House Music - story and sounds (English / Deutsch)

House Music – the roots and more

Music community - from time to time I write about the history and roots of certain music style. As of today's Wednesday House some words about this genre - some might know this, some not, some do not care and only want to listen to the music or watch some videos - these can scroll down a bit. Kudos to @andyjaypowell for creating the Day of House!

So let us have a little look back into the roots of House music. The style is considered as a genre of electronic (dance) music created in Chicago during the early 1980ies. I wrote about that already in the past:

The characteristic 4/4 beats have been created mainly by music producers and club DJs. The typical House rhythms contained a mix of drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals and synthesizer bass lines. House was electronic and minimalistic with repetitive rhythm and was originally influenced by Disco music. While Disco usually included vocal the house of the first generation was often only instrumental music.

House - US or European invention?

Even widely considered as a Chicago based genre there are also other roots to talk about - at least some of them influenced the rise of House across the world. In Europe early electronic pop such as Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk as well as disco sounds by Klein & MBO or Giorgio Moroder should be considered as influential for the worldwide rise of House Music in general.

The originals from Chicago outlined

As already mentioned in the past we can not deny that House has been developed in Chicago originally:

Some famous house clubs have been the Chicago Warehouse and New York’s Paradise Garage, which promoted European music and welcomed guests of all kind. In the Chicago underground dance scene DJs began to mix several styles including synth pop, rap, dub reggae and even jazz into their tracks. This new music movement was linked to the Black and gay subculture before it became popular to the masses worldwide starting its success in New York, Detroit and London. During the early years a lot independent record labels in these cities were founded which changed in the late 1980ies when House artists suddenly where able to sign deals with major labels. Commercial success made the genre a part of the Pop scene and several other genres were creating created for example tech house, electro house, euro house or jump house. A very popular one is acid house which was based around deep electronic tunes compiled with the Roland TB-303 bass machine – a creation of magic. A lot different definitions and opinions on house are spread across the world and a lot major top acts started to include house to their work in the 1990ies already – Madonna, Robin S., Kylie Minogue and even Björk were amongst them to name some. The music success got even larger during the second wave of progressive house between 1999 and 2001 with several new subgenres been created like future or ghetto house.

Listen to some House tracks of the early days starting with Phuture - a true US acid-house group of electronic musicians from Chicago - members been Spanky, DJ Pierre and Herb J. with their legendary "Acid Tracks" from 1987. This production is widely recognised as the first real acid house record.

Second one is by DJ Larry Heard aka Mr. Fingers with the 1986 track "Can You Feel It" which is considered as one of the first deep house productions. This is one of the songs I already loved in my youth and that inspired a lot other DJs for great remixed - a legend!

House - wo kommt es her?

House ist als Bestandteil von EDM nicht mehr weg zu denken - es gibt sehr viele Unterarten und schwimmende Grenzen, daher auch viele unterschiedliche Meinungen was nun House, Techno, Disco oder Kommerz ist - daher kurz aus dem offiziellen Buch der Geschichte als Wikipedia, was die Begriffs-Nazis auch nicht immer zufriedenstellt lol - und zwei Masterpieces aus den 1980er Anfangszeit, der zweite Track, den ihr oben klicken könnt ist für mich einfach nur Mega Sahne!

House ist eine populäre Stilrichtung der elektronischen Tanzmusik, die in den 1980er Jahren in den USA entstand. Typisch ist der meist durch einen Drumcomputer erzeugte Rhythmus im 4/4-Takt im Tempo von etwa 110 bis 130 Beats per minute: Die Bassdrum auf jeder Viertelnote („Four to the Floor“), Snareschläge bzw. Handclaps auf jeder zweiten Viertelnote, sowie offene Hi-Hats auf der Zwischen-Achtelnote.

House gilt als einer der ersten erfolgreichen Stile der elektronischen Tanzmusik und ist heute nach wie vor sehr beliebt; es entstehen ständig neue Varianten. Die Musikrichtung beeinflusste insbesondere die Entstehung des sehr erfolgreichen Techno mitsamt seiner Szene. Beide Stile ähneln sich sehr und sind zum Teil schwer voneinander abzugrenzen, wobei mit Techno jedoch generell schnellere und „maschineller“ klingende Musik bezeichnet wird als mit House. Der Name „House“ rührt vom ersten Club her, in dem diese Musikrichtung aufgelegt wurde, dem Warehouse in Chicago.