House 1.0 (1985 - 1992)
Related: house music - proto house music
Adding electronica to disco begot house music, although the phrase 'house music' had not yet been coined. In fact, the Warehouse (geddit?) had existed since 1977, and it was only at the time that New York born DJ Frankie Knuckles moved to a discotheque in Chicago that people began to talk about house music, as in, the music that was played over at the Warehouse. In the mid 1980s, cheap electronica happened, Trax records was founded in Chicago, and a new rawer, sleazier sound was being championed by Ron Hardy at the Music Box. House crossed the distance to New York with the track ‘Mysteries of Love’ by Mr. Fingers. The 110bpm original instrumental becomes an anthem at the Garage after Levan gets hold of it on acetate. In the late eighties, New York rose again with Todd Terry introducing sampling to house music.
Intro
We have talked about how disco with added electronic instruments such as drum machines became house music, although the phrase 'house music' had not yet been coined.
In fact, the Warehouse (geddit?) had existed since 1977, and it was only at the time that New York born DJ Frankie Knuckles moved to a discotheque in Chicago that people began to talk about house music, as in, the music that was played over at the Warehouse.
In the mid 1980s, cheap electronica happened, Trax records was founded in Chicago, and a new rawer, sleazier sound was being championed by Ron Hardy at the Music Box. House crossed the distance to New York with the track ‘Mysteries of Love’ by Mr. Fingers. The 110bpm original instrumental becomes an anthem at the Garage after Levan gets hold of it on acetate. In the late eighties, New York rose again with Todd Terry introducing sampling to house music. House and club culture have largely defined pop music during the nineties, and it is generally acknowledged that producer duo MAW played a defining role in the continuation of the house sound. [2003]
House music's roots lie in the spontaneous combustion that was a handful of Chicago clubs in the early 1980s. In the days when clubs only needed one DJ, that DJ was in a position to make waves. And in a city where the clubs were usually soundtracked by jukeboxes, those waves could become a storm. Frankie Knuckles came to take up the residency of Chicago's Warehouse in 1977, bringing a style and technique pioneered in, and previously only known to, New York's clubs like Larry Levan's Paradise Garage and loft parties, such as mixing and programming a set and the use of reel to reel tapes. Word spread about Knuckles' disco, soul and funk phenomenon and The Warehouse quickly became the place to be for a party-hungry gay crowd. This, it is commonly accepted, is where the term 'house' originates. Knuckles himself has denied 'inventing' house, so what we are talking about here is more a style of playing music based on the idea of a musical flow and transition - for all Walter Gibbons & co's remixes, no-one had yet made A House Record. -- Max Renn