House Music - 1980s Origins...

House music was a brand new dance music genre which originated in Chicago in the early-to-mid 1980s. House was influenced by Disco and many other music styles, just as Disco was influenced by soul, funk, pop, Motown, etc.

Disco really did not invent the wheel (or four on the floor), and all dance styles after it should not be tagged post-disco. Disco takes its own place as a descendent of many other styles. Disco? Post-soul. Post-pop. Post R&B. Post-Motown. Post-...

If you think pop music by Black people only came into existence in the 70s, do explore the 60s, and even 50s rock 'n' roll. You're in for a real eye-opening treat.

Disco has been inflated into something it wasn't, and this is partly of because of 'right on' attitudes. Disco was, apparently the province of black and gay people, so the Disco Demolition Night in Chicago in 1979 was seen as something racist and homophobic. 

Was it? I don't think that's the whole story. Disco was formulaic, and the formula was wearing thin. I'm not American, so I don't know how much bigoted attitudes contributed, though I'm sure they did. But they weren't the whole story.

But, over here in England, Disco was getting tired. Most discos were nothing like Saturday Night Fever. Our local was a dive, with nicknames 'The Meat Market' (pick-ups) and 'The Blood Bath' (fights). 

The whole thing was beginning to seem a bit seedy, and a lot of the English venues certainly were - from their beginnings.

So, as Disco declined, I wasn't terribly aware of what was happening in America, but I did think it had run its course.

And I'm not a racist or homophobe.

Ironically, the Stock, Aitken and Waterman brand of dance music in the late 1980s was similarly reviled as formulaic and naff. And it was produced by three white men.

So, how did "House" get its name? There are several answers to that! 

Was it named after Frankie Knuckles' disco, The Warehouse? The Warehouse played disco, Philly soul, and other music, but in the early 1980s some patrons were apparently referring to the disco/soul music heard there as "house", simply because it was heard at the WareHOUSE! Did this name then pin itself on to the new Chicago music, the first true House sounds, later?

Was it thus named because some people were producing these new sounds using machines in their own homes in the early to mid 1980s?

There are other theories, but it's really of no consequence. The origins of the name are actually quite blurred, and perhaps the "House" tag originated from more than one source, although I do think the Warehouse was certainly the main one.

But house music? Well, it didn't originate in the late 1970s. The Warehouse  opened in 1977, but that wasn't the start of House music. 

Let me put it this way: in the 1960s, people were dancing to music at discotheques. Before the end of that decade, the name was being shortened to discos. So, people dancing at a disco in 1969 - were they dancing to Disco music? Does this mean Disco is a 1960s creation?

The creation of House music depended on newly available commercial synths and sound machines, as well as various antecedents.

The legendary Frankie Knuckles, of the Warehouse and then the Power Plant, pinned the beginnings of House music, the genre, to the early 1980s. He said: "Kraftwerk were main components in the creation of House music in Chicago. Back in the early '80s, I mixed our '80s Philly sound with the electro beats of Kraftwerk and the electronic body music.'

But we were not yet home at House. The release of various 'winky wonky' (my phrase) synths and sound machines in the early to mid 1980s would have a huge influence on democratising who could easily produce music as they became affordable (or could be bought second hand), and the cutting edge House sound.

Chicago DJs like Knuckles began working with the new machines, and we edged forward. The DJs who had previously been kings of Soul and Disco were adapting to the new times. I think Disco Demolition Night in 1979 really did hurt a lot of the DJs. I can't imagine what it was like, living over here, but a lot of them didn't lay down. As Knuckles said in 1990, House was 'Disco's Revenge' - not Disco, but some of the people who created it had definitely felt the 'backlash' quite fiercely, and had gone to work to produce something that would attract the same dancers to the nightclubs, and appeal to younger people.

Blasting out of mid-'80s Chicago, the brand new sound of House became increasingly prevalent and popular, hugely popular with the gay scene, but quickly crossing over to include many others. The first House track to chart in the UK was Jack Your Body by Steve "Silk" Hurley in 1986. 

This new popular music genre depended greatly on the new and affordable technology on which music could be made in the early-to-mid 1980s. And, round again to Frankie Knuckles himself: 'Back in the early '80s, I mixed our '80s Philly sound with the electro beats of Kraftwerk and the electronic body music.'

This was the beginning of what would become House.

So, good things did come from the 80s, the decade so many people like to priggishly revile!