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House Music: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search
House music
Disco[1]
Stylistic origins
Hi-NRG[2][3][4][5]
boogie[6][7]
electro[8]
Latin soul[1]
jazz[1]
Balearic trance
Baltimore club
chillwave
electroclash
electropop
Eurobeat
Eurodance
future bass
hyperpop
techno
trance
UK bass
UK garage
Subgenres
Acid house
ambient house
Balearic beat
Chicago house
deep house
diva house
electro house
French house
funky house
future house
garage house
ghetto house
ghettotech
Italo house
Latin house
microhouse
outsider house
progressive house
tech house
tribal house
tropical house
UK hard house
(complete list)
Fusion genres
Dream trance
electro swing
hard NRG
hip house
Jersey club
moombahton
nu-disco
Regional scenes
Angola
Cancún
Chicago
France
Ibiza
Italy
New Jersey
New York
Russia
South Africa
Uganda
Venezuela
Western Asia
Other topics
Contents
1Characteristics
2Origins of the term "house"
3House dance
4Social and political aspects
5History
o 5.1Influences and precursors
o 5.21980s: Chicago house, acid house and deep house
5.2.1Detroit and techno
5.2.2UK: Acid house, rave culture and the Second Summer of Love
5.2.3Chicago's second wave: Hip house and ghetto house
5.2.4New York and New Jersey: Garage house and the "Jersey
sound"
5.2.5Ibiza
5.2.6Other regional scenes
o 5.31990s
o 5.42000s
o 5.52010s
6See also
7References
8Further reading
9External links
Characteristics[edit]
House Music Demo (6:23)
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A full house music track.
Sometimes, the drum sounds are "saturated" by boosting the gain to create a more
aggressive edge.[13] One classic subgenre, acid house, is defined through the squelchy
sounds created by the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer. House music could be
produced on "cheap and consumer-friendly electronic equipment" and used sound gear,
which made it easier for independent labels and DJs to create tracks. [15] The electronic
drum machines and other gear used by house DJs and producers were formerly
considered "too cheap-sounding" by "proper" musicians. [16] House music producers
typically use sampled instruments, rather than bringing in session musicians into a
recording studio.[17] Even though a key element of house production is layering sounds,
such as drum machine beats, samples, synth basslines, and so on, the overall
"texture...is relatively sparse".[18] Unlike pop songs, which emphasize higher-pitched
sounds, such as melody, in house music, the lower-pitched bass register is most
important.[18]
House tracks typically involve an intro, a chorus, various verse sections, a midsection
and a brief outro. Some tracks do not have a verse, taking a vocal part from the chorus
and repeating the same cycle. House music tracks are often based on eight-bar
sections which are repeated.[18] They are often built around bass-
heavy loops or basslines produced by a synthesizer and/or
around samples of disco, soul,[19] jazz-funk[8] or funk[19] songs. DJs and producers creating
a house track to be played in clubs edit a "seven or eight-minute 12-inch mix"; if the
track is intended to be played on radio, a "three-and-a-half-minute" radio edit is used.
[20]
Unlike trance music, which is designed to keep building in intensity, house music
tracks are "more consistent" and rather based on "playing with the constituent parts and
bringing them in and out" in a subtle way.[20] House tracks build up slowly, by adding
layers of sound and texture, and by increasing the volume. [18]
House tracks may have vocals like a pop song, but some are "completely
minimal instrumental music".[18] If a house track does have vocals, the vocal lines may
also be simple "words or phrases" that are repeated. [18]
One 2009 book states the name house music originated from a Chicago club called
the Warehouse, which existed from 1977 to 1983.[21] Clubbers to the Warehouse were
primarily black,[22] who came to dance to music played by the club's resident DJ Frankie
Knuckles, who fans refer to as the "godfather of house". Frankie began the trend of
splicing together different records when he found that the records he had weren't long
enough to satisfy his audience of dancers.[23] After the Warehouse closed in 1983, the
crowds went to Knuckles' new club, The Power Plant,[21] while the club was renamed
into Music Box with Ron Hardy being resident DJ.[24]
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!".
[25]
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 and disco records,
which he worked into his sets.[26] The documentary also explored how house music was
something that anyone could do. Mostly the documentary looks at some of the DJs from
that genre, and how they stumbled into the music. [24]
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' Rroy 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." [27]
Chip E.'s 1985 recording "It's House" may also have helped to define this new form of
electronic music.[28] However, Chip E. himself lends credence to the Knuckles
association, claiming the name came from methods of labeling 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.[29]
In a 1986 interview, when Rocky Jones, the club DJ who ran the D.J. International
record label, was asked about the "house" moniker, he did not mention Importes Etc.,
Frankie Knuckles, or the Warehouse by name. However, he agreed that "house" was a
regional catch-all term for dance music, and that it was once synonymous with
older disco music, before it became a way to refer to "new" dance music. [30]
Larry Heard, a.k.a. "Mr. Fingers", claims that the term "house" came from DJs creating
music in home studios using affordable synthesizers and drum machines, such as
the Roland TB-303,[31] Roland TR-808, and TR-909.[32] These synthesizers were used to
create the acid house subgenre.[33] Juan Atkins, an originator of Detroit techno, claims
the term "house" reflected the association of particular tracks with particular clubs and
DJs, considered their "house" records.[34]
House dance[edit]
Main article: House dance
At least three styles of dancing are associated with house music: Jacking, Footwork,
and Lofting.[35] These styles include a variety of techniques and sub-styles, including
skating, stomping, Vosho, Pouting Cat and shuffle steps (also see Melbourne Shuffle).[36]
[citation needed]
House music dancing styles can include movements from many other forms of
dance, such as waacking, voguing, African, Latin (including Capoeira), jazz
dance, Lindy Hop, tap dance, and even modern dance.[37][citation needed] House dancing is
concerned with the sensuality of the body and setting oneself free in ecstasy — without
the worry of outside barriers.[38]
One of the primary elements in house dancing is "the jack" or "jacking" — a style
created in the early days of Chicago house that left its trace in numerous record titles
such as "Time to Jack" by Chip E. from the "Jack Trax" EP (1985), "Jack’n the House"
(1985) by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk (1985) or "Jack Your Body" by Steve "Silk"
Hurley (1986). It involves moving the torso forward and backward in a rippling motion
matching the beat of the music, as if a wave were passing through it. [38]
History[edit]
Influences and precursors[edit]
One of the main influences of house was disco; house music having been defined as a
genre which "...picked up where disco left off in the late 1970's." [40][41] Like disco DJs,
house DJs used a "slow mix" to "lin[k] records together" into a mix. [15] In the post-
disco club culture during the early 1980s, DJs from the gay scene made their tracks
"less pop-oriented", with a more mechanical, repetitive beat and deeper basslines, and
many tracks were made without vocals, or with wordless melodies. [42] Disco became so
popular by the late 1970s that record companies pushed even non-disco artists (R&B
bands, for example) to produce disco songs. When the backlash against disco started,
known as "Disco Demolition Night", dance music went from being produced by major
label studios to being created by DJs in the underground club scene. [15]
While disco was associated with lush orchestration, with string orchestra, flutes
and horn sections, various disco songs incorporated sounds produced with synthesizers
and electronic drum machines, and some compositions were entirely electronic;
examples include Italian composer Giorgio Moroder's late 1970s productions such
as Donna Summer's hit single "I Feel Love" from 1977, Cerrone's "Supernature" (1977),
[43]
Yellow Magic Orchestra's synth-disco-pop productions from Yellow Magic
Orchestra (1978) or Solid State Survivor (1979),[44][45] and several early 1980s productions
by hi-NRG groups like Lime, Trans-X and Bobby O.
Frankie Knuckles (pictured in 2012) played an important role in developing house music in Chicago during the
1980s.
Also important for the development of house were audio mixing and editing techniques
earlier explored by disco, garage music and post-disco DJs, record producers, and
audio engineers such as Walter Gibbons, Tom Moulton, Jim Burgess, Larry Levan, M &
M, and others.
While most post-disco disc jockeys primarily stuck to playing their conventional
ensemble and playlist of dance records, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy, two
influential DJs of house music, were known for their unusual and non-mainstream
playlists and mixing. Knuckles was influenced by and worked with New York City
club Paradise Garage resident Larry Levan. Knuckles, often credited as "the Godfather
of House" and resident DJ at the Warehouse from 1977 to 1982, worked primarily with
early disco music with a hint of new and different music (whether it was post-punk or
post-disco).[46] Knuckles started out as a disco DJ, but when he moved from New York
City to Chicago, he changed from the typical disco mixing style of playing records one
after another; instead, he mixed different songs together, including Philadelphia soul,
New York club tracks, and Euro disco.[18] He also explored adding a drum machine and
a reel-to-reel tape player so he could create new tracks, often with a boosted deep
register and faster tempos. Knuckles said: "Kraftwerk were main components in the
creation of house music in Chicago. Back in the early 80s, I mixed our 80s Philly sound
with the electro beats of Kraftwerk and the Electronic body music bands of Europe."[18][47]
Ron Hardy produced unconventional DIY mixtapes which he later played straight-on in
the successor of the Warehouse, the Music Box (reopened and renamed in 1983 after
Knuckles left). Like Frankie Knuckles, Hardy "combined certain sounds, remixing tracks
with added synths and drum machines", all "refracted through the futurist lens of
European music."[16] Marshall Jefferson, who would later appear with the 1986 house
classic "Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)" (originally released on Trax
Records), describes how he got involved in house music after hearing Ron Hardy's
music in the Music Box:
"I wasn't even into dance music before I went to the Music Box [...]. I was into rock and
roll. We would get drunk and listen to rock and roll. We didn't give a fuck, we were like
'Disco Sucks!' and all that. I hated dance music 'cos I couldn't dance. I thought dance
music was kind of wimpy, until I heard it at like Music Box volume."
— Marshall Jefferson[48]
A precursor to house music is the Colonel Abrams hit song "Trapped", produced
by Richard James Burgess in 1984,[49] referred to as a proto-house track and a precursor
to garage house.[50]
Rachel Cain, better known as Screamin Rachael, co-founder of the highly influential
house label Trax Records, was previously involved in the burgeoning punk scene. Cain
cites industrial music (another genre pioneered in Chicago) and post-punk record
store Wax Trax! Records (later a record label) as an important connection between the
ever-changing underground sounds of Chicago.
The electronic instrumentation and minimal arrangement of Charanjit
Singh's Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982), an album of
Indian ragas performed in a disco style, anticipated the sounds of acid house music, but
it is not known to have had any influence on the genre prior to the album's rediscovery
in the 21st century.[51][52][53] According to Hillegonda C. Rietveld, "elements of hip hop and
rap can be found in contemporary house tracks", with hip hop acting as an "accent or
inflection" that is inserted into the house sound. [15]
The constant bass drum in house music may have arisen from DJs experimenting with
adding drum machines to their live mixes at clubs, underneath the records they were
playing.[54]
1980s: Chicago house, acid house and deep house[edit]
Main articles: Chicago house, acid house, and deep house
An honorary street name sign in Chicago for house music and the seminal DJ Frankie Knuckles.
In the early 1980s, Chicago radio jocks Hot Mix 5 from WBMX radio station (among
them Farley "Jackmaster" Funk), and club DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles played
a range of styles of dance music, including older disco records (mostly Philly
disco and Salsoul[55] tracks), electro funk tracks by artists such as Afrika Bambaataa,
[8]
newer Italo disco, Arthur Baker, and John Robie, and electronic pop.[1] Some DJs
made and played their own edits of their favorite songs on reel-to-reel tape, and
sometimes mixed in electronic effects, drum machines, synthesizers and other rhythmic
electronic instrumentation.
The hypnotic electronic dance song "On and On", produced in 1984 by Chicago
DJ Jesse Saunders and co-written by Vince Lawrence, had typical elements of the early
house sound, such as the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer and minimal vocals as well
as a Roland TR-808 drum machine and a Korg Poly-61 synthesizer. It also utilized the
bassline from Player One's disco record "Space Invaders" (1979).[56] "On and On" is
sometimes cited as the 'first house record',[57][58] even though it was a remake of a Disco
Bootleg "On and On" by Florida producer Mach. Other examples from around that time,
such as J.M. Silk's "Music is the Key" (1985), have also been cited to be the first house
tracks.[59][60]
Starting in 1985 and 1986, more and more Chicago DJs began producing and releasing
original compositions. These compositions used newly affordable electronic instruments
and enhanced styles of disco and other dance music they already favored. These
homegrown productions were played on Chicago radio stations and in local clubs
catering mainly to Black, Mexican Americans, and gay audiences.[61][62][63][64][65][66] By 1985,
house music encompassed these locally produced recordings. Subgenres of house,
including deep house and acid house, quickly emerged and gained traction. [24]
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Phuture's "Acid Tracks" is
often regarded as the
first acid house record. It
was released in 1987 on Trax
Records, but is said to have
been already played out in
1985 by DJ Ron Hardy at the
Music Box nightclub.[67]
A badge bearing a smiley, a symbol of the 1980s acid house scene in the UK[79]
With house music already important in the 1980s dance club scene, eventually house
penetrated the UK singles chart. London DJ "Evil" Eddie Richards spun at dance parties
as resident at the Clink Street club. Richards' approach to house focuses on the
deep basslines. Nicknamed the UK's "Godfather of House", he and Clink co-residents
Kid Batchelor and Mr. C played a key role in early UK house. House first charted in the
UK in Wolverhampton following the success of the Northern Soul scene. 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. [80]
In January 1987, Chicago DJ/artist Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body" reached
number one in the UK, showing it was possible for house music to achieve crossover
success in the main singles chart. 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 (SAW) expensively-produced productions for Mel and Kim, including
the number-one hit "Respectable", added elements of house to their
previous Europop sound. SAW 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 music style. Key labels in the rise of house music in the UK included: [citation needed]
Jack Trax, which specialized in licensing US club hits for the British market
(and released an influential series of compilation albums)
Rhythm King, which was set up as a hip hop label but also issued house
records
Jive Records' Club Records imprint
In March 1987, the UK tour of influential US DJs such as Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers
Inc. (Heard) and Adonis, on the DJ International Tour boosted house's popularity in the
UK. Following the number-one success of MARRS' "Pump Up The Volume" in October,
in 1987 to 1989, UK acts such as The Beatmasters, Krush, Coldcut, Yazz, Bomb The
Bass, S-Express, and Italy's Black Box opened the doors to house music success 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, and
unlike the US soulful vocals, in UK house, rap was often used for vocals (far more than
in the US), and humor and wit was an important element.[citation needed]
The second best-selling British single of 1988 was an acid house record, the Coldcut-
produced "The Only Way Is Up" by Yazz.[81][82] One of the early club anthems, "Promised
Land" by Joe Smooth, was covered and charted within a week by UK band The Style
Council. Europeans embraced house, and began booking important American house
DJs to play at the big clubs, such as Ministry of Sound, whose resident, Justin
Berkmann brought in US pioneer Larry Levan.[83]
The house music club scene in cities such
as Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Wolverhampton and London were provided with
dance tracks by many underground Pirate Radio stations. Club DJs also brought in new
house styles, which helped bolster this music genre. The earliest 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. These
labels also promoted UK dance music acts. By the end of the 1980s, UK DJs Jenö,
Thomas, Markie and Garth moved to San Francisco, and called their group the Wicked
Crew. The Wicked Crew's dance sound transmitted UK styles to the US, which helped
to trigger the birth of the US west coast's rave scene.[84]
The manager of Manchester's Factory nightclub and co-owner of The Haçienda, Tony
Wilson, also promoted acid house culture on his weekly TV show. The UK midlands
also embraced the late 1980s house scene with illegal parties and raves and more legal
dance clubs such as The Hummingbird.[85]
Chicago's second wave: Hip house and ghetto house[edit]
Main articles: Hip house and ghetto house
While the acid house hype spawned to the UK and Europe, in Chicago itself it reached
its peak around 1988 and then declined in popularity. [citation needed] Instead, a crossover of
house and hip-hop music, known as hip house, became popular. Tyree Cooper's single
"Turn Up the Bass" featuring Kool Rock Steady from 1988 was an influential
breakthrough for this subgenre, although the British trio the Beatmasters claimed having
invented the genre with their 1986 release "Rok da House".[86] Another notable figure in
the hip house scene was Fast Eddie with "Hip House" and "Yo Yo Get Funky!" (both
1988). Even Farley "Jackmaster" Funk engaged himself in the genre, releasing "Free at
Last", a song to free James Brown from jail, featuring The Hip House Syndicate, in
1989, and producing a Real Hip House compilation on his label House Records in 1990.
[87]
The early 1990s saw new Chicago house artists emerge, such as Armando Gallop, who
had released seminal acid house records since 1987, but became even more influential
by co-founding the new Warehouse nightclub in Chicago (on 738 W. Randolph Street [88])
in which he also was resident DJ from 1992 until 1994, and founding Warehouse
Records in 1988.[89]
Another important figure during the early to mid-1990s (until the 2000s) was DJ and
producer Paul Johnson, who released the Warehouse-anthem "Welcome to the
Warehouse" on Armando's label in 1994 in collaboration with Armando himself. [90] He
also had part in the development of an entirely new kind of Chicago house sound,
"ghetto house", which was prominently released and popularized through the Dance
Mania record label. It was originally founded by Jesse Saunders in 1985 but passed on
to Raymond Barney in 1988. It featured notable ghetto house artists like DJ Funk, DJ
Deeon, DJ Milton, Paul Johnson and others. The label is regarded as hugely influential
in the history of Chicago house music, and has been described as "ghetto
house's Motown".[91]
One of the prototypes for Dance Mania's new ghetto house sound was the single "(It's
Time for the) Percolator" by Cajmere, also known as Green Velvet, from 1992.
[92]
Cajmere started the labels Cajual Records and Relief Records, the latter combining
the sound of Chicago, acid and ghetto house with the harder sound of techno. By the
early 1990s, artists of note on those two labels included Dajae, DJ Sneak, Derrick
Carter, DJ Rush, Paul Johnson, Joe Lewis, and Glenn Underground.
New York and New Jersey: Garage house and the "Jersey sound" [edit]
Main articles: Garage house and New Jersey house