Information about House Music

House music is uptempo music for dancing and has a comparatively narrow tempo range, generally falling between 118 and 135 bpm. Producers use many different sound sources for bass sounds in House music, from continuous, repeating electronically-generated lines sequenced on a Roland 303 to studio recordings or samples of live electric bassists, to simply filtered-down samples from whole stereo recordings (from classic funk tracks or any other song). Electronically-generated sounds and samples of recordings from genres such as jazz, blues and synth pop are then added to the foundation of the drum beat and synth bass line. House songs may also include soaring, reverb-drenched disco or soul-style and gospel vocals and additional percussion. Techno and trance, which developed alongside house music, share this basic beat infrastructure, but they usually eschew house's live-music-influenced feel and Black or Latin music influences in favor of more synthetic sound sources and approach.

History

Precursors

House music is the descendant of the 1970s dance style of disco, which blended soul, R&B, funk, salsa, rock and pop with a progressive, pro-diversity message. In the late 1970s, disco songs began incorporating electronic sounds, such as Giorgio Moroder's landmark production of Donna Summer's hit single "I Feel Love" from 1977. In the same year, Kraftwerk's albumTrans-Europe Express began being played in New York discos; this album contains a number of the elements that would later appear in techno and drum and bass.

In 1984, Lime released an album with a style dubbed "HiNRG", which moulded the late 1970s sounds of Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk into a catchy club style with beatbox programming and "breakdown sections". M and M's club mixes and Jesse Saunders - "On and On" (1984/1985) had many elements of electronic dance music that developed into the "house music" sound, such as synths (including a 303 and minimal vocals). On and On was the first recognised house release to be pressed and sold to the general public and often cited as the 'first house music record' [1],[2]. House music also incorporated other influences, such as New Wave, Reggae, European synthpop, industrial and punk as well as the emerging rap and hip-hop styles. House music DJs experimented with new editing techniques and electronic instruments, such as remixing, sampling, synthesizers, and sequencers.

Etymology

The origins of the term "house music" are disputed. The term may be derived from the name of a club called the The Warehouse, which was one of the nightclubs that became popular among the teenagers living in the Chicago area in the late 1970s and early 1980s. One of these nightclubs, The Warehouse was patronized primarily by gay black & Latino men ^[1], who came to dance to DJ Frankie Knuckles' mix of classic disco, European synthpop, new wave, industrial, and punk recordings. Knuckles released his dance tracks and mixes on the Traxx record label, which became known as house music.

Chip E.'s recording "It's House" may also have helped to define this new form of electronic music. Chip E. claims the name came from methods of labelling records at the Imports Etc record store, where he worked at in the early 1980s. Music that DJ Knuckles played at the Warehouse nightclub was labelled "As Heard At The Warehouse", which was shortened to simply "The House". Larry Heard, aka "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 music subgenre called Acid House.^[2]

Chicago years: early 1980s - late 1980s

Main article: Chicago house

Not everyone understands House music; it's a spiritual thing; a body thing; a soul thing.

– From a track produced by Eddie Amador

House music was developed in the houses, garages and clubs of Chicago and Detroit, and it was produced for local club-goers in the "underground" club scenes, rather than for widespread commercial release. As a result, the recordings were much more conceptual, longer than the music usually played on commercial radio. House, techno, electro and hip-hop musicians used analog synthesizers and sequencers to create and arrange the electronic elements and samples on their tracks. House music "humanized" the new electronic instruments by combining live traditional instruments and percussion and soulful vocals with preprogrammed electronic synthesizers and "beat-boxes".

The chief source of this kind of records in Chicago was the record-store Importes Etc, where the term “house” was introduced as a shortening of "Warehouse". Despite the new skills, the music was still essentially disco until the early 1980s when the first stand-alone drum machines were invented. House tracks could now be given an edge with the use of a mixer and drum machine. This was an added boost to the prestige of the individual DJs. Underground club DJ's like Ron Hardy and radio jocks The Hot Mix 5 played Italo Disco tracks like "Dirty Talk" and the "MBO Theme" by Klein M.B.O., Early B-Boy Hip Hop tracks such as Man Parrish's "Hip Hop Be Bop" and Afrika Bambatta and the Soul Sonic Force's Planet Rock and Looking for the Perfect Beat as well as electronic music by Kraftwerk, these genres were influential to the Chicago genre of House.

In 1985, Mr Fingers's song "Can You Feel It?"/"Washing Machine"/"Mystery of Love" showed a jazz-influenced, lush, sound that was created using a Roland TR-707 and Juno 6 synthesizer. This song helped to start the trend for the Deep house genre, which had a slower beat of 110-125 bpm. In the same year, Chip E.'s "It's House" is a good example of the Chicago House Music style, with its simplistic lyrics, driving bassline, and percussion. In 1986, Phuture's "Acid Trax" (1986) showed the development of a house music subgenre called acid house which arose from experiments with a 303 machine by Chicago musicians such as DJ Pierre.

Early house recordings were Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles' "Your Love"; "On and On" by Jesse Saunders (1985), which was the first house record pressed and sold to the general public; and Chip E.'s "The Jack Trax" featuring the songs “It’s House” and “Time to Jack”, which used complex rhythms, simple bassline, sampling technology, and minimalist vocals. By 1985, house music dominated the clubs of Chicago, in part due to the radio play the music received on 102.7 FM WBMX . Program director Lee Michaels and WBMX's resident DJ team, the Hot Mix 5.

The music and movement was also aided by the electronic music revolution - the arrival of newer, cheaper and more compact music sequencers, drum machines (the Roland TR-909, TR-808 and TR-707, and Latin percussion machine the TR-727) and bass modules (such as the Roland TB-303 in late 1985) gave House music creators even wider possibilities in creating their own sound. The acid house subgenre was developed from the experiments by DJ Pierre, Larry Heard (Mr. Fingers), and Marshall Jefferson with the new drum and rhythym machines.

Many of the songs that defined the Chicago house music sound were released by DJ International Records and Trax Records. In 1985, Trax released "Jack the Bass" and "Funkin with the Drums Again" by Farley Jackmaster Funk. In 1986, Trax released "No Way Back" by Adonis, Larry Heard's (as Fingers Inc.) "Can You Feel It" and "Washing Machine", and an early house anthem in 1986, "Move Your Body" by Marshall Jefferson, which helped to boost the popularity of the style outside of Chicago.

In 1987, Steve 'Silk' Hurley's "Jack Your Body" was the first House track to reach No.1 in the UK Top 40 pop chart. 1987 also saw M/A/R/R/S' "Pump Up The Volume" reach No.1 in the UK Top 40 pop chart. In 1989 Hurley transformed Roberta Flack's soft ballad "Uh Oh Look Out" into a boisterous dance track. S'Express's "Theme from S'Express" (1988)is an example of a disco-influenced, funky acid house tune. It uses samples from Rose Royce's song "Is it Love You're After" over a Roland 303 bassline. In 1989, Technotronic's song "Pump Up the Jam" (1989) was one of the early house records to break the top 10 on the US pop charts. A year later, Madonna's "Vogue" went to number one on charts worldwide, becoming the highest selling single on WEA up to that tim. In 1992, Leftfield's song "Release the Pressure" helped to introduce a new subgenre of house called progressive house.

House music also had an influence of relaying political messages to people who were considered to be outcast of society; this was especially known as Deep House. It offered for those who didn't fit into mainstream religion or American morals, especially celebrated by many black gays. Frankie Knuckles made a good comparision 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 freeom for the black community. Both House Cd's by Joe Smooth, "Promised Land" and Db "I Have a Dream" give similar messages of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. House was also very sexual and had much mystic in it. It went so far as to have a "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. House also became very sexual in Chicago where it had a style of dancing called "jacking". This was very perverse kind of movement in which the "pelvic thrust and the booty shook with a whole-body frenzy of polymorphously erverse tics and convulsive pogo-ing" (29). It may have references to "jacking off".

House music especially Deep House was a jarring kind of genre in music which brought the immoral and different aspect of the sexual and minority in the forefront. House was definetly concerned with the sensuality of the body and setting oneself free-- without the worry of outside barriers. ^[3]

UK: late 1980s - early 1990s

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; however there was a strong divide between the House music as part of the gay scene and "straight" music. House grew in northern England, the Midlands and the South East. Founded in 1982 by Factory Records the Hacienda 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 music. Many underground venues and DJ nights also took place across the UK, such as the private parties hosted by an early Miss Moneypenny's contingent in Birmingham and many London venues. House was boosted in the UK by the tour in the same year of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. (Heard) and Adonis as the DJ International Tour. One of the early anthemic tunes, "Promised Land" by Joe Smooth, was covered and charted within a week by the Style Council. The first English House tune came out in 1986 - "Carino" by T-Coy. Europeans embraced house music, 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, 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. One of the earliest and most influential UK house and techno record labels was Network Records (otherwise known as Kool Kat records) who helped introduce Italian and US dance music to Britain as well as promoting select UK dance music acts.

But house was also developing on Ibiza. In the 1970s Ibiza was a hippie stop-over for the rich party crowd. 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 Shoom in Southwark (London), Heaven, Future, Spectrum and Purple Raines in Birmingham.

In the US, 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 (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 underground venues such as multi storey car parks and more legal dance stations such as the Digbeth Institute (now the 'Sanctuary' and home to Sundissential).

In 1990 Electribe 101's debut album Electribal Memories hit the racks (it had been preceded by the single "Talking With Myself"), the groups music combined the slick techno-jazz of Larry Heard with hints of the Detroit sound, added avant garde lyrics sung by a deep soulful voice (Billie Ray Martin) and garnished it all with dollops of hip-hop beats and a dreamy soundscape reminiscent of "Dusty In Memphis". The group were immediately and vastly influential on everything from House to Downtempo and the earliest examples of Drum and Bass.

US - late 1980s to early 1990s

Back in America the scene had still not progressed beyond a small number of clubs in Chicago, Detroit and New York. Paradise Garage in New York City was still the 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 notable New York producers and DJs of the time were Bobby Konders, Tommy Musto, Frankie Bones all of whom had their work licensed internationally in the 1980s. In fact, many of the recordings on the nascent XL Recordings (UK) came from those artists.

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) 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.

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 US hit which received radio play was the single "Time for the Perculator" by Cajmere, which became the prototype of Ghettohouse 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. Artists from the also recently-revitalised Dance Mania such as DJ Rush, Robert Armani and his cousin Paul Johnson recorded for both and did DJing in the European club circuit. Derrick Carter was active as a producer and DJ during this period.

Detroit's labels included 430 West, KMS and Serious Grooves with producers such as Kevin Saunderson, Marc Kinchen, Octave One. Underground Resistance produced garage tracks and electro tracks. A Los Angeles-area scene developed with parties organised by Hardkiss and UK expatriates like DIY and Charles Webster.

UK: Early 1990s to mid-1990s

In Britain, further experiments in the genre boosted its appeal. House and rave clubs like Lakota, Miss Moneypenny's and C.R.E.A.M. 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. Chillout music is often defined as a different genres, such as Ambient, or downtempo (later on) or New Age (older). The unifying feature of Chill Out electronica is long sustained tones and a smoother sound, rather than the noisy, percussive sound of other styles.

At the same time, a new indie dance scene emerged, with groups such as Happy Mondays, The Shamen, New Order, Meat Beat Manifesto, Renegade Soundwave, EMF, The Grid and The Beloved. In New York, bands such as Deee-Lite furthered house music'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 Paul Oakenfold.

The UK Criminal Justice Bill of 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. Although the bill did become law in November 1994, it had little effect. The music continued to grow and change, as typified by the emergence of acts like Leftfield with "Release the Pressure", which introduced dub and reggae into the house music sound. In more commercial recordings, a mix of R&B with stronger basslines was used. The house music scene was shaped by a variety of inflences, including the club culture scene. Like the 1970s disco club scene, the house music club scene was associated with a number of drugs which club-goers used to enhance the dancing experience, such as amyl nitrite "poppers", MDMA, ketamine, and GHB.

As well, like the disco scene that preceded it, the house music club scene attracted a mix of cultural and racial groups. Tunes like "The Bouncer" from Kicks Like a Mule used sped-up hip-hop breakbeats. With SL2's "On A Ragga Tip" they gave the foundations to what would become drum and bass and jungle. Initially called breakbeat hardcore, it found popularity in London clubs like Rage as an "inner city" music. Labels like Moving Shadow and Reinforced became underground favorites.

"London Hardcore Techno" was a style of music that Moonshine music released with an increased tempo of around 160 bpm. UK garage developed later, designed more for dancing than for listening, it found its way into mainstream acts like Liberty X and Victoria Beckham. The 4 Hero subgenre adopted soul and jazz influences, and some used a full orchestral section to create a more "sophisticated" sound. Later, this led directly to the West London scene known as Broken beat or Breakbeat.

A new generation of clubs like Miss Moneypenny's, Liverpool's Cream (as opposed to the original underground night, C.R.E.A.M.) and the Ministry of Sound were opened to provide a venue for more commercial sounds. Major record companies began to open "superclubs" 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.

2000s

House music declined in popularity during the 2000s, due to a combination of factors. The original house fans were getting older, and club fees were rising, and ever-cheaper computer software made electronic music less novel. In Europe and Australia however, house is still a popular genre of club music. Artists such as Don Diablo, Fedde Le Grand and Gregor Salto are played a lot, besides that there are many house festivals in the Netherlands including Nope Is Dope and Sneakerz. In the early 2000s, there were still some house-oriented clubs in operation. In 2004, the Montreal club Stereo, co-owned by David Morales and party aficionado Scott Lancaster, celebrated its sixth year in operation and in 2006 The Guvernment in Toronto (with Mark Oliver) celebrated its 10th anniversary. Stereo, opened in 1998, was modeled after the New York City club Paradise Garage.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley acknowledged Chicago's role as the birthplace of house by proclaiming August 10, 2005 to be House Unity Day in Chicago in celebration of House Music's 21st anniversary. DJs such as Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Paul Johnson and Mickey Oliver celebrated the proclamation at the Summer Dance Series event organized by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs. Two newer forms of house called Ghetto House and Jacke (named after the dance Jackin' "Footworkin'" dance style have been developing in Chicago. [3]

Further reading

• Sean Bidder 2002 Pump Up the Volume: A History of House Music, MacMillan. ISBN 0-7522-1986-3
• Sean Bidder 1999 The Rough Guide to House Music, Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-432-5
• Bill Brewster & 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, CT: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6404-4
• Chris Kempster (Ed) 1996 History of House, Castle Communications. ISBN 1-86074-134-7 (A reprinting of magazine articles from the 1980s and 90s)
• Simon Reynolds 1998 Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture, (UK title, Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-330-35056-0), also released in US as Generation Ecstasy : Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture (US title, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-92373-5)
• Hillegonda C. Rietveld 1998 This is our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies, Ashgate. ISBN 1-85742-242-2
• Silcott Mireille. Rave America: New School Dancescapes (1999), ECW Press. ISBN 1550223836

Other meanings

House music also refers to the recorded music played while a theater audience takes their seats before a performance, or, in live music venues, the recorded music played before the live music begins. That name is given because the music is played in the front of house. Some celebrity performers are able to request their choice of house music, or specify that there be no house music. These requests are made in the technical rider to their contract, the same document that specifies what items must be present in the dressing room.

References

1. Peter Shapiro (2000) Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound. ISBN 1-891024-06-X
2. The History of House (2004) HouseKeeping: Funky House DJs from the UK

See also

• Styles of house music
• List of electronic music genres
• List of notable house music artists and releases
• Play It Tonight
• Daft Punk
• House dance

•  • [ e] House
Acid - Ambient - Chicago - Dark - Deep - Dream - Electro - French - Garage - Ghetto - Hard - Hip - Italo - Latin - Minimal - Microhouse - Progressive - Pumpin' - Tech - Tribal
Other electronic dance music genres
Ambient | Breakbeat | Drum and bass | Electro | UK garage | Hardcore | House | Industrial | Synthpop | Techno | Trance | Triphop