House music

House
Stylistic origins	Disco Garage house Boogie Hi-NRG Soul Funk Synthpop Dub Hip hop
Cultural origins	Early 1980s in Chicago, United States
Typical instruments	Sampler, drum machine, synthesizer, turntables, sequencer, personal computer
Derivative forms	Breakbeat hardcore, Eurodisco, Eurobeat, Electroclash
Subgenres
Acid house • Ambient house • Balearic beat • Diva house • Microhouse • Pop house • Progressive house • Electroswing • Dream house • Tribal house • Disco house • Electro house • Vocal house • Hardbag • French house
Fusion genres
Alternative dance • Ambient house • Deep house • Funky house • Electronic rock • Ghetto house • Hip house • Latin house • Liquid funk • Neo Soul • Detroit Techno • Tech house • Eurodance
Regional scenes
Chicago • Toronto • Helsingborg • Montreal • Miami • France • Italy • São Paulo • London • Birmingham • Manchester • Leeds • United Kingdom • South Korea • New York • New Jersey • Detroit • Japan  • South Africa • Sunny Beach • Ibiza
Other topics
Notable artists and DJs

House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the American city of Chicago, Illinois in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to African-Americans and Latinos 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 and began to influence popular music in Europe, with pop chart hits such as "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy Of House (1987) and "Doctorin' The House" by Coldcut (1988). Since the early to mid-1990s, house music has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.

Early house music was generally dance-based music characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats and rhythms centered around drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals and synthesized basslines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic and minimalistic, and the structured music's focus around a repetitive rhythm was more important than the song itself. House music today, while 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 into their work. After enjoying significant success in the early to mid-90s, house music grew even larger during the second wave of Progressive House (1999–2001). The genre still remains popular and fused into other subgenres which are popular, as the DJ mag poll has been dominated by House DJs since the beginning of the polls. In Europe, the genre remains 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. As at 2012 House has continued to be a popular style of music, evident by DJ David Guetta claiming the #1 Poll position of the DJ Mag 100 popularity poll. David Guetta often plays various styles of House such as Electro House, Melodic House, and Pop House

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 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 use many different sound-sources for bass sounds in house, from continuous, repeating electronically generated lines sequenced on a synthesizer, such as a Korg M1, 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.

History

Influences

Building in New York City where The Paradise Garage nightclub was located

Some disco songs incorporated sounds produced with synthesizers and drum machines, 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, sequencers, 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.

Origins of the term

The term "house music" may have its origin from a Chicago nightclub called The Warehouse which existed from 1977 to 1983. The Warehouse was patronized primarily by 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" Roy, 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 clubs and DJs; those records helped differentiate the clubs and DJs, and thus were considered to be their "house" records. In an effort to maintain such exclusives, the DJs were inspired to create their own "house" records.

Chicago years: early 1980s – late 1980s

Main article: Chicago house

An honorary street sign in Chicago for house music and Frankie Knuckles.

In the early 1980s, Chicago club & radio DJs were playing various styles of dance music, including older disco 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 (Piano played by Arnold Hennings), 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.

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'". Deep house was similar to many of the messages of freedom for the black community.

The Detroit sound: early 1980s – late 1980s

Main article: Detroit techno

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 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.

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 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 albums), 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. 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, Justin Berkmann brought in Larry Levan.

The house scene in cities such as Birmingham, Leeds, 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 Trevor Fung, 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.

US: late 1980s – early 1990s

Back in America the scene had still not progressed beyond a small number of clubs in Chicago, Detroit, New York, and New Jersey. Paradise Garage in New York City was still a top club. The emergence of Todd Terry, a pioneer of the genre, was important in America, 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.

The early 1990s additionally saw the rise in mainstream US popularity for house music. Pop recording artist Madonna released single "Vogue" in 1990, which became an international hit single and topped the US charts. The single is credited as bringing house music mainstream. In such a way, mainstream, pop radio-friendly house music, also known as house-pop, grew in popularity throughout the decade.

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.

Late 1980s - 1990s

In Britain, further experiments in the genre boosted its appeal. House and rave 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. The Godskitchen superclub brand also began in the midst of the early 90's rave scene. After initially hosting small nights in Cambridge and Northampton, the associated events scaled up in Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Leeds.

A new indie dance scene also emerged in the 90's. 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 "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, 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.

2000s

Swedish House Mafia performing in 2011.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley 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 and fidget 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. Electro House is still popular in Australia, Europe and North America, where the Electro House scene has produced acts which are popular touring the world e.g. Dirty South, Tommy Trash, The Potbelleez and The Aston Shuffle

Today, innovative house music is celebrated and showcased at British Columbia's Shambhala Music Festival and at major industry sponsored events like Miami's Winter Music Conference. House Music can now even be heard in the Middle East in cities such as Dubai & Abu Dhabi at events like Creamfields headlined by international DJs and producers including Deadmau5 and David Guetta as well as local based DJs such as Greg Stainer.

As of the late 2000s, house influenced music retains widespread popularity in clubs throughout the world. House Music has also seen a comeback into the mainstream with producers like Daft Punk, Justice, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, deadmau5, Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Avicii, Fedde Le Grand,Benny Benassi, and Dada Life bringing 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.

2010s

As of 2011, the largest dance promoters in the world (Europe & North America) have shifted their main stages to a predominantly House format. The largest promoters are booking more and more House, Pop House and Electro House DJs to balance the rosters from the prior Trance/Progressive House-centric presence on the main stages. Early indicators of this trend were surfacing in 2008. Progressive House & Trance House still exhibit a healthy following at the large scale events, although do not exist anymore as the primary sound.

This current trend as of 2012, is further solidified by the world's most popular DJ, House DJ David Guetta, claiming the #1 Poll position of the DJ Mag 100 popularity poll. This trend is also evident by DJ Tiësto abandoning the Trance only sets of the past. As at 2012, Tiësto attained the #3 Poll position of the DJ Mag 100 Popularity Poll, and he refers to the styles he mainly plays as House, Electro House, and Progressive House.

A new generation of House DJs have experienced a growing fan base from the mid 2000s onwards. Examples of these DJs include but are not limited to: Eric Prydz, Afrojack, Avicii, Deadmau5, Wolfgang Gartner, Laidback Luke, Steve Aoki, Mark Knight. The mainstreamed sound produced by most of those is a fusion of tribal and tech with minimalistic elements of beat (usually only kicks and distant claps are present in the build-up) and leads past the seventh octave with portamentos plied on the first and last bars (mostly present in European compositions).

Types of house music

House music and sub-genres:

• Atmospheric Progressive house: Style that build up over the duration of the sound adding more atmosphere Example : 'C Jackson - Hold Me Up'

• 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
• Ambient house (see ambient music): Mixing the moody atmospheric sounds of New Age and ambient music with pulsating house beats. ex: The Orb etc.
• Balearic house: Balearic House is an eclectic blend of DJed dance music that originally emerged in the mid-1980s. See Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Pete Tong etc.
• Baltimore house: A form of house music in Baltimore, Maryland, interchangeably referred to as Baltimore Breaks, built on old samples drawing from a variety of genres of music and including heavy call and response and 'jingles' (singable choruses). Club music is still evolving in Baltimore, and has gone through periods of being driven by samples of popular music sped up and layered over existing loops from old house songs, to shouting out local neighborhoods and much more.
• Bassline house: A sub-genre of UK garage that began to emerge into the mainstream in the UK in late 2007. It is an evolution of UK garage but with more emphasis on bass. The scene started in 2002 at the Niche nightclub in Sheffield, which lends an alternative name for the genre.
• Bay Area house: Notable for its blend of jazz, Funk, Soul, Deep and Disco vocal. It is often light and fun sounding. It is comparable to Chicago House, as Mark Farina has been a major influence on the scene. It is unlike house in that it is rooted in the Californian music scene, where it draws reference to its influences (Downtempo, Hip-Hop, Soul, Funk). Bay Area House often incorporates minimal jazz and funk riffs to carry the beat, and also includes sampled jazz and funk solos layered over its house rhythm. See Lance Desardi, Carlos Alfonzo, Derrick Carter, JT Donaldson, and Andy Caldwell. Bay Area House record label pioneer is known to be OM Records, http://www.om-records.com.
• Blog house: Generally considered a pejorative term, Blog house is a catch-all for dance music primarily distributed through music blogs. Blog house breaks many of the established rules of house; abandoning the buildup-breakdown-buildup formula in favor of chaotic arrangement, including collaborations with rappers, and remixes of indie rock. It is often considered to be mainstreamed, and commercial. Its scene is more parallel to Rock & Myspace culture than it is to House Music Culture. It is not considered to be a true form of house music. It is more a form of the mashup/electro genres. ex: Justice, Steve Aoki, Van She, etc.
• Chicago house: Simple basslines, driving four to the floor percussion and textured keyboard lines are the elements of the original house sound. ex: Jamie Principle, Steve Silk Hurley, James Curd, Mr. Fingers, Nitro Deluxe, Farm Boy, Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Jungle Wonz, Chip E. etc.
• Classical house: A variant of Disco house. Instead of using disco samples, it uses pieces of classical music looped together.
• Dark House: It is very similar to progressive house, and may feature a slight tinge of Detroit techno, but the beats are much slower compare to other sub-genres of house music. The name "dark" comes from the lowtempo beats and the words which give the image of being somewhere not pleasant. People are often confused as to what dark-house is, and what makes it different to progressive house. ex: Deep Dish, Satoshi Tomiie, Trentemøller, John Creamer & Stephane K etc.
• Deep house: A slower variant of house (around 120 BPM) with warm sometimes hypnotic melodies. ex: Kaskade, Gemini, Glenn Underground, Kevin Yost, MK.
• Disco house: A more upfront variant of house that relies heavily on looped disco samples. ex: Dimitri from Paris, Jordan Fields, DJ Sneak, Paul Johnson, Modjo, and Stardust, Stupid Disco, Shapeshifters, Freemasons.
• Dream house: An oriented instrumental melody with relaxing beats. ex: Robert Miles, Nylon Moon.
• Dutch house: A Style of House music from the Netherlands. Often referred to as "Dirty Dutch" It has a more harder and electronic edge, sound & beat. ex:Afrojack, Chuckie (DJ), Crookers, Quazar, Dano, Booming Support, Speedy Joe, Hardwell, Switch, AmneziA etc. Dutch House is often recognisable by its high pitched lead sounds, tribal drums and minimal structure.
• Electro house: A style of dance music which has rapidly increased in popularity since the early 2000s. A common misconception is that electro house is influenced by early 80s electro, when in fact it has a lot more in common with Electroclash, Synthpop and Italo disco. ex: Steve Angello, Wolfgang Gartner, Porter Robinson, Zedd, Mord Fustang.
• Fidget house: A style of house music that involved a very erratic melody, usually consisting of very short and high pitched notes, often produced by altering the pitch of percussion instruments, based around a repetitive bass line, and hypnotic beat. ex Switch and Hervé.
• Flash house: Also called Italo house or Euro house but being especially from 1989 towards. In fact, all styles that became old fashion or oldies are Flash House.
• Freestyle house: A Latin variant of NY house music, which began development in the early 1980s by producers like John Benitez. Seen by some as an evolution of electro funk.
• French house: A late 1990s house sound developed in France. Inspired by the '70s and '80s funk and disco sounds. Mostly features a typical sound "filter" effect and lower BPM. ex: Daft Punk, Alan Braxe, Le Knight Club, Synthique
• Funky house: Funky house as it sounds today first started to develop during the late 1990s. It can again be sub-divided into many other types of house music. French house, Italian house, Disco house, Latin house and many other types of house have all contributed greatly to what is today known as Funky house. It is recognizable by its often very catchy bassline, swooshes, swirls and other synthesized sounds which give the music a bouncy tempo. It often relies heavily on black female vocals or disco samples and has a recognizable tiered structure in which every track has more than one build-up which usually reaches a climax before the process is repeated with the next track. ex: Axwell, Kid Creme, Seamus Haji, Martin Solveig, Basement Jaxx, Uniting Nations The Original, Bob Sinclar, ATFC etc.
• Garage: This term has changed meaning several times over the years. The US definition relates to New York's version of deep house, originally named after a certain style of soulful disco played at legendary club the Paradise Garage. It may also be called the Jersey Sound due to the close connection many of its artists and producers have with New Jersey such as the legendary Shep Pettibone and Tony Humphries at Zanzibar in Newark, NJ. There is also Garage House which is a style of US Garage. ex: Blaze, Colonel Abrahams, Phase II, Jomanda, NYC Peech Boys, etc. Not to be confused with speed garage or the British style nowadays called UKG or UK garage.
• Ghetto house: A derivative of Chicago house with TR-808 and 909 driven drum tracks. Usually contains call-and-response lyrics, similar to the booty music of Florida and the Ghettotech style of Detroit. ex: DJ Deeon, DJ Milton, DJ Funk, DJ D-Man
• Glass house: A style of house music from York in 1990 and 1993 that is a mix of harcore/rave.
• Glitch house: House music mixed with Glitch music. ex: Oval etc.
• Groovin house: House music with groovy tempos, with a jazzy and uplifting rhythm.
• Handbag: A form of uplifting vocal house music mainly from around the mid 1990s and played in more commercial-orientated dance music venues. Takes its name from the notion of groups of girls dancing around a pile of their handbags on the dancefloor. Examples include Loveland, Nush, etc.
• Hard house: A style of house dating back to the early nineties, hard house is defined by its aggressive sounds and distorted beats. One of the most recognizable of these is the Hoover sound, invented by Joey Beltram and recently re-popularized by dj's like Surkin or Bobmo leading to a small Hard House revival another of one of the most popular hard house tracks is Felix- Don't You Want Me, 1992.
• Hardbag house: A darker & more harder version of Handbag House.
• Hi-NRG: Pronounced "high energy". Derived from Dance music and Happy hardcore, you could say what happyhard is to techno, is what HI-NRG is to dance, it usually has female voices with natural pitch, its tempo is also around the same as techno, e.g.: DJ Nick Skitz, Miquel Brown, Kristine W, Paul Lekakis etc.
• Hip house: The simple fusion of rap with house beats. Popular for a brief moment in the late 80s. Most famous record is Jungle Brothers "Girl I'll House You." Other hip-house artists include Mr. Lee, The Outhere Brothers, MC Flipside, 2 in a Room, Reel 2 Real, Ya Kid K and Freedom Williams.
• Italo house: Slick production techniques, catchy melodies, rousing piano lines and American vocal styling typifies the Italian ("Italo") house sound. A modulating Giorgio Moroder style bassline is also a trademark of this style.
• Jazz house: The fusion of house rhythms and jazz atmospheres is a difficult style to pin down, most likely because so many artists have been influenced by jazz that it undoubtedly colors every house production ever put on wax. See: Joe Claussell, Roy Davis Jr., Faze Action, Larry Heard, Jazzanova, Mateo & Matos, St. Germain (musician) etc.
• Latin house: Borrows heavily from Latin dance music—Salsa, Brazilian beats, Latin Jazz, etc. It is most popular on the East Coast of the United States, especially in Miami and the New York City metropolitan area. Another variant of Latin house, which began in the mid-1990s, was derived in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and is based on more Mexican-centric styles of music such as Mariachi. Artists includes Proyecto Uno (known best for "El tiburón"), Artie The One Man Party (known best for "A Mover La Colita") and DJ EFX (known best for his remix of "Volver Volver").
• Leftfield house: Another house music sound from the early rave scene. ex: Leftfield, Rhythmatic etc.
• Madchester: Madchester was a music scene that developed in Manchester, England, towards the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The music that emerged from the scene mixed alternative rock, psychedelic rock and dance music.
• Melodic house: A sub-genre label of House music that DJ Daivd Guetta uses to describe certain records he plays.
• Merenhouse: Merenhouse is the combination of Merengue and House music, particularly Garage/House or House-pop. This style is most popular in the same places Latin house is most popular.
• Microhouse: Microhouse is a derivative of Tech house & Glitch House with sparse composition and production. ex: Akufen, Gamat 3000, etc.
• Minimal house: House music mixed with Minimal. It has a very futuristic house sound. ex: Egotronic, Todd Sines, Alton Miller, etc.
• New beat: A rather brief phenomenon (even for the style-a-minute world of dance music), Newbeat emerged late in the '80s as a midtempo derivation of acid house. See: The KLF, Lords of Acid etc.
• New York house: New York's uptempo dance music, referred to simply as club music by some. This type of house is popular in the extreme East Coast in areas like New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, New England, Boston, Philadelphia, and sometimes Baltimore and Washington DC.
• Oriental house: Oriental house is a heavy dose of samples featuring traditional Asian, North African, Middle Eastern instruments or vocals culled from Asian, North African, Middle Eastern folk music. See: Africanism All Stars, Sezen Aksu, Dana International, Amr Diab, Elissa (singer), Serdar Ortaç, Tarkan etc.
• Piano house: Piano House is the cousin of Italo House. However, piano house is filled with electronic piano strings. ex: baffa, Electric Choc, Denno Lenny, System, Eric Prydz, Alex Christensen etc.
• Pop house: Pop house or house-pop is more also known as "commercial dance" music as it is not strictly house nor strictly dance-pop. It usually features 4/4 beats and deep bassline as house and the incessantly catchy melodies of dance-pop. ex: Krush, Bomb The Bass, Coldcut., Yazz, Danni Minogue, Inna, Madeon, Penthouse 4 etc.
• Progressive house: Progressive house is typified by accelerating peaks and troughs throughout a track's duration, and are, in general, less obvious than in hard house. Layering different sound on top of each other and slowly bringing them in and out of the mix is a key idea behind the progressive movement. Some of this kind of music sounds like a cousin of trance music. ex: Deadmau5, John Digweed, "Liberation", Sasha, Dave Seaman, Moguai, Nick Warren etc.
• Pumpin house: A style of house Music that grew in popularity that relies on steady pumped up rhythms ex: Eric Prydz, The Housecrushers etc.
• Rave house: A sub-genre label of house music that originated from the styles of house that were typically played in the rave scene of the 1993-1999 period. It is a term used by the general population who do not follow the house or trance scene specifically, but identify certain house records as 'rave music'. It is a loose term that generally identifies progressive house or trance house styles (often instrumental with no words) that one would imagine being played at a large rave.
• Swing house: Swing house is a genre of electronic dance music that fuses 1920s-1940s jazz styles including swing music and big band with 2000s styles including house music, electro music, hip hop, drum n bass, and dubstep. ex. Caravan Palace, Parov Stelar etc.
• Soulful house: House music based on the more smoother & soulful vocal or rhythmic instrumentals. See also vocal house which covers too wide a spectrum and which could include most other genres listed on this page that have vocals.
• Tech house: House music with elements of techno in its arrangement and instrumentation. ex: Benny Benassi, Dave Angel etc.
• Technohouse: House music with techno that was popular in the early rave scene. ex: Bizarre Inc., Tricky Disco, Forgemasters, Neux 21, Orbital, The Hypnotist, Cubik22, R&V, Space Opera, Chubby Chunks, Basstonik, Man With No Name, Model 500 Unique 3, etc. It is not to be confused with Tech house, which is a latter version of Technohouse.
• Trance house: Is a sub-genre label of House music that originated from the Acid House movement and rave scene. In 2010, Tiesto broadcasted the style in the media as Trouce.
• Tribal house: Popularized by remixer/DJ Junior Vasquez in New York, characterized by lots of percussion and world music rhythms.
• UK hard house: In the US, a harder, more aggressive form of Chicago house. Sometimes contains elements of Ghetto house, Hip house. ex: CZR, DJ Bam Bam, Abstract Beating System. In the UK, hard house was what is now known as Hard dance.
• US hard house: Sometimes referred as "new style" in the late 90s, with many of its producers originating from Los Angeles, record labels such as UC Music, Abstract Records, Waxworks, where some of the best known labels. artists such as George Centeno, The Mad Man Darren R., Dj Venom, Dj Nemesis, Michael Trance, Mark V and Poogie Bear from the 90s to about 2005. Dj Tronic from Resistance Recordings, Splatterhouse, and many others took the mantle and even to this day produce the sounds.
• Vocal house: Composed of soulful vocals and often jazz loops.

See also

• House dance
• List of house artists
• Styles of house music
• 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

• Template:Dmoz
• The History of House (2004) HouseKeeping: Funky House DJs from the UK
• Excerpt taken From the book, What Kind Of House Party Is This?
• History of House History of House music and legal MP3 DJ mixes.
• The House Music Forum The House Music Forum.