What Is House Music?

So many people have asked me this from all over the world that I thought that its time to write something about it, and help people understand what it\'s all about. I thought I would try and put something positive together to help you certain people out there.

But this is my outlook on what House is, and how it came about. It is not definitive angle on how House music got started. It is through years of reading books, talking to dj\'s and producers, and going to club nights that has allowed me to throw down my opinions as to what House music is.

Disco and House music!

House music was first and foremost, the direct descendant of \"Disco\". Many older and wiser Chicago, New York and New Jersey House dj\'s will agree with me on this. They will acknowledged that fact that it was due to New York\'s, huge Disco club and music scene that helped to create the music of House and Garage and its culture within Chicago, Usa.

Frankie Knuckles, the acknowledged \"godfather\" of Chicago house, got his start as a Dj via Manhattan, New York, Usa. Whilst there he was spinning Disco, Philly Soul records during the early 1970s with another legendary deejay figure, the late, great Larry Levan, New York.

Disco, the music that everyone loves to \"joke\" about or \"snigger\" about had already been going on for 10 years when the first electronic drum tracks began to appear out of Chicago, Usa. A great Description of Disco can be explain to us like this.

\"The first days of Disco were filled with hope, and joy. The last days of Disco might seem very similar the fall of the Roman Empire\".

Disco music presided over a era of social change, such as War in Vietnam, the Oil Criss in the early 1970\'s, Economic recession, and also Improved social conditions with regards to the Black and Gay population within the Usa.

Also Disco was the one music\'s that was to carry forward the ideas of the late 1960\'s \"Hippy Philosophy\" of \"Making love not war\". But with Disco music and culture it went onto carried on the Hippy philosophy of making love and not war - in more fun and acceptable way for one and all. If I do say so myself on a more grander and a more sophisticated level.

On a musical tip, Disco, revoluntionise music as we used to view it. It also changed how we viewed club culture today around the world. Disco music and culture helped change how radio programing was to be done in the future, and lastly it had a important effect on how the balance of power in the music industry had between the small independent labels and the major labels records.

By the end of its regin (*Disco music) was also responsible for the commercial

creation of the 12 inch single to be made available for the general public and Dj\'s alike. The \"remix\"that has become standard practice within dance music, and a new set of studio techniques were available for imaginative dance music producers that heralded from the Disco Craze.

As for the Dj, this was his time. This was when the Dj as we know him today came of age; and we have Disco music to thank for this.

By the end of the 1970\'s, some 200,000 people frequented Disco night clubs or events in New York City alone every weekend. Disco accounted for anywhere up to 40% of the singles chart (Usa), and was estimated at bring in over $4 Billion dollars in the late 1970\'s.

This form of entertainment was making more money then big movies of the time, also including professional sport within the Usa!! - Source taken from the Book called \"Last Night a Dj saved my life\" - Headline Press - London

However, \"Disco\" eventually got captured by commercial exploitation, which led to the strong and huge rally against the Disco music culture called \"Disco Sucks\" campaign in the late 1970\'s. In one bizarre and extreme incident, people/s attending a baseball game in Chicago\'s Komishi Park - Chicago White Sox Baseball team, were to witness something that they would remember for the rest of their lives!

Dj Steve Dahl who had hated Disco musicand culture that had spread right across the Usa had been whipping up a Anti Disco feeling via his All-Rock radio show called \"WLUP\" for a few years.

He encouraged as many of the fans of the Chicago White Sox Baseball team to bring along all their unwanted Disco records, which after the game all were all tossed onto a massive bonfire and got rid off that way- (Date being 12th July, 1979). Disco music and its culture eventually collapsed under a heaving weight of crass disco versions of pop records and an ever-increasing volume of records that were simply no good.

But the underground scene of dance music already knew that its time was up, and were already beginning to develop a new style that was deeper, rawer and more designed to make people dance even more so then Disco.

Disco music had already produced the first records to be aimed specifically at DJs with extended \"12 inch\" versions that included long percussion breaks for mixing purposes and the early eighties proved a vital turning point; and for that alone we must be grateful!

Tracks such as Sinnamon\'s \"Thanks To You\", D-Train\'s \"You\'re The One For Me\" and The Peech Boys \"Don\'t Make Me Wait\", are records that have been continually sampled over the last decade and these records have allowed for Dj\'s or Djs/ producers to take a different direction on looking how music can be made. These tracks mentioned above with their sparse, synthesized sounds that introduced dub effects and drop-outs that had never been heard before by them.

The First House Records??

Disco music with added electronica is one way of describling House music, although the phrase \"House music\" wasn\'t used in its early days of its existence. In fact, the nightspot known as the \"Warehouse\" within Chicago, Usa had existed since 1977, and it was only when at the time that New York born DJ Frankie Knuckles moved to a discotheque in Chicago, that the peoples began to talk about House music, as in, the music that was played over at the Warehouse.

In the mid 1980s, cheap electronic equipment appeared, Trax records was founded in Chicago, and a new rawer, sleazier sound was being championed by Dj Ron