NEWS
EVENTS
It's My House and I Live Here
House | Wednesday 11th September 2013 | Nyasha
There has been a surge in the craze around house music, especially within young people. But where did it all come from? Many new listeners don’t tend to do research into the genre of music now taking up most of their time.
This is an insight into the history of the commercial house subgenre which is easily accessible and identifiable by new and old house music listeners. Also those people that aren’t very fond of the genre but have been forced to listen to it from adverts to soap operas.
It started off underground, made in people’s basements and played in underground clubs in Chicago. Elements of house music were evident in songs from Madonna and U2 who were Pop artists. The idea was that House music was a feeling and made you want to dance, the same as most music genres. It started off as Disco grooves just revamped and it was in fact gay people and Black people that kept the movement going in the underground scene. ‘Saturday Night Fever’ the film starring John Travolta, was released around this time as well and this lead to the birth of disco music into the mainstream, being played on radio and more elite clubs.
The Paradise Garage was opened in Jan 1978 and was home of the DJ Larry Levan. [I Got My Mind Made Up – Larry Levan Mix]
The club was home to disco music. Anyone that was anyone would be there. Larry was described as more than a DJ he wanted everyone to enjoy his music. The club was well known for their open nature, often telling people that they were going to spike the punch on that particular night, people were taking drugs in the club and people would end up having sex within the club. It was acceptable, it was the reaction to the music and anything goes. Larry Levan was able to create the comfortableness of a house party and the atmosphere of a house party, in a club, with around 2000 people present.
The transition from page to stage seems too simple and of course it was. DJ Steve Dahl launched an ‘Anti Disco Campaign’ which was basically Rock & Roll VS Disco music. They would blow up records of this disco music at their demonstrations. Its suggested that there was a darker reason behind this a more racial one, where people weren’t just blowing up disco records, they actually were turning up at these demonstrations with records from black artists and blowing them up.
This meant that disco music soon went out of commission and was taken off the radio and record labels. People were just no longer interested.
This was not the end the movement just found its way back underground. The Warehouse Club became the only club in Chicago where you could hear music of this type. The resident DJ was Frankie Knuckles and he literally was the resident DJ there was never a day when he wasn’t there. He revamped Euro-Pop music and disco music using his decks and created a name for himself. The clubs audience consisted of mostly gay people however after a while the audience expanded and people of all walks of life became the faces in the crowd.
People soon found themselves going to the record stores asking for The Warehouse music which then, like human nature causes us to do, was shortened to just house music. This is where the genre got its name from and record shops would label this music as house music. With a limit of tunes available to DJs meant that they had to get creative on their decks and start creating combinations using songs that sounded good together.
DJs started using drum machines to create all new music. The Warehouse Club became home to DJ Ron Hardy after Frankie Knuckles left and the name changed to The Music Box. It wasn’t a competition between the two DJs though and the changeover was very humble.
After a while with the genre booming it soon found itself to the UK, after an uneasy ride here being referred to as ‘Chicago homo music’ it soon became a hit it was the only music that people used to actually let themselves go listening to. The disco elements are identifiable in most of the tracks from this era.
Have a listen to:
[“Welcome To The Pleasure Dome” – Frankie Goes To Hollywood]
[“Your Love” – Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle]
[“On and On” – Jesse Saunders]
[“Time To Jack” – Chip E]
[“Can You Feel It” – Larry Heard]
[“Carino” – T-Coy]
