A Little Background on House Music
House music is a type of music that is a sytle of electronics dance music. It was first developed in the mid 1980’s in Chicago by club DJ’s. Funk dance music and disco style music is found in house music. It is not known why it is called house music. It is rumoured to have originated in a club call the Warehouse. Warehouse parties were very popular in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s in Chicago. These warehouses were underground and in attendance were mostly gay Black and Latino men.
Frankie Knuckles was the DJ at the Warehouse and he mixed European synthpop music with mixed classic disco music, punk recordings, industrial music and new wave music for people who frequented the club regularly. It is said that it was those people that started referring to the music as house music. This fact is disputed by musician Larry Heard claims that the DJ’s record most of the music at their house and that is why is it called house music. Another DJ Chip E claims that the term house music came from a type of recording at a studio. That is why it is mentioned above that these stories are only rumoured because it is unknown for sure.
House music grew quickly because wherever people were gathering to listen to music whether it be in clubs or at friends’ houses, they started listening to house music. It then started being played on commercial radio stations which made the popularity grow even more. Because of it being longer and with more of a concept than regular music, they started combining it with regular musical instruments to give it a more verstile sound. House music is still very popular today worldwide. Musicians, producers and DJ’s all contribute to the success of house music and making it more popular.
The mayor of Chicago recently announced that August 10th from now on be “House Unity Day” in the city of Chicago. Also Detroit, New York and Atlanta are just some of the cities where racially mixed populations are catching up to Chicago and the rest of the world with the popularity of House Music. This craze of House Music is worldwide including countries like Canada, Australia, Scandinavia and Germany as well as all over the U.S.