Here's part 1 below. The rest are listed in the youtube suggestions bar on the right side. In the words of oldschool Chitown house: Ch-Ch-Check this out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX7w5Cjo3IU
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
History of House Music
As I was working on my final paper, I stumbled upon this documentary on Youtube about the history of house music. Titled "Pump Up the Volume," it traces house's roots back to the disco era and begins with the Warehouse movement in Chicago during the early 80's. It subsequently moves on to UK rave and the development of techno, jungle (eventually drum n' bass), and garage. The movie was made a few years ago before the latest boom in electro house, dubstep, and four-to-the-floor pop music. But I think that makes a case for how powerful and important this music is by demonstrating how popular EDM already was before this latest development. Furthermore, it gives people a chance to see where the underground EDM movement really developed from--a context that is often eclipsed by mainstream media's obsession with drug culture within the dance scene.
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When we were doing research for our internet report I cam across this movie that started to be created in 2009 about djs and the development of house music. It is not as historical as the one you found but its still really interesting and is just now starting to get a lot of interest and reviews. Enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theelectrowars.com/
This is interesting to know, because I come from a place where all the teens/young adults were very much into house music and fist pumping. So to see the roots of this kind of music is a fun history lesson.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing about this whole craze what has becoming popular in the US is a subgenre of actual house music. Chris I know you know this. House music with original chi town flavor, barely exists in the US. However it is still huge in europe. Its interesting to see how it originated in the US and completely migrated to the nederlands, ibiza, france... what we listen to now in the US, even it its from europe, it is typically either electro house or progressive house which, are really on similar to chitown house because of the bpm and disco beat. the feel, instruments, and message of these genres are completely different then classic house
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's really bizarre to see how a certain sound originated in the US, went overseas, and came back to the US with an ENTIRELY different sound and context. Where we are now in terms of EDM is definitely removed from the classic sound featured here, and that's why I find it so interesting! You can definitely see an evolution from the classic sound to today's sound if you fill in the necessary gaps. But, without context, play me a Frankie Knuckles cut and Diplo track back to back, and I would say the two are completely unrelated! I think this video provides the foundational context at least, and shows the progression from classic to rave to hardcore and so on...But it's a long evolutionary chain, and the culture shown here (imo) is not so much a prelude to the scene out now as it is an ancestor.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I love how Europe is largely responsible for dance music's prevalence today. But, nevertheless, none of it would've happened without US innovation. They took to it so much more than we ever did. It's such an interesting relationship--like a reverse British invasion...
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