House music originated in 1980s Chicago, pioneered by Frankie Knuckles at clubs like "The Warehouse". It featured repetitive 4/4 beats and synthesized basslines. In the late 1980s, house music gained popularity globally and was infused with mainstream pop in the early 1990s. The UK developed chill house in the 1990s. Illegal raves featuring house music were also common in the UK during this period. From 2000-2010, vocals became more prominent in house music and festivals dedicated to the genre emerged. From 2010 onward, progressive house rose in popularity through artists like Swedish House Mafia. However, few prominent female DJs have achieved the same global success as their male counterparts in the house music genre
2. Genre Definition: A style or category of art, music, or
literature.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
The Genre I have chosen is electronic house music, in this
presentation I will be presenting my research and findings on the
genre and conventions of the genre. I will be using the internet and
two house music magazines that I bought; DJ mag and MixMag.
3. House music is a sub-genre of Electronic dance music or EDM as it has been abbreviated to. It originally burst on
to the scene in the early 1980’s in Chicago pioneered by one man in particular, Frankie Knuckles he played at “The
Warehouse” in New York which was owned by his friend Robert Williams. It was at “The Warehouse” where he
began to develop his style which later became house music. The club mainly attracted gay black men but it
gradually began to attract straighter and whiter crowds due to the popularity of Frankie's music. More and more
DJ’s began to adopt the style that Frankie had created which was the repetitive 4/4 beats of electronic drum and
cymbals with the synthesized baseline.
As house music lost is link with gay and African-American more and more people started to follow the movement
which lead to regional scenes starting up across the states.
Then toward the mid to late 1980s house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities across the globe.
This is not commonly known and I find it very interesting that house music was in its very early years an African-
American and gay culture. As I have only knows house music in my life time to be linked to clubs and house
parties.
Frankie Knuckles
Street
named after
Frankie
Knuckles
where “The
Warehouse”
used to be
4. House music really found its success across the world but especially across Europe when
songs such as “Pump Up The Volume”, “House Nation” and “Doctorin’ The House” these songs
release between 1987-88 along with a whole host of other house music songs. 1988 is the year
that made house music known to the masses even if it wasn't liked by many they still knew
about it.
House began to be infused with mainstream pop and dance music from the early 1990’s with
songs being number one in the charts featuring some sort of house music vibe.
The UK put on its own twist on house music during the 1990’s. The chilling out concept
originated in Britain. Chill house aimed to replace the harsher synthetic instruments with lighter
ones such as bells and chimes. This has since become very popular world wide and has
become a summer favorite of many.
The house music of 1990’s had very bad connotations linked with it which put a lot of people off
the movement and almost created a step back. Illegal raves were common across the UK with
people breaking into abandoned buildings, usually warehouses and raving to house music
(mainly acid house). Drugs were
also rife at illegal raves with pills
and acid being traded freely
between ravers. The police worked
tirelessly to keep illegal raves from
happening. It was almost seen as a
clash between young and old.
5. The 21’st century can be clearly defined in two evolutions, 2000-10 and 2010-present. Not a lot came from 2000-10 in
terms of technical advancements or changes apart from adding vocals to songs. DJ’s such as the Swedish House
Mafia and Avicii really solidifying vocals into there tracks. It was working in favor of house music as house music had
its place in the UK top 40 and people from all backgrounds began to become casual listeners. Also during the decade
festivals dedicated purely to house music were started such as Creamfields and the Winter Music Conference.
2010- present has seen and continues to see more change. Sweden became an influential player in the house genre
with the rise of progressive house and great artist such as Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell and Steve Angello who were
members of the Swedish house mafia. During the current decade people will have been listening and enjoying house
music perhaps without even realizing it with the blend of electro and fusion house being incorporated into very popular
songs such as Britney Spears “Scream and Shout” and Lady Gagas “Marry the Night”. Chill house also evolved into
tropical house with the likes of Duke Demont and Second City developing the scene.
People have argued that this isn't necessarily a good thing, even though house music is no longer struggling to
influence and it is now a big movement people do not like the fact it is being watered down and made into pop songs
becoming mainstream.
6. When people think of DJ’s in the house they think of Calvin Harris, Tiësto,
Oliver Heldens. The one thing all the top DJ’s have in common is that they
are all male. There are no well knows female DJ’s they have a global
presence. There are female DJ’s but they only play clubs and are often
very sexualized. The only female DJ that you could argue is well known
without being sexualized is Annie Mac, the BBC Radio One DJ who also
has made the charts with her Annie Mac presents compilations. However
the demographic of listeners shows a pretty even split between female
and male listeners of the genre. The movement does not have
discrimination within it with lyrics like some rap music does. However it
does present women in a very sexual way especially in music videos and
album artwork. This might be enough to put women off entering the
business.
The chart shows how the male and female listeners are evenly split with a
55 to 45 split. The biggest gap is in the 18-24 age group. 25 and upwards
the chart becomes evenly balanced again. However double the amount of
women in the 50+ listen to the genre rather then men. The difference in
the 18-24 age group might be down to the sexulisation and the women not
feeling comfortable or agreeing with it.
Chart of research done by Neilson
7. With a quick search of YouTube you
can see how women are visually
represented. There is a lot of
suggestive poses and exposed skin.
This could be down to the links
House Music has with summer
parties and places such as Ibiza.
However men are not shown in this
way and are hardly represented
visually in any music videos.
8. Clothing that is linked to house music is variable depending on the place and season. Places such as Tomorrowland
and Ibiza clothing and images does not matter. These are the the types of festivals where the main pieces of clothing
worn are swimming costumes with light T-Shirts thrown over the top. Flowery decorations and body paint are also worn
to get the summer vibe. When it is purely club based the attire tends to change to skinny jeans and
a T-shirt, sometimes the T-shirt has ties to the genre. This tends to be the
same for both male and female. A pair of shoes such as some sort of Nike
air variant that are one colour would be customary.
