who was a DJ at a rival club called The Rink. He came over to my club one night, and into the DJ booth and said to me, 'I've got the gimmick that's gonna take all the people out of your club and into mine - it's called House music.' Now, where he got that name from or what made him think of it I don't know, so the answer lies with him."
Chip E.
's 1985 recording "It's House" may also have helped to define this new form of electronic music. However, Chip E. himself lends credence to the Knuckles association, claiming the name came from methods of labelling records at the Importes Etc. record store, where he worked in the early 1980s: bins of music that DJ Knuckles played at the Warehouse nightclub were labelled in the store "As Heard At The Warehouse", which was shortened to simply "House". Patrons later asked for new music for the bins, which Chip E. implies was a demand the shop tried to meet by stocking newer local club hits.
Larry Heard
, a.k.a. "Mr. Fingers", claims that the term "house" reflected the fact that many early DJs created music in their own homes, using synthesizers and drum machines, including the Roland TR-808
, TR-909
, and the TB 303
Bassline synthesizer-sequencer. These synthesizers were used to create a house subgenre called acid house
.
Juan Atkins
, an originator of Detroit techno
music, claims the term "house" reflected the exclusive association of particular tracks with particular DJs; those tracks were their "house" records (much like a restaurant might have a "house" salad dressing).
records, newer Italo Disco
, hip hop
and electro funk tracks, as well as electronic pop music by Kraftwerk
, Telex
and Yellow Magic Orchestra
, and recent danceable R&B productions in the genre now known as boogie
. Some made and played their own edits of their favorite songs on reel-to-reel tape, and sometimes mixed in effects, drum machines, and other rhythmic electronic instrumentation.
Starting in 1984, some of these DJs, inspired by Jesse Saunders' success with "On and On", tried their hand at producing and releasing original compositions. These compositions used newly affordable electronic instruments to emulate not just Saunders' song, but the edited, enhanced styles of disco and other dance music they already favored. By 1985, although the exact origins of the term are debated, "house music" encompassed these locally produced recordings. Subgenres of house, including deep house and acid house, quickly emerged and gained traction.
Club play from pioneering DJs like Ron Hardy
and Lil Louis
, local dance music record shops such as Importes, etc, State Street Records, Loop Records and Gramaphone, and the popular Hot Mix 5
shows on radio station WBMX-FM helped popularize house music in Chicago and among visiting DJs & producers from Detroit. Trax Records and DJ International Records, local labels with wider distribution, helped popularize house music outside of Chicago. One 1986 house tune called "Move Your Body" by Marshall Jefferson
made house music known outside of Chicago and was called "the house music anthem" by many, and was featured in the 2004 video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" on the ingame radio station "SF-UR". By 1986, UK labels were releasing house music, and starting in 1987, house tracks by Chicago and Detroit DJs and producers, such as Steve Hurley, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Larry Heard
, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson
were appearing on and even topping the UK charts.
, would move house further into the gospel stream later titled "gospel house". House was also very sexual and had much mystic in it. It went so far as to have an "eroto-mystic delirium" (31). Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride" begins in a prayer but surprisingly is about a dominatrix who seduces a man to "ride" her through the rest of the song.
Detroit techno developed as the legendary disc jockey The Electrifying Mojo
conducted his own radio program at this time, influencing the fusion of eclectic sounds into the signature Detroit techno sound. This sound, heavily influenced by European electronica (Kraftwerk, Art of Noise), Japanese technopop (Yellow Magic Orchestra
), early B-boy Hip-Hop (Man Parrish
, Soul Sonic Force) and Italo Disco (Doctor's Cat, Ris, Klein M.B.O.), was further pioneered by Juan Atkins
, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson
, the "godfathers" of Detroit Techno.
Juan Atkins released "NO UFOs" on Metroplex Records, which was very well received in Chicago and is considered a classic. He followed with the 1986 release of the track "Technicolor".
Derrick May a.k.a. "MAYDAY" and Thomas Barnett released "Nude Photo" in 1987 on May's label "Transmat Records", which helped kickstart the Detroit techno music scene and was put in heavy rotation on Chicago's Hot Mix 5 Radio dj mix show and in many Chicago clubs. A year later, releasing what was to become one of techno and House music's classic anthems - the seminal track "Strings of Life" - Transmat Records went on to have many more successful releases such as 1988's "Wiggin". As well, Derrick May had successful releases on Kool Kat Records and many remixes for a host of underground and mainstream recording artist.
Kevin Saunderson's company KMS Records contributed many releases that were as much House Music as they were Techno, these tracks were well received in Chicago and played on Chicago radio and in clubs. Blake Baxter's 1986 recording, "When we Used to Play / Work your Body", 1987's "Bounce Your Body to the Box" and "Force Field", "The Sound / How to Play our Music" and "the Groove that Won't Stop" and a remix of "Grooving Without a Doubt". In 1988, as house music became more popular among general audiences, Kevin Saunderson's group Inner City with Paris Gray released the 1988 hits "Big Fun" and "Good Life", which eventually were picked up by Virgin Records. Each EP / 12 inch single sported remixes by Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Steve "Silk" Hurley of Chicago and Derrick "Mayday" May and Juan Atkins of Detroit. In 1989, KMS had another hit release of "Rock to the Beat" which was a theme in Chicago dance clubs.
In January 1987, US artist Steve 'Silk' Hurley's "Jack Your Body" reached number one in the UK, showing it was possible for house music to cross over. The same month also saw Raze
enter the top 20 with "Jack the Groove", and several further house hits reached the top ten that year. Stock Aitken Waterman
's productions for Mel and Kim
, including the number one hit "Respectable", added elements of house to their previous europop
sound, and session group Mirage
scored top ten hits with "Jack Mix II" and "Jack Mix IV", medleys of previous electro and europop hits rearranged in a house style. Key labels in the rise of house music in the UK included Jack Trax, which specialised in licensing US club hits for the British market (and released an influential series of compilation album
s), Rhythm King, which was set up as a hip hop
label but also issued house records, and Jive Records
' Club Records imprint.
House was boosted in the UK by the tour in March 1987 of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. (Heard) and Adonis as the DJ International Tour. Following the number one success of MARRS
' "Pump Up The Volume
" in October, the years 1987 to 1989 also saw UK acts like The Beatmasters, Krush
, Coldcut
, Yazz
, Bomb The Bass
, S-Express, and Italy's Black Box
opening the doors to a house music onslaught on the UK charts. Early British house music quickly set itself apart from the original Chicago house sound; many of the early hits were based on sample
montage, rap
was often used for vocals (far more than in the US), and humor was frequently an important element.
The second best-selling British single of 1988 was a house record, the Coldcut
-produced "The Only Way Is Up
" by Yazz
.
In Britain the growth of house can be divided around the "Summer of Love
" in 1988/9. House had a presence in Britain almost as early as it appeared in Chicago. House grew in northern England, the Midlands and the South East. Founded in 1982 by Factory Records
, The Haçienda in Manchester
became an extension of the "Northern Soul
" genre and was one of the early, key English dance music clubs.
Until 1986 the club was financially troubled; the crowds only started to grow when the resident DJs (Pickering, Park and Da Silva) started to play house. Many underground venues and DJ nights also took place across the UK, Kool Kat in Nottingham, where Graeme Park DJ'd before the Hacienda. The Power House along with The Hummingbird in Birmingham with local DJs The Constructive Trio.
One of the early anthemic tunes, "Promised Land" by Joe Smooth (another song featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
on the SF-UR in-game radio station), was covered and charted within a week by the Style Council
. Europeans embraced house, and began booking legendary American house DJs to play at the big clubs, such as Ministry of Sound
, whose resident, DJ Harvey
brought in Larry Levan
.
The house scene in cities such as Birmingham
, Sheffield
, Manchester
and London were also provided with many underground Pirate Radio
stations and DJs alike which helped bolster an already contagious, but otherwise ignored by the mainstream, music genre. The earliest and influential UK house and techno record labels such as Warp Records
and Network Records
(otherwise known as Kool Kat records) helped introduce American and later Italian dance music to Britain as well as promoting select UK dance music acts.
But house was also being developed on Ibiza
, although no house artists or labels were coming from this tiny island at the time. By the mid-1980s a distinct Balearic
mix of house was discernible. Several clubs like Amnesia with DJ Alfredo were playing a mix of rock, pop, disco and house. These clubs, fueled by their distinctive sound and Ecstasy, began to have an influence on the British scene. By late 1987, DJs like Paul Oakenfold
and Danny Rampling
were bringing the Ibiza sound to UK clubs like the Hacienda in Manchester, and in London clubs such as Shoom in Southwark, Heaven, Future and Spectrum.
In the U.S., the music was being developed to create a more sophisticated sound, moving beyond just drum loops and short samples. New York–based performers such as Mateo & Matos
and Blaze
had slickly produced disco house crossover tracks. In Chicago, Marshall Jefferson had formed the house group Ten City
Byron Burke
, Byron Stingily
& Herb Lawson(from "intensity"). In Detroit a proto-techno music sound began to emerge with the recordings of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson.
Atkins, a former member of Cybotron, released Model 500 "No UFOs" in 1985, which became a regional hit, followed by dozens of tracks on Transmat, Metroplex and Fragile. One of the most unusual was "Strings of Life" by Derrick May, a darker, more intellectual strain of house. "Techno-Scratch" was released by the Knights Of The Turntable in 1984 which had a similar techno sound to Cybotron. The manager of the Factory nightclub, Tony Wilson, also promoted acid house
culture on his weekly TV show. The Midlands also embraced the late 1980s house scene with illegal parties and more legal dance clubs such as The Hummingbird.
, Detroit, New York
, and New Jersey
. Paradise Garage
in New York City was still a top club, although they now had Todd Terry
, his cover of Class Action's Larry Levan mixed "Weekend" demonstrated the continuum from the underground disco to a new house sound with hip-hop influences evident in the quicker sampling and the more rugged bass-line. While hip-hop
had made it onto radio play-lists, the only other choices were Rock, Country & Western or R&B.
Other influences from New York came from the hip-hop, reggae, and Latin community, and many of the New York City super producers/DJs began surfacing for the first time (Erick Morillo
, Roger Sanchez
, Junior Vasquez
, Danny Tenaglia
, Jonathan Peters
, David Morales
) with unique sounds that would evolve into other genres (tribal house, progressive house, funky house). Producers such as Masters At Work
and Kerri Chandler
also started pioneering a richer Garage sound that was picked up on by 'outsiders' from the worlds of jazz, hip-hop and downbeat as much as it was by house aficionados.
In the late 1980s Nu Groove Records prolonged, if not launched the careers of Rheji Burrell
& Rhano Burrell, collectively known as Burrell (after a brief stay on Virgin America via Timmy Regisford
and Frank Mendez), along with basically every relevant DJ and Producer in the NY underground scene. The Burrell's are responsible for the "New York Underground" sound and are the undisputed champions of this style of house. Their 30+ releases on this label alone seems to support that fact. In today's market Nu Groove Record releases like the Burrells' enjoy a cult-like following and mint vinyl can fetch $100 U.S. or more in the open market.
Influential gospel
/R&B-influenced Aly-us released "Time Passes On" in 1993 (Strictly Rhythm
), then later, "Follow Me" which received radio airplay as well as being played in clubs. Another U.S. hit which received radio play was the single "Time for the Perculator" by Cajmere, which became the prototype of ghetto house
sub-genre. Cajmere started the Cajual and Relief labels (amongst others). By the early 1990s artists such as Cajmere himself (under that name as well as Green Velvet and as producer for Dajae
), DJ Sneak
, Glenn Underground and others did many recordings. The 1990s saw new Chicago house artists emerge such as DJ Funk
, who operates a Chicago house record label called Dance Mania
, which primarily distributes ghetto house. Ghetto house, along with acid house
, were house music styles that were started in Chicago.
clubs like Lakota, Cream
emerged across Britain, hosting house and dance scene events. The 'chilling out' concept developed in Britain with ambient house
albums such as The KLF
's Chill Out
and Analogue Bubblebath by Aphex Twin
.
At the same time, a new indie dance scene emerged. In New York, bands such as Deee-Lite
furthered house's international influence. Two distinctive tracks from this era were the Orb
's "Little Fluffy Clouds
" (with a distinctive vocal sample from Rickie Lee Jones
) and the Happy Mondays
' "Wrote for Luck" ("WFL") which was transformed into a dance hit by Vince Clarke
.
In England, one of the few licensed venues The Eclipse attracted people from up and down the country as it was open until the early hours.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
was a government attempt to ban large rave dance events featuring music with "repetitive beats". There were a number of abortive "Kill the Bill" demonstrations. The Spiral Tribe
at Castle Morten was probably the nail in the coffin for illegal raves, and forced through the bill, which became law, in November 1994.
The music continued to grow and change, as typified by Leftfield
with "Release the Pressure
", which introduced dub and reggae
into the house sound, although Leftfield had prior releases, such as "Not forgotten" released in 1990 on Sheffield's Outer Rhythm records.
A new generation of clubs like, Liverpool
's Cream
and the Ministry of Sound
were opened to provide a venue for more commercial sounds. Major record companies began to open "superclub
s" promoting their own acts. These superclubs entered into sponsorship deals initially with fast food, soft drinks, and clothing companies. Flyers in clubs in Ibiza
often sported many corporate logos. A new sub-genre, Chicago Hard House, was developed by DJs such as Bad Boy Bill
, DJ Lynnwood
, DJ Irene
, Richard "Humpty" Vission and DJ Enrie, mixing elements of Chicago House, Funky House and Hard House together.
Additionally, Producers such as George Centeno, Darren Ramirez, and Martin O. Cairo would develop the Los Angeles Hard House sound. Similar to gabber
or hardcore techno
from the Netherlands, this sound was often associated with the "rebel" culture of the time. These 3 producers are often considered "ahead of their time" since many of the sounds they engineered during the late 20th century became more prominent during the 21st century.
Towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, producers like Daft Punk
, Cassius
, St. Germain and DJ Falcon
began producing a new sound out of Paris's house scene. Together, they laid the groundwork for what would be known as the French House
movement. By combining the harder-edged-yet-soulful philosophy of Chicago House with the melodies of obscure Funk, state-of-the-art production techniques (some of which were so far ahead of their time, they would not enter widespread mainstream usage for another decade) and the sound of analog synthesizers, they began to create the standards that would shape practically all House music that was created after it.
proclaimed August 10, 2005 to be "House Unity Day" in Chicago, in celebration of the "21st anniversary of house music" (actually the 21st anniversary of the founding of Trax Records
). The proclamation recognized Chicago as "the original home of house music" and that the music's original creators "were inspired by the love of their city, with the dream that someday their music would spread a message of peace and unity throughout the world". DJs such as Frankie Knuckles
, Marshall Jefferson
, Paul Johnson and Mickey Oliver celebrated the proclamation at the Summer Dance Series, an event organized by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs.
It was during this decade that vocal house became firmly established, both in the underground and as part of the pop market, and labels such as Defected Records
, Roule and Om were at the forefront of championing the emerging sound. In the mid-2000s, fusion genres such as electro house, fidget house and tech house
emerged. This fusion is apparent in the crossover of musical styles by artists such as Dennis Ferrer
and Booka Shade
, with the former's production style having evolved from the New York soulful house scene and the latter's roots in techno
. DJs today can be heard blending all sub-genres of house as many of the best musical elements are shared across these sub-genres.
Today, innovative house music is celebrated and showcased at the Burning Man
and British Columbia's Shambhala Music Festival and at major industry sponsored events like Miami's Winter Music Conference
.
As of the late 2000's, house influenced music retains widespread popularity in clubs throughout the world. House Music has also seen a comeback into the mainstream with producers like David Guetta
, Swedish House Mafia
, deadmau5
, Justice
, Daft Punk
, Fedde Le Grand
, and Benny Benassi
bringing lighter, more diluted, eurodance-infused house tracks back to the US Top 40 charts. With this steady, yet subtle, mainstream success throughout the years, House has gained momentum and concepts developed by House producers have infected the mainstream pop and hip-hop worlds and it is becoming more and more a part of American musical culture.
Australian electro-house music became popular in the mid-2000s, acts like The Aston Shuffle
, Bag Raiders
, The Presets
, PNAU
and Empire of the Sun
became well-known domestically and recently internationally.
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
that originated in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
communities; first in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
circa 1984, then in other locations such as New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Miami. It then reached Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and since the early to mid-1990s, it has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.
Early house music was generally dance-based music characterised by repetitive 4/4 beats and rhythms centred around drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s, off-beat hi-hat
Hi-hat
A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...
cymbals and synthesized basslines. Whilst house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic, minimalistic, and less structured around the song rather than a repetitive rhythm. House music today, whilst keeping several of these core elements, notably the prominent kick drum on every beat, varies a lot in style and influence, ranging from the soulful and atmospheric deep house
Deep house
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that fuses elements of Chicago house into the 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. In the early compositions , influences of jazz music were most frequently brought out by using more complex chords than simple triads which are held for many bars and...
, to the more minimalistic microhouse
Microhouse
Microhouse, buftech or sometimes just minimal, is a subgenre of house and glitch music.-History:Microhouse has its roots in the minimal techno, glitch , and house genres of music. Its first echoes appeared in a glitch album by German experimental artist Oval, in 1993...
. House music has also fused with several other genres creating fusion subgenres, such as Euro house
Eurodance
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...
and tech house
Tech house
Tech house is a subgenre of house music that mixes elements of minimal techno into simple, 4-to-4 beats found in soulful deep house. The genre came to prominence in the late-1990s atmosphere of American clubs as soul influenced Detroit-style techno that also borrowed elements from house before...
.
House music, after enjoying significant underground and club-based success from the early 1980s onwards, emerged into the UK mainstream pop market in the mid to late 80s. Popularity quickly followed in Europe, from the late 80s to early 90s, and it became a global phenomenon from the mid 90s onwards. It proved to be a commercially successful genre and a more mainstream pop-based
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
variation grew increasingly popular. Artists and groups such as Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
, Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
, and C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory is a dance-pop and hip hop group formed in 1989 by David Cole and Robert Clivillés which stopped recording 1996, following Cole's death...
incorporated the genre in their work. After enjoying significant success in the early to mid-90s, house music's popularity started to decline by the latter part of the decade; nevertheless, the genre still remained popular and fused into other subgenres which were popular. In Europe, the genre remained highly popular into the 2000s, with groups and artists such as Daft Punk
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
and Justice
Justice (band)
Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay . The duo is one of the most successful groups on Ed Banger Records and is managed by the label's head, Pedro Winter...
performing in the genre, and obtaining commercial success and critical acclaim. In the 2000s, a house subgenre known as electro house achieved popularity. Today, house music remains popular in both clubs and in the mainstream pop scene.
Musical elements
House is uptempo music for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo, generally ranging between 118 and 135 bpm. Tempos tended to be slower in the early years of house.The common element of house is a prominent kick drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
on every beat (also known as a four-on-the-floor beat), usually generated by a drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
or sampler
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
. The kick drum sound is augmented by various kick fills and extended dropouts. The drum track is filled out with hi-hat
Hi-hat
A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...
cymbal-patterns that nearly always include a hi-hat on quaver off-beats between each kick, and a snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
or clap sound on beats two and four of every bar. This pattern derives from so-called "four-on-the-floor" dance drumbeats of the 1960s and especially from the 1970s disco drummers. Producers commonly layer sampled drum sounds to achieve a more complex sound, and they tailor the mix for large club sound-systems, de-emphasizing lower mid-range
Mid-range speaker
A loudspeaker driver that produces the frequency range from approximately 300–5000 hertz is known as a mid-range.Midrange drivers are usually cone types or, less commonly, dome types, or compression horn drivers...
frequencies (where the fundamental frequencies
Fundamental frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the...
of the human voice and other instruments lie) in favor of bass and hi-hats.
Producers use many different sound-sources for bass sounds in house, from continuous, repeating electronically generated lines sequenced on a synthesizer, such as a Roland SH-101
Roland SH-101
Roland SH-101 is a synthesizer from the early 1980s, manufactured by Roland. It is a small, 32 key, monophonic analog synthesizer. It features one oscillator with 3 simultaneous waveforms, an 'octave-divided' square sub-oscillator, triangle and square/pwm waveform. It has a low-pass filter/VCF...
or TB-303
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from late 1981 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.-History:...
, to studio recordings or samples of live electric bassists, or simply filtered-down samples from whole stereo recordings of classic funk tracks or any other songs. House bass-lines tend to favor notes that fall within a single-octave range, whereas disco bass-lines often alternated between octave-separated notes and would span greater ranges. Some early house productions used parts of bass lines from earlier disco tracks. For example, producer Mark "Hot Rod" Trollan copied bass-line sections from the 1983 Italo disco
Italo disco
Italo disco encompasses much of the dance music output in Europe during the 1980s. It is one of the world's first forms of mostly electronic dance music and evolved during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe...
song "Feels Good (Carrots & Beets)" (by Electra featuring Tara Butler) to form the basis of his 1986 production of "Your Love" by Jamie Principle
Jamie Principle
Jamie Principle is a house music artist and producer born in Chicago, Illinois.He is one of the early pioneers of house music when the genre first began in Chicago during the early 1980s...
. Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
used the same notes in his more famous 1987 version of "Your Love", which also featured Principle on vocals.
Electronically generated sounds and samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
of recordings from genres such as jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and synth pop are often added to the foundation of the drum beat and synth bass line. House songs may also include disco, soul, or gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
vocals and additional percussion such as tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
. Many house mixes also include repeating, short, syncopated, staccato chord-loops that are usually composed of 5-7 chords in a 4-beat measure.
Influences
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, which blended soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, was heavily adorned with celebratory messages about dancing, love, sexuality, and drugs all underpinned with repetitive arrangements and a steady bass drum beat. Some disco songs incorporated sounds produced with synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s and drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s, and some compositions were entirely electronic; examples include Giorgio Moroder
Giorgio Moroder
Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records...
's late 1970s productions such as Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
's hit single "I Feel Love
I Feel Love
"I Feel Love" is a song by Donna Summer, taken from her 1977 concept album I Remember Yesterday.The song constituted the "future" segment of the album, which represented a stylistic progress through time...
" from 1977, Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
's synth-disco-pop productions from their self-titled album (1978) and Solid State Survivor
Solid State Survivor
Solid State Survivor was the second album by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1979. Solid State Survivor was never released in the United States, but many of the songs from this album were compiled for release in the States as the US pressing of ×∞Multiplies ,...
(1979), several early 1980s disco-pop productions by the Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...
group Lime
Lime (band)
Lime was a synth-pop group from Montréal, Canada, during the 1980s. The group was composed of husband and wife Denis and Denyse LePage, although two younger and more attractive singers, Joy Dorris and Chris Marsh, were chosen to tour and appear as the act. They are most noted for their songs "Angel...
, and Charanjit Singh
Charanjit Singh (musician)
Charanjit Singh is a musician from Mumbai, India, who performed in numerous Bollywood soundtrack orchestras in the 1960s and 1970s. He led a wedding band and recorded and released a number of albums covering popular film songs...
's Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982) which anticipated the sounds of acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
music (though not a known influence on the genre).
Disco was an influence on House, which was also influenced by mixing and editing techniques earlier explored by disco DJs, producers, and audio engineers like Walter Gibbons
Walter Gibbons
Walter Gibbons was an American record producer, early disco DJ and remixer.-Influence:He was an important part of the early 1970s New York disco underground scene, influencing garage and House music DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan. He also laid the foundations for early 1980s...
, Tom Moulton
Tom Moulton
Tom Moulton is an American record producer, and originator of the remix, the breakdown section, and the 12-inch single vinyl format.-Life and career:Thomas Jerome Moulton was born in Schenectady, New York, United States....
, Jim Burgess
Jim Burgess (producer)
James Michael "Jim" Burgess was a disco record producer and New York DJ of the 1970s, and was variously referred to as "one of the hottest DJ's and Remixers of the Disco era"...
, Larry Levan
Larry Levan
Larry Levan was a DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass"...
, Ron Hardy
Ron Hardy
Ron Hardy was an instrumental DJ in the development of house music. An innovator and originator of the genre, he is highly regarded not only for his iconic performances at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club, but for his pioneering edits and mixes of disco, soul music, funk and early house...
, M & M
Morales and Munzibai
Morales and Munzibai were a professional remix and dance record editing duo composed of John Morales and Sergio Munzibai.The duo, both as individuals and as a team, produced a vast number of dance-oriented releases, distinguishing themselves by including Latin percussion in many of their efforts,...
and others who produced longer, more repetitive and percussive arrangements of existing disco recordings. Early house producers like Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
created similar compositions from scratch, using samplers
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, synthesizers, sequencer
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
s, and drum machines.
The hypnotic electronic dance song "On and On", produced in 1984 by Chicago DJ Jesse Saunders
Jesse Saunders
Jesse Saunders is a DJ, music and film producer, remix artist, promoter and entrepreneur. He is one of the pioneers of House music, often cited as "the originator of House music". His 1984 single, "On & On", co-written with Vince Lawrence, was first record with a house DJ as the artist that was...
and co-written by Vince Lawrence
Vince Lawrence
Vince Lawrence is a dance music producer, businessman and is one of the leading innovators of the genre of music called "House Music"....
, had elements that became staples of the early house sound, such as the 303
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from late 1981 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.-History:...
bass synthesizer and minimal vocals. It is sometimes cited as the 'first house record', although other examples from the same time period, such as J.M. Silk's "Music is the Key" (1985) have also been cited.
Origins of the term
The term "house music" may have its origin from a Chicago nightclubNightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
called The Warehouse
Warehouse (nightclub)
The Warehouse was a nightclub that was established in Chicago, Illinois in 1977 under the direction of Robert Williams. It is today most famous for being what many consider to be the birthplace and heart of "house music" under its first musical director, DJ Frankie Knuckles...
which existed from 1977 to 1983. The Warehouse was patronized primarily by gay black and Latino men, who came to dance to disco music played by the club's resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
, and then followed him to his new club, The Power Plant, in 1983. In the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary Pump Up The Volume, Knuckles remarks that the first time he heard the term "house music" was upon seeing "we play house music" on a sign in the window of a bar on Chicago's South Side. One of the people in the car with him joked, "you know, that's the kind of music you play down at the Warehouse!", and then everybody laughed. South-Side Chicago DJ Leonard "Remix" Rroy, in self-published statements, claims he put such a sign in a tavern window because it was where he played music that one might find in one's home; in his case, it referred to his mother's soul & disco records, which he worked into his sets. Farley Jackmaster Funk was quoted as saying "In 1982, I was DJing at a club called The Playground and there was this kid named Leonard 'Remix' Roy who was a DJ at a rival club called The Rink. He came over to my club one night, and into the DJ booth and said to me, 'I've got the gimmick that's gonna take all the people out of your club and into mine - it's called House music.' Now, where he got that name from or what made him think of it I don't know, so the answer lies with him."
Chip E.
Chip E.
Irwin Larry Eberhart II known as Chip E., is an American DJ and record producer.-Life and career:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Chip E. attended St. Ignatius College Prep, Kenwood Academy, Columbia College and DePaul University. He started spinning records in 1982 and by 1984 he was producing records....
's 1985 recording "It's House" may also have helped to define this new form of electronic music. However, Chip E. himself lends credence to the Knuckles association, claiming the name came from methods of labelling records at the Importes Etc. record store, where he worked in the early 1980s: bins of music that DJ Knuckles played at the Warehouse nightclub were labelled in the store "As Heard At The Warehouse", which was shortened to simply "House". Patrons later asked for new music for the bins, which Chip E. implies was a demand the shop tried to meet by stocking newer local club hits.
Larry Heard
Larry Heard
Larry Heard is a Memphis, Tennessee-based musician widely known for the Chicago-based house music he produced during the mid-1980s and continues to produce today. He was leader of the influential group Fingers Inc. and has recorded solo under various names, most notably Mr...
, a.k.a. "Mr. Fingers", claims that the term "house" reflected the fact that many early DJs created music in their own homes, using synthesizers and drum machines, including the Roland TR-808
Roland TR-808
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines . Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real...
, TR-909
Roland TR-909
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based drum machine built by the Japanese Roland Corporation in 1983. The brainchild of Tadao Kikumoto, the engineer behind the Roland TB-303, it features a 16-step step sequencer and a drum kit that aimed for realism and...
, and the TB 303
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line is a bass synthesizer with built-in sequencer manufactured by the Roland corporation from late 1981 to 1984 that had a defining role in the development of contemporary electronic music.-History:...
Bassline synthesizer-sequencer. These synthesizers were used to create a house subgenre called acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
.
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
, an originator of Detroit techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
music, claims the term "house" reflected the exclusive association of particular tracks with particular DJs; those tracks were their "house" records (much like a restaurant might have a "house" salad dressing).
Chicago years: early 1980s – late 1980s
In the early 1980s, Chicago club & radio DJs were playing various styles of dance music, including older discoDisco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
records, newer Italo Disco
Italo disco
Italo disco encompasses much of the dance music output in Europe during the 1980s. It is one of the world's first forms of mostly electronic dance music and evolved during the late 1970s and early 1980s in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe...
, hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
and electro funk tracks, as well as electronic pop music by Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, Telex
Telex
Telex may refer to:* Telex , , a communications network** Teleprinter, the device used on the above network* Telex , a Belgian pop group...
and Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
, and recent danceable R&B productions in the genre now known as boogie
Boogie (genre)
Boogie is an electronic/funk-influenced variation of post-disco.Boogie, as one of the post-disco subgenres, lacks the four-on-the-floor beat, which is a "traditional" rhythm of disco music. Aside from the moderate influence of synthpop, boogie heavily draws from funk music...
. Some made and played their own edits of their favorite songs on reel-to-reel tape, and sometimes mixed in effects, drum machines, and other rhythmic electronic instrumentation.
Starting in 1984, some of these DJs, inspired by Jesse Saunders' success with "On and On", tried their hand at producing and releasing original compositions. These compositions used newly affordable electronic instruments to emulate not just Saunders' song, but the edited, enhanced styles of disco and other dance music they already favored. By 1985, although the exact origins of the term are debated, "house music" encompassed these locally produced recordings. Subgenres of house, including deep house and acid house, quickly emerged and gained traction.
Club play from pioneering DJs like Ron Hardy
Ron Hardy
Ron Hardy was an instrumental DJ in the development of house music. An innovator and originator of the genre, he is highly regarded not only for his iconic performances at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club, but for his pioneering edits and mixes of disco, soul music, funk and early house...
and Lil Louis
Lil Louis
Lil Louis is the stage name used by Chicago-born house-music producer and DJ Louis Sims. He scored a number of hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, three of which hit #1....
, local dance music record shops such as Importes, etc, State Street Records, Loop Records and Gramaphone, and the popular Hot Mix 5
Hot Mix 5
The Hot Mix 5 were an American DJ crew originating from Chicago, Illinois and formed in 1981. The founding members were Farley "Funkin" Keith , Mickey "Mixin" Oliver, Scott "Smokin" Silz, Ralphi Rosario and Kenny "Jammin" Jason...
shows on radio station WBMX-FM helped popularize house music in Chicago and among visiting DJs & producers from Detroit. Trax Records and DJ International Records, local labels with wider distribution, helped popularize house music outside of Chicago. One 1986 house tune called "Move Your Body" by Marshall Jefferson
Marshall Jefferson
Marshall Jefferson is an American musician, working in house music, in particular, the subgenres of Chicago house and deep house.-Biography:...
made house music known outside of Chicago and was called "the house music anthem" by many, and was featured in the 2004 video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" on the ingame radio station "SF-UR". By 1986, UK labels were releasing house music, and starting in 1987, house tracks by Chicago and Detroit DJs and producers, such as Steve Hurley, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Larry Heard
Larry Heard
Larry Heard is a Memphis, Tennessee-based musician widely known for the Chicago-based house music he produced during the mid-1980s and continues to produce today. He was leader of the influential group Fingers Inc. and has recorded solo under various names, most notably Mr...
, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...
were appearing on and even topping the UK charts.
Lyrical themes
House also had an influence of relaying political messages to people who were considered to be outcasts of society. It appealed to those who didn't fit into mainstream American society and was especially celebrated by many black males. Frankie Knuckles made a good comparison of house saying it was like "church for people who have fallen from grace" and Marshall Jefferson compared it to "old-time religion in the way that people just get happy and screamin'" (30). Deep house was similar to many of the messages of freedom for the black community. Both house CDs by Joe Smooth, "Promised Land" and Db "I Have a Dream" give similar messages of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech."Someday" by CeCe RogersCeCe Rogers
CeCe Rogers, born Kenneth Jesse Rogers III, is an American singer, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer from Cleveland, Ohio....
, would move house further into the gospel stream later titled "gospel house". House was also very sexual and had much mystic in it. It went so far as to have an "eroto-mystic delirium" (31). Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride" begins in a prayer but surprisingly is about a dominatrix who seduces a man to "ride" her through the rest of the song.
The Detroit sound: early 1980s – late 1980s
Detroit techno developed in the mid 1980s. Although Detroit techno is a distinct musical form in its own right, its pioneers were also instrumental in forwarding house music internationally. The two forms of music developed together from 1985 to 1990 and often continue to coincide as genres.Detroit techno developed as the legendary disc jockey The Electrifying Mojo
The Electrifying Mojo
The Electrifying Mojo is an American radio personality. He was a disc jockey based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan and Canada and was of importance to the development of...
conducted his own radio program at this time, influencing the fusion of eclectic sounds into the signature Detroit techno sound. This sound, heavily influenced by European electronica (Kraftwerk, Art of Noise), Japanese technopop (Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
), early B-boy Hip-Hop (Man Parrish
Man Parrish
Man Parrish is an American composer, songwriter, vocalist and producer. He, along with artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, John Robie, Jellybean Benitez and Aldo Marin helped create and define electro in the early 1980s...
, Soul Sonic Force) and Italo Disco (Doctor's Cat, Ris, Klein M.B.O.), was further pioneered by Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...
, the "godfathers" of Detroit Techno.
Juan Atkins released "NO UFOs" on Metroplex Records, which was very well received in Chicago and is considered a classic. He followed with the 1986 release of the track "Technicolor".
Derrick May a.k.a. "MAYDAY" and Thomas Barnett released "Nude Photo" in 1987 on May's label "Transmat Records", which helped kickstart the Detroit techno music scene and was put in heavy rotation on Chicago's Hot Mix 5 Radio dj mix show and in many Chicago clubs. A year later, releasing what was to become one of techno and House music's classic anthems - the seminal track "Strings of Life" - Transmat Records went on to have many more successful releases such as 1988's "Wiggin". As well, Derrick May had successful releases on Kool Kat Records and many remixes for a host of underground and mainstream recording artist.
Kevin Saunderson's company KMS Records contributed many releases that were as much House Music as they were Techno, these tracks were well received in Chicago and played on Chicago radio and in clubs. Blake Baxter's 1986 recording, "When we Used to Play / Work your Body", 1987's "Bounce Your Body to the Box" and "Force Field", "The Sound / How to Play our Music" and "the Groove that Won't Stop" and a remix of "Grooving Without a Doubt". In 1988, as house music became more popular among general audiences, Kevin Saunderson's group Inner City with Paris Gray released the 1988 hits "Big Fun" and "Good Life", which eventually were picked up by Virgin Records. Each EP / 12 inch single sported remixes by Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Steve "Silk" Hurley of Chicago and Derrick "Mayday" May and Juan Atkins of Detroit. In 1989, KMS had another hit release of "Rock to the Beat" which was a theme in Chicago dance clubs.
UK: mid 1980s – early 1990s
With House music already massive on the 80s dance scene it was only a matter of time before it would penetrate the UK pop charts. The record generally credited as the first house hit in the UK was Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Love Can't Turn Around" which reached #10 in the UK singles chart in September 1986.In January 1987, US artist Steve 'Silk' Hurley's "Jack Your Body" reached number one in the UK, showing it was possible for house music to cross over. The same month also saw Raze
Raze (house music group)
Raze was an American electronic dance music group, assembled by the multi-instrumentalist and producer, Vaughan Mason. Mason had previously released the hit single, "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll", for Brunswick Records in 1979. Raze also contained the vocalist, Keith Thompson...
enter the top 20 with "Jack the Groove", and several further house hits reached the top ten that year. Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman, sometimes known as SAW, were a UK songwriting and record producing trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. They had great success during the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s...
's productions for Mel and Kim
Mel and Kim
Mel and Kim were a British pop duo, comprising sisters Melanie and Kim Appleby. They achieved success between 1986 and 1988 before Melanie succumbed to cancer.-Biography:...
, including the number one hit "Respectable", added elements of house to their previous europop
Europop
Europop refers to a style of pop music that first developed in today's form in Europe, throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and ’90s...
sound, and session group Mirage
Mirage (medley group)
Mirage were a British pop music group active in the 1980s and specializing in medleys. They achieved particular success in 1987-8 with their "Jack Mix" series of singles and LPs.-History:...
scored top ten hits with "Jack Mix II" and "Jack Mix IV", medleys of previous electro and europop hits rearranged in a house style. Key labels in the rise of house music in the UK included Jack Trax, which specialised in licensing US club hits for the British market (and released an influential series of compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s), Rhythm King, which was set up as a hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
label but also issued house records, and Jive Records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
' Club Records imprint.
House was boosted in the UK by the tour in March 1987 of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. (Heard) and Adonis as the DJ International Tour. Following the number one success of MARRS
MARRS
MARRS was a 1987 one-off recording act formed by the groups A.R. Kane and Colourbox which only released one commercial disc...
' "Pump Up The Volume
Pump up the Volume (song)
"Pump Up the Volume" is a song and the only single by British recording act MARRS. It was a number-one hit in many countries and is generally regarded as a significant milestone in the development of British house music and music sampling....
" in October, the years 1987 to 1989 also saw UK acts like The Beatmasters, Krush
Krush
Krush were a UK dance music group, who had a crossover hit single with "House Arrest" in 1987.-Career:The group consisted of musicians Mark Gamble, Cassius Campbell and record producers Mark Brydon and Robert Gordon. Their second single "Walking On Sunshine" was a club hit in 1992, and peaked at...
, Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
, Yazz
Yazz
Yazz is a British pop singer, who remains best known for her successful 1988 dance track, "The Only Way Is Up". Some of her records were credited to Yazz & The Plastic Population...
, Bomb The Bass
Bomb the Bass
Bomb the Bass is the umbrella title for the output of British musician and producer, Tim Simenon. The band, which has evolved its style over the years, has been classed as electronic or dance....
, S-Express, and Italy's Black Box
Black Box (band)
Black Box was an Italian house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The members of the group included a trio made up of a club DJ , a classically trained clarinet teacher , and a keyboard and electronic music "wiz"...
opening the doors to a house music onslaught on the UK charts. Early British house music quickly set itself apart from the original Chicago house sound; many of the early hits were based on sample
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
montage, rap
Rap
Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...
was often used for vocals (far more than in the US), and humor was frequently an important element.
The second best-selling British single of 1988 was a house record, the Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
-produced "The Only Way Is Up
The Only Way Is Up
"The Only Way Is Up" is a song written by George Jackson and Johnny Henderson and originally released 1980 as single by soul singer Otis Clay. In 1988, it became a chart-topping single for Yazz and the Plastic Population.-Yazz version:...
" by Yazz
Yazz
Yazz is a British pop singer, who remains best known for her successful 1988 dance track, "The Only Way Is Up". Some of her records were credited to Yazz & The Plastic Population...
.
In Britain the growth of house can be divided around the "Summer of Love
Second Summer of Love
The Second Summer of Love is a name given to the period in 1988-89 in Britain, during the rise of acid house music and the euphoric explosion of unlicensed MDMA -fuelled rave parties...
" in 1988/9. House had a presence in Britain almost as early as it appeared in Chicago. House grew in northern England, the Midlands and the South East. Founded in 1982 by Factory Records
Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside and James and...
, The Haçienda in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
became an extension of the "Northern Soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
" genre and was one of the early, key English dance music clubs.
Until 1986 the club was financially troubled; the crowds only started to grow when the resident DJs (Pickering, Park and Da Silva) started to play house. Many underground venues and DJ nights also took place across the UK, Kool Kat in Nottingham, where Graeme Park DJ'd before the Hacienda. The Power House along with The Hummingbird in Birmingham with local DJs The Constructive Trio.
One of the early anthemic tunes, "Promised Land" by Joe Smooth (another song featured in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
on the SF-UR in-game radio station), was covered and charted within a week by the Style Council
The Style Council
The Style Council were an English band, formed in 1983 by the ex-The Jam singer and guitarist Paul Weller, with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. Other artists such as Tracie Young and Tracey Thorn also...
. Europeans embraced house, and began booking legendary American house DJs to play at the big clubs, such as Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
, whose resident, DJ Harvey
DJ Harvey
Dj Harvey, , is a DJ from Cambridge, England. He has achieved a following the world over including places such as Singapore and Japan...
brought in Larry Levan
Larry Levan
Larry Levan was a DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass"...
.
The house scene in cities such as Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and London were also provided with many underground Pirate Radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
stations and DJs alike which helped bolster an already contagious, but otherwise ignored by the mainstream, music genre. The earliest and influential UK house and techno record labels such as Warp Records
Warp Records
Warp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is a pioneering independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, notable for discovering some of the more enduring artists in electronic music....
and Network Records
Network Records
Network Records was a rave music independent record label, based in Birmingham, England, during the late 1980s and mid 1990s.The label concentrated on bringing Garage music to Britain & taking UK House music to a new level as well as playing a massive role in the development of Early Hardcore and...
(otherwise known as Kool Kat records) helped introduce American and later Italian dance music to Britain as well as promoting select UK dance music acts.
But house was also being developed on Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
, although no house artists or labels were coming from this tiny island at the time. By the mid-1980s a distinct Balearic
Balearic Beat
Balearic Beat or either Balearic House and Balearic Trance is an eclectic blend of DJed dance music that originally emerged in the mid-1980s. It later became the name of a more specific style of electronic dance music that was popular into the mid-1990s...
mix of house was discernible. Several clubs like Amnesia with DJ Alfredo were playing a mix of rock, pop, disco and house. These clubs, fueled by their distinctive sound and Ecstasy, began to have an influence on the British scene. By late 1987, DJs like Paul Oakenfold
Paul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...
and Danny Rampling
Danny Rampling
Danny Rampling is a British House Music DJ and is widely credited as one of the original founders of the UK's rave/club scene. His long career began in the early 1980s playing hip-hop, soul and funk around numerous bars and clubs in London.-Ibiza:...
were bringing the Ibiza sound to UK clubs like the Hacienda in Manchester, and in London clubs such as Shoom in Southwark, Heaven, Future and Spectrum.
In the U.S., the music was being developed to create a more sophisticated sound, moving beyond just drum loops and short samples. New York–based performers such as Mateo & Matos
Mateo & Matos
Mateo & Matos is a team of two deejays and house music producers John "Roc" Mateo and Eddie "E-Z" Matos from New York City, United States.- History :...
and Blaze
Blaze (band)
Blaze is a house-music group formed in 1984 in New Jersey, USA.-Career:It was formed by Josh Milan, Kevin Hedge, and Chris Herbert, when Herbert introduced Milan, a member of his church choir, to Hedge, his childhood friend...
had slickly produced disco house crossover tracks. In Chicago, Marshall Jefferson had formed the house group Ten City
Ten City
Ten City was a Chicago, Illinois-based R&B and house-music act that enjoyed a number of club hits and Urban radio hits in the late Eighties and early Nineties and was one of the first exponents of deep house...
Byron Burke
Byron Burke
Byron E. Burke has worked in the music industry for over twenty years. He served as the Co-Executive Vice President of the music division for Prelude music & Film Works that released the 1998 motion picture Lost In Space for New Line Cinema, as well as co-writing and producing music for artists on...
, Byron Stingily
Byron Stingily
Byron Stingily is an African American R&B and house-music singer born in Chicago, Illinois, known for his falsetto voice. He is now a principal at a school in Chicago.-Career:...
& Herb Lawson(from "intensity"). In Detroit a proto-techno music sound began to emerge with the recordings of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson.
Atkins, a former member of Cybotron, released Model 500 "No UFOs" in 1985, which became a regional hit, followed by dozens of tracks on Transmat, Metroplex and Fragile. One of the most unusual was "Strings of Life" by Derrick May, a darker, more intellectual strain of house. "Techno-Scratch" was released by the Knights Of The Turntable in 1984 which had a similar techno sound to Cybotron. The manager of the Factory nightclub, Tony Wilson, also promoted acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
culture on his weekly TV show. The Midlands also embraced the late 1980s house scene with illegal parties and more legal dance clubs such as The Hummingbird.
US: late 1980s – early 1990s
Back in America the scene had still not progressed beyond a small number of clubs in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Detroit, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Paradise Garage
Paradise Garage
The Paradise Garage was a discotheque notable in the history of modern gay and nightclub cultures and in dance and pop music. It was founded by Michael Brody, its sole proprietor, and was located at 84 King Street, in the Hudson Square neighborhood of New York City. It operated from 1976 to 1987...
in New York City was still a top club, although they now had Todd Terry
Todd Terry
Todd N. Terry is an American DJ, producer, and remixer.-Career:Terry's productions extensively used samples blending the sounds of classic disco, the Chicago sound, and elements of hip-hop....
, his cover of Class Action's Larry Levan mixed "Weekend" demonstrated the continuum from the underground disco to a new house sound with hip-hop influences evident in the quicker sampling and the more rugged bass-line. While hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
had made it onto radio play-lists, the only other choices were Rock, Country & Western or R&B.
Other influences from New York came from the hip-hop, reggae, and Latin community, and many of the New York City super producers/DJs began surfacing for the first time (Erick Morillo
Erick Morillo
Erick Morillo is a Colombian-American DJ, music producer and record label owner. Having produced under a number of pseudonyms, including Ministers De la Funk, The Dronez, RAW, Smooth Touch, RBM, Deep Soul, Club Ultimate and Li'l Mo Ying Yang, Morillo is best known for his international work in...
, Roger Sanchez
Roger Sanchez
Roger Sanchez, also known as Roger S. and The S Man, is a Grammy award-winning American House music DJ who has scored many hits in the European and World Charts...
, Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez
Junior Vasquez, , is an American club DJ and remixer/producer.-Career:...
, Danny Tenaglia
Danny Tenaglia
Danny Tenaglia is a New York-based DJ and Grammy nominated record producer.-Early life:At the age of ten, Tenaglia first started to collect records. In 1979 he began going to nightclub Paradise Garage, where DJ Larry Levan's genre-less blend of music appealed to him...
, Jonathan Peters
Jonathan Peters
Jonathan Peters is an American DJ, remixer and producer.-Albums:*Live With Jonathan Peters *Last Dance: Soundfactory Classics *Jonathan Peters Presents: Pacha New York -References:...
, David Morales
David Morales
David Morales is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is one of the most prolific remixers of all time, transforming many pop music songs into club-friendly dance tracks...
) with unique sounds that would evolve into other genres (tribal house, progressive house, funky house). Producers such as Masters At Work
Masters At Work
Masters at Work is the house/garage production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez. They first worked together using the name, which had been given to them by mutual friend Todd Terry , in 1990...
and Kerri Chandler
Kerri Chandler
Kerri 'Kaoz' Chandler, one of deep House Music's originators, has been injecting soul into music since the early nineties. An ambassador of the 4/4 beat, Kerri's influences can be traced back to New Jersey growing up in a family of jazz musicians. His father being a deejay, provided Kerri with a...
also started pioneering a richer Garage sound that was picked up on by 'outsiders' from the worlds of jazz, hip-hop and downbeat as much as it was by house aficionados.
In the late 1980s Nu Groove Records prolonged, if not launched the careers of Rheji Burrell
Rheji Burrell
Rheji Burrell is an American dance musician and music producer. With his twin brother Ronald , Burrell was responsible for creating experimental, deep house music in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
& Rhano Burrell, collectively known as Burrell (after a brief stay on Virgin America via Timmy Regisford
Timmy Regisford
DJ Timmy Regisford is a House artist and producer who, according to deepattitude.com, "His flare and panache on the decks not only technically, but programming-wise has rightly earned him the well-deserved moniker, The Maestro."...
and Frank Mendez), along with basically every relevant DJ and Producer in the NY underground scene. The Burrell's are responsible for the "New York Underground" sound and are the undisputed champions of this style of house. Their 30+ releases on this label alone seems to support that fact. In today's market Nu Groove Record releases like the Burrells' enjoy a cult-like following and mint vinyl can fetch $100 U.S. or more in the open market.
Influential gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
/R&B-influenced Aly-us released "Time Passes On" in 1993 (Strictly Rhythm
Strictly Rhythm
Strictly Rhythm is an American record label, best known for its highly regarded house-music catalogue. It is considered by many to be one of the genre's most important and influential labels.-History:Strictly Rhythm Records is house music...
), then later, "Follow Me" which received radio airplay as well as being played in clubs. Another U.S. hit which received radio play was the single "Time for the Perculator" by Cajmere, which became the prototype of ghetto house
Ghetto house
Ghetto house, or booty house, is a type of Chicago House which started being recognised in its own right from around 1992 onwards. It features minimal 808 and 909 drum machine-driven tracks, and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics....
sub-genre. Cajmere started the Cajual and Relief labels (amongst others). By the early 1990s artists such as Cajmere himself (under that name as well as Green Velvet and as producer for Dajae
Dajae
Dajae is the stage name of Karen Gordon, a female R&B and dance music singer born in Chicago, Illinois. She sang in various soul bands for over a decade prior to joining house producer Cajmere. The duo released several hit singles, including "Brighter Days",which peaked at number two for two...
), DJ Sneak
DJ Sneak
DJ Sneak is a Puerto Rican house music DJ and producer raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is noted as being one of the second wave of Chicago house producers, as well as a member of the vanguard of late-1990s United States house producers.-Biography:In 1983, Sneak moved to the city...
, Glenn Underground and others did many recordings. The 1990s saw new Chicago house artists emerge such as DJ Funk
DJ Funk
-External links:***...
, who operates a Chicago house record label called Dance Mania
Dance Mania
Dance Mania is a Chicago record label founded by Jesse Saunders in 1985. Jesse conveyed Dance Mania in 1986 to Raymond Barney when he left for Los Angeles. It released many house music and acid house records in the 80s and early 90s and defined the ghetto house sound in 1994 and 1995.DJ Funk ...
, which primarily distributes ghetto house. Ghetto house, along with acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
, were house music styles that were started in Chicago.
Late 1980s - 1990s
In Britain, further experiments in the genre boosted its appeal. House and raveRave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
clubs like Lakota, Cream
Cream (nightclub)
Cream, based at the Nation nightclub in Liverpool, is one of the best-known night clubs in the UK. Cream began life as a weekly house music night at Nation, and ran in this format for 10 years, from October 1992 to June 2002...
emerged across Britain, hosting house and dance scene events. The 'chilling out' concept developed in Britain with ambient house
Ambient house
Ambient house, a music genre that first emerged in the late 1980s, is a sub-genre of house music, combining elements of acid house and ambient music...
albums such as The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
's Chill Out
Chill out
Chill out may mean:*Chill out music, a laid-back style of music*Chill Out, an album by KLF*Chill Out *Chill Out, an album by John Lee Hooker...
and Analogue Bubblebath by Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
.
At the same time, a new indie dance scene emerged. In New York, bands such as Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite was an American house and club/dance group, formed in New York City, United States. The group's best-known single was "Groove Is in the Heart", from their 1990 debut album, World Clique. However, Deee-Lite achieved longer lasting success on the U.S...
furthered house's international influence. Two distinctive tracks from this era were the Orb
The Orb
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...
's "Little Fluffy Clouds
Little Fluffy Clouds
"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the English ambient house group The Orb. It was originally released in July 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at #87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld...
" (with a distinctive vocal sample from Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
) and the Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays are an English alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan...
' "Wrote for Luck" ("WFL") which was transformed into a dance hit by Vince Clarke
Vince Clarke
Vince Clarke is an English synthpop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been involved with a number of successful groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure....
.
In England, one of the few licensed venues The Eclipse attracted people from up and down the country as it was open until the early hours.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the existing law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights and in greater penalties for certain "anti-social" behaviours...
was a government attempt to ban large rave dance events featuring music with "repetitive beats". There were a number of abortive "Kill the Bill" demonstrations. The Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe is a free party sound system which existed in the first half of the 1990s, and became active again in 2007. The collective originated in west London and later travelled across Europe and North America. According to one member, the name came to him when he was at work, staring at a...
at Castle Morten was probably the nail in the coffin for illegal raves, and forced through the bill, which became law, in November 1994.
The music continued to grow and change, as typified by Leftfield
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
with "Release the Pressure
Release the Pressure
"Release the Pressure" is the third single released under the Leftfield name and the first to involve Paul Daley with writing duties after he joined the group. The song was released only on 12" in 1992. Unlike previous releases that had been released on the Outer Rhythm record label, Leftfield had...
", which introduced dub and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
into the house sound, although Leftfield had prior releases, such as "Not forgotten" released in 1990 on Sheffield's Outer Rhythm records.
A new generation of clubs like, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
's Cream
Cream (nightclub)
Cream, based at the Nation nightclub in Liverpool, is one of the best-known night clubs in the UK. Cream began life as a weekly house music night at Nation, and ran in this format for 10 years, from October 1992 to June 2002...
and the Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
were opened to provide a venue for more commercial sounds. Major record companies began to open "superclub
Superclub
Superclub is a term used to refer to a nightclub owned and managed by a dance music record label, such as The Haçienda club, which was owned by Factory Records...
s" promoting their own acts. These superclubs entered into sponsorship deals initially with fast food, soft drinks, and clothing companies. Flyers in clubs in Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
often sported many corporate logos. A new sub-genre, Chicago Hard House, was developed by DJs such as Bad Boy Bill
Bad Boy Bill
Bad Boy Bill is a DJ from Chicago, Illinois, U.S.. He plays an assortment of house music.Bad Boy Bill began his DJ career in 1985 during the Chicago House music movement of the mid and late 80's working with Mike "Hitman" Wilson and Julian "Jumpin" Perez of the then WBMX dj mixing team known as...
, DJ Lynnwood
DJ Lynnwood
DJ Lynnwood is a United States based Club and Radio DJ. He is known for his longevity in the music business, his diversity as a DJ and his ability to re-invent himself through the years. He is one of the first true pioneers of dj mixing, starting at age 10....
, DJ Irene
DJ Irene
DJ Irene is an American electronic music DJ and producer.-Discography:*LA 5 Underground House Mix *Hard House Live At The Legendary Arena *Club Series *UC 98 *Hard House Diva...
, Richard "Humpty" Vission and DJ Enrie, mixing elements of Chicago House, Funky House and Hard House together.
Additionally, Producers such as George Centeno, Darren Ramirez, and Martin O. Cairo would develop the Los Angeles Hard House sound. Similar to gabber
Gabber
Gabber , is a style of electronic music and a subgenre of hardcore techno. "Gabber" is a slang word of Yiddish origin that means "mate", "buddy" or "friend"....
or hardcore techno
Hardcore techno
Hardcore techno is a type of electronic music typified by the rhythmic use of distorted and atonal industrial-like beats and samples...
from the Netherlands, this sound was often associated with the "rebel" culture of the time. These 3 producers are often considered "ahead of their time" since many of the sounds they engineered during the late 20th century became more prominent during the 21st century.
Towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, producers like Daft Punk
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
, Cassius
Cassius (band)
Cassius is a French house music duo, consisting of producers Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francart, better known as Philippe Zdar and Boom Bass.-History:...
, St. Germain and DJ Falcon
DJ Falcon
DJ Falcon is a French DJ and record producer.Before producing on Roulé he worked in A&R department at Virgin. In 1999 he released his first EP and produced a Remix of Cassius's "La Mouche" which became an all-time classic song...
began producing a new sound out of Paris's house scene. Together, they laid the groundwork for what would be known as the French House
French house
French house is a catch-all term for house music by many French artists, a popular strand of the late 1990s and 2000s European dance music scene and a form of Euro disco. The genre has also been referred to as "neu-disco" , "French touch", "filter house" and "tekfunk" over the years...
movement. By combining the harder-edged-yet-soulful philosophy of Chicago House with the melodies of obscure Funk, state-of-the-art production techniques (some of which were so far ahead of their time, they would not enter widespread mainstream usage for another decade) and the sound of analog synthesizers, they began to create the standards that would shape practically all House music that was created after it.
2000s
Chicago Mayor Richard M. DaleyRichard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
proclaimed August 10, 2005 to be "House Unity Day" in Chicago, in celebration of the "21st anniversary of house music" (actually the 21st anniversary of the founding of Trax Records
Trax Records
Trax Records is a house-music record label based in Chicago. It played a major part in the development of house music with records such as Jamie Principle & Frankie Knuckles's "Your Love."...
). The proclamation recognized Chicago as "the original home of house music" and that the music's original creators "were inspired by the love of their city, with the dream that someday their music would spread a message of peace and unity throughout the world". DJs such as Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
, Marshall Jefferson
Marshall Jefferson
Marshall Jefferson is an American musician, working in house music, in particular, the subgenres of Chicago house and deep house.-Biography:...
, Paul Johnson and Mickey Oliver celebrated the proclamation at the Summer Dance Series, an event organized by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs.
It was during this decade that vocal house became firmly established, both in the underground and as part of the pop market, and labels such as Defected Records
Defected Records
- History :Established in 1999 by former AM:PM and Cooltempo A&R man Simon Dunmore, Defected's first release was Soulsearcher's "I Can't Get Enough" which reached No.5 in the UK singles chart. This early success was followed up with Roger Sanchez's "Another Chance", which hit No.1 in the UK singles...
, Roule and Om were at the forefront of championing the emerging sound. In the mid-2000s, fusion genres such as electro house, fidget house and tech house
Tech house
Tech house is a subgenre of house music that mixes elements of minimal techno into simple, 4-to-4 beats found in soulful deep house. The genre came to prominence in the late-1990s atmosphere of American clubs as soul influenced Detroit-style techno that also borrowed elements from house before...
emerged. This fusion is apparent in the crossover of musical styles by artists such as Dennis Ferrer
Dennis Ferrer
Dennis Ferrer is a New York-based DJ, producer and remixer. He currently resides in Union City, New Jersey. A veteran of soulful house music production, Dennis has worked with the likes of Masters at Work , Little Louie Vega, the Martinez Brothers and many other notable New York producers and DJs...
and Booka Shade
Booka Shade
Booka Shade is a German house duo. It is made up of Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier, described as veterans of the Frankfurt electronic music scene...
, with the former's production style having evolved from the New York soulful house scene and the latter's roots in techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
. DJs today can be heard blending all sub-genres of house as many of the best musical elements are shared across these sub-genres.
Today, innovative house music is celebrated and showcased at the Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
and British Columbia's Shambhala Music Festival and at major industry sponsored events like Miami's Winter Music Conference
Winter Music Conference
The Winter Music Conference is a weeklong electronic music conference, held every March since the mid-1980s in Miami, Florida, United States. Venues are hosted primarily in Downtown Miami and Miami's South Beach...
.
As of the late 2000's, house influenced music retains widespread popularity in clubs throughout the world. House Music has also seen a comeback into the mainstream with producers like David Guetta
David Guetta
Pierre David Guetta , known professionally as David Guetta , is a French house music producer and DJ. Originally a DJ at nightclubs during the 1980s and 1990s, he co-founded Gum Productions and released his first album, Just a Little More Love, in 2002. Later, he released Guetta Blaster and Pop Life...
, Swedish House Mafia
Swedish House Mafia
Swedish House Mafia is a Swedish House Music group consisting of the three disc jockeys and producers; Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. The group officially formed in late 2008....
, deadmau5
Deadmau5
Joel Thomas Zimmerman , better known by his stage name deadmau5 , is a Canadian progressive, electro, and house producer based in Toronto...
, Justice
Justice (French band)
Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay . The duo is one of the most successful groups on Ed Banger Records and is managed by the label's head, Pedro Winter...
, Daft Punk
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
, Fedde Le Grand
Fedde le Grand
Fedde le Grand is a Dutch house DJ and producer whose single "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" / "Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit" reached number one on the UK's singles and the top 5 in the Dutch singles chart, and spent five weeks in the Spanish dance chart...
, and Benny Benassi
Benny Benassi
Marco Benassi , better known as Benny Benassi, is a Grammy Award winning Italian disc jockey and record producer of electro house music. He is best known for his 2002 summer club hit "Satisfaction"...
bringing lighter, more diluted, eurodance-infused house tracks back to the US Top 40 charts. With this steady, yet subtle, mainstream success throughout the years, House has gained momentum and concepts developed by House producers have infected the mainstream pop and hip-hop worlds and it is becoming more and more a part of American musical culture.
Australian electro-house music became popular in the mid-2000s, acts like The Aston Shuffle
The Aston Shuffle
The Aston Shuffle are a house music duo from Canberra, Australia. They are made up of Disc jockey and electronic music producers Mikah Freeman and Vance Musgrove...
, Bag Raiders
Bag Raiders
Bag Raiders are a house duo from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, consisting of DJs Chris Stracey and Jack Glass. The duo is well known for their remixes and live shows.Bag Raiders came in at number 11 in the poll of Australia's top DJs in 2009....
, The Presets
The Presets
The Presets are an Australian electronic duo formed in 2003, consisting of Julian Hamilton on vocals and keyboards, and Kim Moyes on drums and keyboards. They released their debut album Beams in 2005 to positive critical response. Their 2008 release Apocalypso debuted at number-one on the ARIA...
, PNAU
Pnau
Pnau is an Australian dance music duo originating from Sydney, Australia. The duo consists of musicians Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes...
and Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun (band)
Empire of the Sun is an Australian electronic music duo that formed in 2008. The duo is composed of Luke Steele of The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of Pnau. The two met in 2000 after both being signed to the same record label. Luke and Nick knew that they instantly had a chemistry like no other...
became well-known domestically and recently internationally.
See also
- House danceHouse danceHouse dance is a social dance primarily danced to house music that has roots in the clubs of Chicago and of New York. The main elements of House dance include Footwork, Jacking, and Lofting...
- List of house artists
- Styles of house musicStyles of house musicHouse music & Sub-genres:*Acid House: A Chicago derivative built around the Roland TB-303 bassline machine. Hard, uncompromising, tweaking samples produce a hypnotic effect. ex: Adonis, L.A. Williams...
- List of electronic music genres
Further reading
- Bidder, Sean (2002). Pump Up the Volume: A History of House Music, MacMillan. ISBN 0-7522-1986-3
- Bidder, Sean (1999). The Rough Guide to House Music, Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-432-5
- Brewster, Bill, & Frank Broughton 2000 Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3688-5 and in UK: 1999 / 2006, Headline.
- Kai Fikentscher 2000 "'You Better Work!' Underground Dance Music in New York City". Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6404-4
- Hewitt, Michael. Music Theory for Computer Musicians. 1st Ed. U.S. Cengage Learning, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59863-503-4
- Kempster, Chris (Ed) (1996). History of House, Castle Communications. ISBN 1-86074-134-7 (A reprinting of magazine articles from the 1980s and 90s)
- Mireille, Silcott (1999). Rave America: New School Dancescapes, ECW Press. ISBN 1-55022-383-6
- Reynolds, Simon (1998). Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture, (UK title, Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-330-35056-0), also released in U.S. as Generation Ecstasy : Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (U.S. title, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-92373-5)
- Rizza Corrado, Trani Marco, "I love the nightlife"' Wax Production (Roma), 2010
- Shapiro, P., (2000), Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound, ISBN 1-891024-06-X.
- Snoman, Rick (2009). The Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques — Second Edition: Chapter 11: House. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Press. p.231–249.
- Rietveld, Hillegonda C. (1998). This is our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies, Ashgate. ISBN 1-85742-242-2
External links
- The History of House (2004) HouseKeeping: Funky House DJs from the UK
- http://www.deephousepage.com/sub/moreart.htm Excerpt taken From the book, What Kind Of House Party Is This?
- 4tothefloor.co.uk Blogging website about house music.