House music

[Rasputin]

House music refers to a collection of styles of electronic dance music, the earliest forms beginning in the early- to mid- 1980s. The name derives from the Warehouse club in Chicago, where the resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles, mixed old disco classics and Eurosynth pop. Club regulars referred to his selection of music as "house" music.

The common element of most house music is a 4/4 beat generated by a drum machine or other electronic means (such as a sampler), together with a solid (usually also electronically generated) bassline. Upon this foundation are added electronically generated sounds and samples of music such as jazz, blues and synth pop.

House music is uptempo music for dancing and has a comparatively narrow tempo range, generally falling between 118 beats per minute (bpm) and 135 bpm, with 127 bpm being about average since 1996.

Far and away the most important element of the house drumbeat is the (usually very strong, synthesized, and heavily equalized) kick drum pounding on every quarter note of the 4/4 bar, often having a "dropping" effect on the dancefloor. Commonly this is augmented by various kick fills and extended dropouts (aka breakdowns). Add to this basic kick pattern hihats on the eighth-note offbeats (though any number of sixteenth-note patterns are also very common) and a snare drum and/or clap on beats 2 and 4 of every bar, and you have the basic framework of the house drumbeat.

This pattern is derived from so-called "four-on-the-floor" dance drumbeats of the 1960s and especially the 1970's disco drummers. Due to the way house music was developed by DJs mixing records together, producers commonly layer sampled drum sounds to achieve a larger-than-life sound, filling out the audio spectrum and tailoring the mix for large club sound systems.

Techno and trance, the two primary dance music genres that branched off from house in the late 1980s and early 1990s respectively, can share this basic beat infrastructure, but usually eschew house's live-music-influenced feel and black or Latin music influences in favor of more synthetic sound sources and approach. Hence, all but strict purists would generally consider any track with this basic electronic drumbeat some sort of house music, as long as it is (or is paired with material which is) live-influenced, black, or Latin sounding.

[Rasputin]

House music has many sub-divisions:

Acid house: A Chicago derivative built around the Roland TB-303 bassline machine. Hard, uncompromising, tweaking samples produce a hypnotic effect.
African house: A South African form of house which developed out of Kwaito. Closely resembles Deep house but often features African loops and instruments. Artists include Revolution and Oskido.
Ambient house (see ambient music): Mixing the moody atmospheric sounds of New Age and ambient music with pulsating house beats.
Chicago house: Simple basslines, driving four-on-the-floor percussion and textured keyboard lines are the elements of the original house sound.
Deep house: A slower variant of house (around 120 BPM) with warm sometimes hypnotic melodies that originated in San Francisco.
Disco house: A more upfront variant of house that relies heavily on looped disco samples. The term gained mainstream use in 1994 after it was taken on by French artists such as Bob Sinclar, Cassius and Daft Punk, hence the terms French house and Disco house can often be used interchangeably. Other artists include Phats & Small and Stardust.
Electro house: Sometimes resembles tech house, but often influenced by the "electro" sound of the early 1980's, aka breakdancing music, via samples or just synthesizer usage.
Epic house: A variant of progressive house featuring lush synth-fills and dramatic (some would say pretentious) beat breakdowns.
Freestyle house: A Latin variant of NY house music, which began development in the early 1980s by producers like John Jellybean Benitez. Seen by some as an evolution of electro funk.
French house: A late 1990s house sound developed in France. Inspired by the '70s and '80s funk and disco sounds. Mostly features a typical sound "filter" effect. e.g. Daft Punk
Garage: This term has changed meaning several times over the years. The UK definition relates to New York's version of deep house, originally named after a certain style of soulful disco played at legendary club the Paradise Garage, although the original Garage sound was much more of an eclectic mix of many different kinds of records. The UK version is pronounced "ga-raaj". May also be called the Jersey Sound due to the close connection many of its artists and producers have with New Jersey such as the legendary Shep Pettibone and Tony Humphries at Zanzibar in Newark, NJ. Not to be confused with speed garage or the British style nowadays called UKG pronounced "garridje". See garage.
Ghetto house: A variation from Chicago that features minimal, 808 and 909 drum machine driven tracks, and profane (sometimes sexually explicit) lyrics.
Hip house: The simple fusion of rap rhymes with house beats. Mainly popular for a brief moment in the late 80s. Most famous record is Jungle Brothers "Girl I'll House You."
Hard house: House music on the harder side, leaning more towards aggressive 'hoover' type sounds. The style was generally fast tempo.
Hi-NRG: Called "high energy". Popular in the gay scene, sometimes reminiscent of freestyle house.
Italo house: Slick production techniques, catchy melodies, rousing piano lines and American vocal styling typifies the Italian ("Italo") house sound. A modulating Giorgio Moroder style bassline is also a trademark of this style.
Kwaito: House music that originated in Johannesburg, South Africa in the mid 90's. It is characterised by slow beats, accompanied by (mostly male) vocals - often shouted and not sung - set against melodic African loops.
Latin House: Borrows heavily from Latin dance music -- Salsa, Brazilian beats, Latin Jazz, etc.
Minimal House: (or Microhouse) Simple, 4/4 beats (usually around 125-130 beats-per-minute) usually only barely accompanied by sparse, percussive effects, synthesizer work, and simplistic vocals.
New York house: New York's uptempo dance music, referred to simply as club music by some.
Pop house: The use of house production styles to make traditional pop artists more acceptable on the dancefloor results in the pop house phenomenon.
Progressive house: Progressive house is typified by accelerating peaks and troughs throughout a track's duration, and are, in general, less obvious than in hard house. Layering different sound on top of each other and slowly bringing them in and out of the mix is a key idea behind the progressive movement. Some of this kind of music sounds like a cousin of trance music.
Pumpin' House: Developed in the late 90's and related to French house, Pumpin' House also often samples disco, rock, jazz, and/or funk loops (sometimes creating dense layered textures) and usually makes extensive use of filters, but gains its appellation from its heavy use of compression, which makes tracks surge and pulse. It is characterized by intense, up-front drum programming, heavy funk influence, and very emphasized basslines, often sampled from live players. Famous producers include Olav Basoski (Holland), Grant Nelson (UK), and Monkey Bars (US). Typical BPM range is 127-133.
Sexy house Sexy house draws its sounds from soul and funk with a 4/4 beat, and is sometimes confused with an acid jazz sound. Sexy house doesn't feature as much synthesizer sounds (but does occasionally use cheesy 1980s synth samples) as other genres, but typically features horn sections, electric pianos and congas, but it is less jazzy or downtempo as trip-hop. Typical beats per minute are 125~128. The melody of this style is inspired from 1970s black soul and funk, and it features strong bass drum sound, with a softer higher frequencies. It is found played in bars and restaurants.
Tech house: Tech substitutes typical booming house kickdrums with shorter, often distorted kicks, smaller hi-hats, and noisier snares. House's funky jazz loops are replaced with techno-sounding synth lines. Closely related to microhouse.
Tribal house: Popularized by remixer/DJ Junior Vasquez in New York, characterized by lots of percussion and world music style rhythms.
Ultra house: Extremely fast house beats typically 160 to 220 beats per minute, the same speed as "jungle" music.

[Rasputin]

Disc jockey

A disc jockey (often DJ) is an individual who selects and plays pre-recorded music for the enjoyment of others. In circles and cultures where reggae and related musical styles are prevalent such as Jamaica, Panama, and other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America, the work of the "Deejay" is divided up and can also refer to an MC or rapper. The word "selector" is used as the title of the person who chooses the records, the disc jockey playing them. Thus what Jamaicans call deejaying, chatting, or toasting may be called rapping in other parts of the world. Reggae artists who sing in styles similar to rap have also been called deejays.

DJs can be heard on the radio and at any number of social gatherings, such as weddings, nightclubs, art openings, warehouse parties, and high school dances. As a result there are many different types of DJ, each fitting into a particular niche defined by performance setting (broadcast booth or nightclub) and intended audience (jazz or hip hop fans). A DJ's performance style and the techniques he or she employs must reflect these considerations. For instance, wedding DJs play music but are often expected to act as a masters of ceremony who introduce the bride and groom, lead dances, or invite guests to play games. A DJ at a rave would instead be expected to introduce a greater technical element to their performance by manipulating the songs they play in order to maintain a given tempo and energy level.

Some consider deejaying to be not a single action but rather a series of actions that depend on situation and expectations. However, whether talk radio shock jocks like Howard Stern and Don Imus that do not play music ought to be referred to as DJs or "on-air personalities" is often debated.

[Rasputin]

[manjula01]

HOUSE MUSIC

...best house music for me is the "euro club hits" compilation series... check this link (direct to itunes):

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?albumTerm=Euro+Club+Hits+Vol+