House Music: A Genre Becomes a Movement

In 1979, up to 60,000 rock fans gathered in Comiskey Park in Chicago to express their hate for the disco genre implied to be African American. The aggressive, drunk protests forced disco back underground where it evolved into house music.     

From the very beginning, house has been a dedicated black sound directed against oppression, such as against radio moderator Steve Dahl, who brought Disco Demolition Night to life and spurred the public on to demolish all the disco records that were brought in.   

However, this excessiveness, stirred up by Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles for example, wasn't just an end in itself in the Music Box, Warehouse, and other house clubs. These clubs acted as indispensable safe havens for marginalized groups—especially black and gay people.

House doesn't just have its roots in Chicago. In New York as well the genre grew rapidly in parallel to the Windy City. In particular, Larry Levan and the legendary club Paradise Garage where he stood behind the decks from 1977 to 1987 were responsible for this growth.   

Tony Humphries played here with a stick headphone. This was reminiscent of the early years of DJing in the disco era of the 1970s when professional headphones still didn't exist and DJs made do with telephone receivers. Many house DJs kept this tradition alive.

Alongside a moderate four-to-the-floor beat, luxurious piano sounds, and spiritual empowerment, house music is last but not least about sex. No producer expressed it better in a track than Lil' Louis who achieved a breakthrough in 1989 with French Kiss.  

Marshall Jefferson further developed house with resounding productions, including I've Lost Control as Sleezy D and the iridescent piano house hymn Move Your Body. As a producer he was involved in Phuture's Acid Tracks.             

"A bassline, a piano, and drums. It's not a lot, but it has to be said: I had the basslines down," said Jefferson in a recent interview with Groove in 2017. He also vented about the democratization of music production at the time.       

Back in 1983, Heard started his solo career which carries on to this day. Over the decades he has used various pseudonyms, and was most active under his real name and as Mr. Fingers. He overwhelmingly stands for a groovy, soulful, absolutely cathartic version of house.

Kerri Chandler was born in New Jersey in 1969 and is living proof that the edges of deep house don't just have to be sharp in Chicago. He was particularly influenced by the music from the New York underground, creating hymns such as Rain and Mommy What's A Record. 

Kenny Dixon Jr. alias Moodymann masterfully breaks up the traditional division between Chicago house and Detroit techno. From the mid 1990s the Detroit resident produced house tracks that stood out from the clean-cut competition from Chicago with distinctive vocals and a harsh groove.

DJs like Honey Dijon defend the spirit of house music in the contemporary dance music circus. This underwent a whitewashing process over the last few decades which commercialized the genre to an even greater extent and snatched it away from the queer and black communities where it originated from.