Mash-up

House Music Genres

Electronic dance music encompasses a type of music developed for club goers. House music originated in Chicago in the early 1980s and by 1985, house moved out of Chicago’s exclusivity to other major cities across North America. Soon the house music craze moved to Europe, South America and later Australia. House music saw great success in Europe with MARRS Pump up the Volume, House Nation by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boys of House. Moving on Coldcut in 1988 released Doctrin’ the House which reached high up in the pop charts. Currently, house music is infused with pop and electronics and is considered a part of electronic dance music.

House music uses repetitive 4/4 beats and rhythms provided by drum machines, synthesized bass lines, and hi-hat cymbals slightly off beat. House music at one time was almost like disco combined with soul and probably had had its start with disco dance music. The flashing and psychedelic lights of disco moved over for laser light shows, but house music was a bit more minimalistic and used electronics. House music is characterized by repetitive themes. The lyrics of the melodies were not as important as the steady repetitive beats.

House music probably originated in a Chicago nightclub called The Warehouse. Most of the patrons of The Warehouse were black and Latino, who came to dance to music played by DJ Frankie Knuckles. The Warehouse closed in 1983, but the crowds still craved house music. They migrated to The Power Plant a club opened by DJ Frankie Knuckles.

House music, at one time, had a political influence. Those who were outcasts of society; the drug addicts, homeless, and rebellious young and black males found the lyrical themes particularly upbeat. Fans in clubs just got happy and screaming as they jived to the deep beats. Messages of freedom were often subliminally placed in 1980s house music. One onlooker described house music at The Warehouse as church with every one spiritually possessed.

House music in today’s EDM world still has the prominent kick drum on every beat, but it does vary according to the producer who is playing the music. Listen, and you may hear soulful deep house and minimalistic micro-house. Chicago house music has now merged with euro house, tech house, electro house and jump house.

Types of House Music

Euro house music is a specific style of club/dance music coming out of Europe. Euro-house emerged in the 1980s with dance music, pop music and a background of beats that were remarkably House music influenced. Performed in the recording studio on synthesizers and drum machines, DJs and producers are very responsible for the finished product. Singers are not as influential in Euro house/dance music as they are in pop music.

Progressive house is a sub-genre of house music. This style came to the forefront in the early 1990s and was developed initially in the United Kingdom. Progressive means experimentation forms of music from the mainstream styles. Progressive house music was used by DJs and producers to distinguish different types of lyrics, instruments and sounds introduced into traditional house music. For example, Swedish progressive house music is snare-less with the rise of Eric Prydz, Alesso, Avicii, and Swedish House Mafia. This type of EDM is growing in attention thanks to Tomorrowland and Ultra Music Festival.

Deep House is also a subgenre of house music that came from Chicago in the 1980s. The length of deep house dance music is usually around 10 minutes and tempos range in from 120 to 130 beats per minute. You almost have an acoustic feeling with deep house. There are complex melodies and the use of unrelated chromatic chords in most sequences. You may find a soul or lounge sound to the vocals.

Deep house was pioneered by Marshall Jefferson’s On the House and Larry Heard’s mixes. Intermixed with tracks of Mystery of Love and Can You Feel It? deep house comes from deep down. The sound includes opulent and soulful sounds plus the use of electric pianos and the Wurlitzer and Hammond organs.

Funk house, a subgenre of house music, is a very loose definition of disco influenced house music. There is a traditional four to the floor house beat and heavy use of synthesizers, soulful vocals, samples and instrumental tracks. Producers who work with funk music include Soul Central, Freemasons, Armand van Helden, and Seamus Haji. Very commercial, funk house is not to be confused with funky house or UK garage band music heavily based on R&B songs with vocals over a broken soca style beat. Soca is a style of Caribbean music and is an offshoot of calypso. Awesome when used with electronics.

Electro house dance music also includes electro, electroclash, some pop, synthpop and tech house. The term electro house is used to describe Kaskade, Knife Party, Madeon, Porter Robinson and Zedd’s music. Electro house uses prominent bassline with short and high-pitched riffs. There is minimal use of percussion. It can be somewhat abrasive with electro influenced synths and vocal samples. The tempo is around 128 to 130 beats per minute. Electro house tends to have a “dirty” bass sound. Dirty bass came from distorted saw waves.

Dutch house is a style of electro house that originated from the Netherlands and became highly popular in 2009. Dutch house is characterized by very complex rhythms from Latin-influenced drum kits. There is a low emphasis on basslines. You will not hear the squeaky and high pitched lead synths In Dutch house.

Big Room, developed in the early 2010s is gaining popularity through EDM event and festivals. Big room uses Dutch house and incorporates drops with percussion, regular beats, synth-driven breakdowns and simple melodies. The big room track is just like an electro house song only, well, big.

The best way to learn about, experience and love house music is to download music from Beatport or other sites, play and listen to the music. Once you have experienced this awesome sound using headphones turned up high, you will know what you have been missing.