World-Class House Music, House Dance Videos, and the Adventures of Danny Dance

When was the last time you asked someone for an off-the-cuff answer to the question: Can you tell me about the history of House Music?

Recently, a friend asked me that very question, so, 3 in the morning though it was, I set about answering her.   I sat in front of my blinking text cursor and summoned up my last wind of the day, and then…out poured a flurry of 20 minutes’ worth of words.  You can probably read it in about 5 minutes—hence the title.

Keep in mind that this is probably how I’d answer if someone asked me the same question in person; I don’t claim to have encyclopedic knowledge of the culture’s history, but rather a conversation-starting ‘mental map’ of a general story, one that—since House Music is still in its youth (formally going on 30 or so)—continues to evolve.  So don’t take this as canon.

Here’s what I wrote to my friend:

So the history of House in a nutshell…that’s pretty complicated, haha! There are two stories:

1) House Music came from Chicago, when a young DJ by the name of Frankie Knuckles moved from New York City to Chicago in the late 70s to take a DJ residency at a new club called The Warehouse. By the early 80s, Frankie’s way of playing at The Warehouse—taking old school disco record vocals and playing them on top of programmed drum machines—proved to be a major hit in the city. Soon, artists like Jesse Saunders, Marshall Jefferson, and Ron Hardy started making their own House records, greatly influenced by Disco, and DJs like Frankie started playing them in clubs throughout Chicago.
Jesse Saunders – On and On (First House Track on Vinyl) [1984] by Dance Is A Feeling Blog 2

At the same time, The Hot Mix 5, a group of five radio DJs with a show on a local radio station, also started playing House Music on their show, and with so many DJs, radio jockeys, and local producers pushing House, a new culture was born!

2) The reality is probably much deeper. Frankie (Knuckles) gets a lot of credit, and the name “House” is said by some people to come from the shortened name for “The Warehouse”. But Frankie actually played a lot of different kinds of music. It used to be more Open Format, except this was before Hip-Hop took off, so Open Format used to mean Disco, Soul, Rhythm & Blues, Funk, and the newer stuff they were calling House (which was actually a LOT slower and VERY different from what we consider House to be today). Not only that, but other House DJs and scenes were popping up (or had already popped up) in places like Baltimore (where Ultra Nate, Karizma, DJ Spen, and others are from) and New York (with its legendary clubs like the “Paradise Garage” where Larry Levan used to play, and “The Loft” with David Mancuso). Those three cities especially, and cities in the Northeast generally, have an ongoing debate among themselves about where House really came from, and the reality is probably a blend of all those different cities’ stories.

Eventually, House Music crossed over to Europe, and became especially popular in the UK, where a new form of House—Acid House—was invented, later to be followed by something called “Garage“, which was similar to House in its beats and rhythms. At the same time, Detroit’s Techno had crossed over, and the rest of Europe was starting to mess around with Trance as well. For these reasons, electronic music sort of blew up way more (there) than it did in the U.S., which exists to this day.

Eventually, the European influences, like Italo-Disco, Balearic, and other, newer styles of House Music, crossed back into the U.S., and the 90s saw a huge explosion in House’s popularity worldwide. House records, and House remixes of non-House records, could be heard on the radio and seen on MTV (like Armand Van Helden‘s remix of Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow”, and Madonna’s House-influenced “Vogue“).

New York City and Chicago both saw a ton of new artists, singers, and releases, with classic labels like Defected, Trax Records, Strictly Rhythm, and a ton more sprouting throughout the globe as a result. Eventually, at least in the U.S., the music got deeper and more underground, though I’m not sure why (this post-90s era is hazy to me, and I’m still studying it). I do know that towards the start of the 2000s, a newer, edgier sound was emerging, mixing funky elements with much more heavily synthesized instrumentation. One of these branches of House came to be called French House, and the production DJ duo “Daft Punk” eventually saw worldwide super-success in dance music.

(end of message to my friend)

There is, of course, so much more to tell.  Personally, I’m still learning, and there’s a gaping hole in my knowledge of the past decade, since I started DJing in 2008 and hadn’t really experienced House culture up until that point.  But I definitely encourage you to read more about the rich history of the culture.  Here are a few suggested links:

• The History of House Music by Phil Cheeseman (Reprinted on Virtual DJ Blog): Super lengthy, thorough history of what happened with House Music in the 80s.  Originally printed in DJ Mag
• Wikipedia | House Music: Wikipedia gets a worse rap than it deserves.  This is a great primer and overview on House and its subgenres
• Ishkur’s (Interactive) Guide to Electronic Music: A basic but extensive interactive guide to all electronic music styles.  Love the visual branches and music samples.
• Pump Up The Volume | The History of House Music (Video Series): Seminal documentary on House Music’s history and evolution as told by the legendary DJs, producers, artists, and industry insiders that created it.  I put together a 15-part Youtube playlist and you can check it out below