I do not expect this to be the most active thread since house music is not everyone’s cup of tea but since I have been noticing house music pop up in skate videos over the last few years I thought it was time to start one. I searched to make sure there wasn’t one yet, so please forgive me if there was. I saw the electronic music thread that had 28 pages but electronic music is a very broad term and that thread has been inactive since May 2017.
House music is an often misunderstood genre so I’ll start things off with an oversimplified explanation of how it got its name:
The story all starts at an amazing discotheque on 84 King Street in NYC called The Paradise Garage. A dj named Larry Levan became a legend there whose track selection, dj’ing style, and mixing/ production work (
https://www.discogs.com/Larry-Levan-Larry-Levans-Paradise-Garage/master/256156) set the foundation for many different dance music scenes that thrive today. Back then people started to call his style and taste in music “Garage.” Basically it was very soulful disco and Rn’B that was fun to dance to and pretty far removed from the commercialized “Disco Duck” type stuff that gained more attention in popular culture.
Among Larry Levan’s dj friends was the one and only Frankie Knuckles. Knuckles moved to Chicago in the late 70’s and was an ambassador of the Garage sound in Chicago. He played as resident dj at a club called The Warehouse at 206 South Jefferson Street. As he inspired the locals with his style, they began calling the music “House Music” over time. By the early 80’s Jesse Saunders, Steve “Silk” Hurley, Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, and other young producers in Chicago began creating music that officially donned the “House Music” label and the Chicago sound in general became more associated with synthesizers and drum machines than the more live-band disco sound of New York. Of course the two cities went on to influence each other many times and you cannot forget about what was happening in Detroit… the birth of Techno.
Again, this is an oversimplification and I have left out many important details. “Meastro” is a good documentary and will give you a much more detailed account of the formation of this genre. I left out The Loft to keep it neat but the importance of David Mancuso’s private loft parties cannot be overstated.
Enough talk, let’s listen. Here is the first house track that moved me:
The Documentary: