House music

electronic dance music genre, that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s

House music is a type of electronic dance music. It began during the early 1980s from disco and the black American soul music tradition. It takes its name from the Warehouse, a Chicago club where DJs first played their records to a large audience. The original "House" sound is characterized by "four on the floor" beats at 120-130 BPM, forward-driven bass lines, an emphasis on the second and fourth beats of each measure, handclaps, and cymbals. Over the years, house has created many types of house music. These include:

  • Acid house (with its "trippy" melodic lines, usually generated on a Roland 303 synthesizer)
  • Ambient house (with an ambient, atmospheric sound)
  • Bassline house (with an prominent warpy low bass sound)
  • Deep house (with a greater emphasis on "soul" and atmospheric background sounds)
  • Electro house (with a fuzzy, electronic and dirty bassline and heavy usage of synthesizers, similar to electropop)
  • Euro house (with a sound similar to Eurodance)
  • Balearic house (originating in the Balearic islands of Spain)
  • French house (originating in France)
  • Italo house (originating in Italy)
  • Speed garage (featuring choppy basslines, reggae-style vocals and often "broken" beats)
  • Kuduro (a type of house music played in Angola features Angolan music and world music)
  • Progressive house (usually faster than traditional house, with many volume and phase changes and a "progression" of different background sounds)
  • Disco house (even greater emphasis on the bassline, and the return of many disco-like additions such as violin sections)
  • Hip house (House music with rapped lyrics)
  • Tech house (techno sounds featured over a house-derived beat, with melodic progression often less emphasized)
  • Latin house (incorporating elements of traditional Latin American music)
  • Tribal house (greater emphasis on drumlines; melodies may be present, but with less traditional "progression")
  • Witch house (with a dark, paranormal and witchcraft-themed sound) and Rodrick Onunuga

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