Mention house music and it must bring to mind glittering dance floors, or busy electronic music festivals, audiences moving with the DJ's beat drop, images full of futuristic atmosphere. House music in fact matured as a style as early as the 1980s. A DJ at the time, Jesse Saunders, sampled passages from different songs, added accompaniment from other drum machines and remixed them into one track; that track became what many consider the first house music tape – On & On.
But in tracing the roots of house music, we can see it as what disco music transformed into, or rather, the foundation of house music is disco music. In that period, for a time many discos
As for why House music is called House? Some say the name comes from a Chicago nightclub, the Warehouse Nightclub — the venue where the legendary DJ Frankie Knuckles held a residency, and where he and a group of DJs developed a musical format unlike any other from various electronic drum machines, including the long-famous 808 drum machine and the 303 drum machine used widely in Acid House — these were the elements that gave birth to House music. When their records were first sold, they were promoted as ‘heard at the Warehouse (Nightclub)’, and through word of mouth the phrase was gradually shortened to House music. Besides Frankie Knuckles, the early creators of House music included Larry Heard (that is, Mr Fingers & Fingers Inc.), Chip E, Tyree Cooper, Rocky-Jones, Ron Hardy, DJ Leonard “Remix” Roy and others; their experimental spirit can be said to have encouraged the various innovations and transformations House music underwent later.
Most House music is built on a 4/4 beat from electronic drum machine sounds, combined with sounds created on various electronic instruments and a wide range of samples, including musical fragments from Jazz, Blues, Synth-pop and other styles, accompanied by a mostly heavier, fuller bassline — this forms the basic structure of House music. To this day, House music has developed into many varied types.
House music has now developed a considerable number of subgenres; the more mainstream ones include deep house, acid house, future house, garage house and tropical house. Below we briefly introduce the characteristics discussed above one by one:
Deep House
Deep House is one of the more Jazz-, Soul- and Funk-influenced forms of House music, and is a slower-tempo style of House music.
Ethyl & Flori Coney － Island Boppers
Acid House
Acid House emphasises a repetitive rhythmic style and aims at a hypnotic, psychedelic effect. Some say the word Acid relates to drugs such as LSD and Ecstasy (MDMA), popular in clubs; early productions were mostly made with the Roland TB-303 drum machine.
Mr. Fingers ((Mystery Of Love))
Garage House
Garage House is one of the forms of House music that originated in New York and New Jersey. Garage House is largely piano-led House music, and mostly emphasises the accompaniment of vocals, with female voices particularly suited to it. Some explain Garage house as a form of House Music influenced by Soul and Disco music.
Adeva – In And Out Of My Life
Future House
Future House is a form of House music that became popular in the UK in the 2010s, blending elements of Deep House and UK Garage, and at times incorporating production techniques from electronic dance music (EDM).
Disclosure – Latch feat. Sam Smith
Tropical House
Tropical House is a relatively new House music style, emphasising a summer, tropical feel, with instruments such as saxophone and synthesisers; the feel is generally lighter than Deep House styles of House music.
Kygo – Firestone ft. Conrad Sewell
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