Influences and precursors One of the main influences of house was disco, house music having been defined as a genre which "...picked up where disco left off in the late 1970's". Like disco DJs, house DJs used a "slow mix" to "lin[k] records together" into a mix. Disco became so popular by the late 1970s that record companies pushed even non-disco artists (R&B and soft rock acts, for example) to record disco songs. When the backlash against disco started, known as "
Disco Demolition Night", held in
Chicago, ironically the city where house music would be created a few years later, dance music went from being produced by major labels to being created by DJs in the underground club scene. That is until several years later by 1988, when major labels would begin signing acts from this new dance genre. While disco was associated with lush orchestration, with
string orchestra, flutes and
horn sections, various later disco songs incorporated sounds produced with synthesizers and electronic drum machines, and some compositions were entirely electronic: one of the earliest examples includes Italian composer
Giorgio Moroder's late 1970s productions such as
Donna Summer's hit single "
I Feel Love" (1977), or albums like
Cerrone's
Supernature (1977),
Kraftwerk's
The Man-Machine (1978),
Yellow Magic Orchestra's
synth- and
disco-pop productions from
Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978) or
Solid State Survivor (1979), and several early 1980s productions by
Hi-NRG groups like
Lime,
Trans-X and
Bobby O. (pictured in 2012) played an important role in developing house music in Chicago during the 1980s. Also important for the development of house were
audio mixing and editing techniques earlier explored by disco,
garage house and
post-disco DJs,
record producers, and audio engineers such as
Walter Gibbons,
Tom Moulton,
Jim Burgess,
Larry Levan,
M & M, and others. While most post-disco disc jockeys primarily stuck to playing their conventional ensemble and playlist of dance records, Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy, two influential DJs of house music, were known for their unusual and non-mainstream playlists and mixing. Knuckles, often credited as "the Godfather of House" and resident DJ at the Warehouse club in Chicago from 1977 to 1982, worked primarily with early disco music with a hint of new and different
post-punk or post-disco music. Knuckles started out as a disco DJ, but when he moved from New York City to Chicago, he changed from the typical disco mixing style of playing records one after another; instead, he mixed different songs together, including
Philadelphia soul and
Euro disco. Ron Hardy produced unconventional
DIY mixtapes which he later played straight-on in the successor of the Warehouse, the Music Box (reopened and renamed in 1983 after Knuckles left). Like Frankie Knuckles, Hardy "combined certain sounds, remixing tracks with added synths and drum machines", all "refracted through the
futurist lens of European music". and has been referred to as a
proto-house track and a precursor to "garage house music", a subgenre also called "garage music" that actually consisted of the New York City/New Jersey scene of the main genre. The electronic instrumentation and minimal arrangement of
Charanjit Singh's
Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982), an album of Indian
ragas performed in a disco style and anticipated the sounds of
acid house music, but it is not known to have had any influence on the genre prior to the album's rediscovery in the 21st century. According to Hillegonda C. Rietveld, "elements of
hip hop/rap music can be found in contemporary house tracks", with hip hop acting as an "accent or inflection" that is inserted into the house sound.
1980s: Chicago house, acid house and deep house in
Chicago for house music and the seminal DJ
Frankie Knuckles. In the early 1980s, Chicago radio jocks
Hot Mix 5 from
WBMX radio station (among them Farley "Jackmaster" Funk), and club DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles played a range of styles of dance music, including older disco records (mostly
Philly disco and
Salsoul tracks),
electro funk tracks by artists such as
Afrika Bambaataa, "On and On" is sometimes cited as the "first house record", even though it was a remake of a Disco Bootleg "On and On" by Florida producer Mach. Other examples from around that time, such as
J.M. Silk's "
Music is the Key" (1985), have also been referred to as the first house tracks. Starting in 1985 and 1986, more and more Chicago DJs began producing and releasing original compositions. These compositions used newly affordable electronic instruments and enhanced styles of disco and other dance music they already favored. These homegrown productions were played on Chicago radio stations and in local clubs catering mainly to black,
Mexican American, and gay audiences. Subgenres of house, including deep house and acid house, quickly emerged and gained traction.
Deep house's origins can be traced to Chicago producer
Mr. Fingers's relatively jazzy, soulful recordings "
Mystery of Love" (1985) and "Can You Feel It?" (1986). According to author Richie Unterberger, it moved house music away from its "
posthuman tendencies back towards the lush" soulful sound of early disco music.
Acid house, a rougher and more abstract subgenre, arose from Chicago artists' experiments with the squelchy sounds of the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer that define the genre. Its origin on vinyl is generally cited as
Phuture's "
Acid Tracks" (Trax Records, 1987). Phuture, a group founded by Nathan "
DJ Pierre" Jones, Earl "Spanky" Smith Jr., and Herbert "Herb J" Jackson, is credited with having been the first to use the TB-303 in the house music context. The group's 12-minute "Acid Tracks" was recorded to tape and played by DJ Ron Hardy at the Music Box, supposedly already by 1985. Hardy once played it four times over the course of an evening until the crowd responded favorably. Club play of house tracks by pioneering Chicago DJs such as Ron Hardy and
Lil Louis, local dance music record shops such as Importes Etc., State Street Records, Loop Records, Gramaphone Records and the popular Hot Mix 5 shows on radio station WBMX-FM helped popularize house music in Chicago. Later, visiting DJs and producers from Detroit fell into the genre. Trax Records and DJ International Records, Chicago labels with wider distribution, helped popularize house music inside and outside of Chicago. The first major success of house music outside the U.S. is considered to be Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "
Love Can't Turn Around" (feat. Jesse Saunders and performed by
Darryl Pandy), which peaked at number 10 in the
UK singles chart in 1986. Around that time, UK record labels started releasing house music by Chicago acts, but as the genre grew popular, the
UK itself became one of the new hot spots for house, acid house and
techno music, experiencing the so-called
second summer of love between 1988 and 1989. In early 1983, a
white-label single for
Depeche Mode's single "
Get the Balance Right!" found its way to Saunderson and May, who both played the single in clubs. Saunderson later said that the song was "the first house [music] record." One of their most successful hits was a vocal house track named "
Big Fun" by
Inner City, a group produced by Kevin Saunderson, in 1988. Another major and even earlier influence on the Detroit artists was electronic music in the tradition of Germany's Kraftwerk. Atkins had released
electro music in that style with his group
Cybotron as early as 1981. Cybotron's best known songs are "Cosmic Cars" (1982) and "Clear" (1983); a 1984 release was titled "Techno City". In 1988, Atkins produced the track "Techno Music", which was featured on an influential compilation that was initially planned to be named "The House Sound of Detroit", but was renamed into "
Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit" after Atkins' song. The 1987 song "
Strings of Life" by Derrick May (under the name Rhythm Is Rhythm) represented a darker, more intellectual strain of early Detroit electronic dance music. It is considered a classic in both the house and techno genre and shows the connection and the "boundary between house and techno." It made way to what was later known as "techno" in the internationally known sense of the word, referring to a harder, faster, colder, more machine-driven and minimal sound than house, as played by Detroit's
Underground Resistance and
Jeff Mills.
UK: Acid house, rave culture and the Second Summer of Love , a symbol of the 1980s acid house scene in the UK With house music already important in the 1980s dance club scene, eventually house penetrated the UK singles chart. London DJ
"Evil" Eddie Richards spun at dance parties as resident at the Clink Street club. Richards' approach to house focuses on the deep basslines. Nicknamed the UK's "Godfather of House", he and Clink co-residents Kid Batchelor and
Mr. C played a key role in early UK house. House first charted in the UK in Wolverhampton following the success of the
Northern Soul scene. The record generally credited as the first house hit in the UK was Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Love Can't Turn Around", which reached number 10 in the UK singles chart in September 1986. In January 1987, Chicago DJ/artist Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body" reached number one in the UK, showing it was possible for house music to achieve crossover success in the main singles chart. The same month also saw
Raze enter the top 20 with "Jack the Groove", and several other house hits reached the top ten that year.
Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) expensively produced productions for
Mel and Kim, including the number-one hit "Respectable", added elements of house to their previous
Europop sound. SAW session group
Mirage scored top-ten hits with "Jack Mix II" and "Jack Mix IV", medleys of previous electro and Europop hits rearranged in a house music style. Key labels in the rise of house music in the UK included: • Jack Trax, which specialized in licensing US club hits for the British market (and released an influential series of
compilation albums) •
Rhythm King, which was set up as a hip hop label but also issued house records •
Jive Records' Club Records imprint In March 1987, the UK tour of influential US DJs such as Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. (Heard), and Adonis on the DJ International Tour boosted house's popularity in the UK. Following the success of
MARRS' "
Pump Up The Volume" in October, from 1987 to 1989, UK acts such as The
Beatmasters,
Krush,
Coldcut,
Yazz,
Bomb The Bass,
S-Express, and Italy's
Black Box opened the doors to house music success on the UK charts. Early British house music quickly set itself apart from the original Chicago house sound. Many of the early hits were based on sample montage, and unlike the US soulful vocals, in UK house,
rap was often used for vocals (far more than in the US), and
humor and wit was an important element. The second best-selling British single of 1988 was an acid house record, the Coldcut-produced "
The Only Way Is Up" by Yazz. One of the early club anthems, "
Promised Land" by
Joe Smooth, was covered and charted within a week by UK band
The Style Council. Europeans embraced house, and began booking important American house DJs to play at the big clubs, such as
Ministry of Sound, whose resident,
Justin Berkmann brought in US pioneer Larry Levan. The house music club scene in cities such as
Birmingham,
Leeds,
Sheffield,
Wolverhampton, and
London were provided with dance tracks by many underground
pirate radio stations. Club DJs also brought in new house styles, which helped bolster this music genre. The earliest UK house and techno record labels, such as
Warp Records and
Network Records (formed out of Kool Kat records), helped introduce American and later Italian dance music to Britain. These labels also promoted UK dance music acts. By the end of the 1980s, UK DJs Jenö, Thomas, Markie and Garth moved to San Francisco and called their group the Wicked Crew. The Wicked Crew's dance sound transmitted UK styles to the US, which helped to trigger the birth of the US west coast's rave scene. The manager of Manchester's
Factory nightclub and co-owner of
The Haçienda,
Tony Wilson, also promoted acid house culture on his weekly TV show. The UK midlands also embraced the late 1980s house scene with illegal parties and raves and more legal dance clubs such as The Hummingbird.
Chicago's second wave: Hip house and ghetto house While the acid house hype spawned in the UK and Europe, in Chicago it reached its peak around 1988 and then declined in popularity. Instead, a crossover of house and hip-hop music, known as
hip house, became popular.
Tyree Cooper's single "Turn Up the Bass" featuring Kool Rock Steady from 1988 was an influential breakthrough for this subgenre, although the British trio the Beatmasters claimed having invented the genre with their 1986 release "
Rok da House". Another notable figure in the hip house scene was
Fast Eddie with "Hip House" and "Yo Yo Get Funky!" (both 1988). Even Farley "Jackmaster" Funk engaged in the genre, releasing "Free at Last", a song to free
James Brown from jail that featured The Hip House Syndicate, in 1989, and producing a
Real Hip House compilation on his label, House Records, in 1990. The early 1990s saw new Chicago house artists emerge, such as
Armando Gallop, who had released seminal acid house records since 1987, but became even more influential by co-founding the new Warehouse nightclub in Chicago (on 738 W. Randolph Street) in which he also was resident DJ from 1992 until 1994, and founding Warehouse Records in 1988. Another important figure during the early to mid-1990s and until the 2000s was DJ and producer
Paul Johnson, who released the Warehouse-anthem "Welcome to the Warehouse" on Armando's label in 1994 in collaboration with Armando himself. He also had part in the development of an entirely new kind of Chicago house sound, "
ghetto house", which was prominently released and popularized through the
Dance Mania record label. It was originally founded by Jesse Saunders in 1985 but passed on to Raymond Barney in 1988. It featured notable ghetto house artists like
DJ Funk,
DJ Deeon, DJ Milton, Paul Johnson and others. The label is regarded as hugely influential in the history of Chicago house music, and has been described as "ghetto house's
Motown". One of the prototypes for Dance Mania's new ghetto house sound was the single "(It's Time for the) Percolator" by Cajmere, also known as
Green Velvet, from 1992. Cajmere started the labels Cajual Records and Relief Records, the latter combining the sound of Chicago, acid, and ghetto house with the harder sound of techno. By the early 1990s, artists of note on those two labels included
Dajae,
DJ Sneak,
Derrick Carter,
DJ Rush, Paul Johnson, Joe Lewis, and Glenn Underground.
New York and New Jersey: Garage house and the "Jersey sound" nightclub was located While house became popular in UK and continental Europe, the scene in the US had still not progressed beyond a small number of clubs in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and
Newark. In New York and Newark, the terms "
garage house", "garage music", or simply "garage", and "Jersey sound", or "
New Jersey house", were coined for a deeper, more soulful,
R&B-derived subgenre of house that was developed in the Paradise Garage nightclub in New York City and
Club Zanzibar in Newark, New Jersey, during the early-to-mid 1980s. It is argued that garage house predates the development of Chicago house, as it is relatively closer to disco than other dance styles. As Chicago house gained international popularity, New York and New Jersey's music scene was distinguished from the "house" umbrella. In comparison to other forms of house music, garage house, and Jersey sound include more
gospel-influenced piano riffs and female vocals. The genre was popular in the 1980s in the United States and in the 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the late 1980s, Nu Groove Records launched and nurtured the careers of
Rheji Burrell and Rhano Burrell, collectively known as Burrell (after a brief stay on Virgin America via
Timmy Regisford and Frank Mendez). Nu Groove also had a stable of other NYC underground scene DJs. The Burrells created the "New York Underground" sound of house, and they did more than 30 releases on this label featuring this sound. The emergence of New York's DJ and producer Todd Terry in 1988 demonstrated the continuum from the underground disco approach to a new and commercially successful house sound. Terry's cover of Class Action's "Weekend" (mixed by Larry Levan) shows how Terry drew on newer hip-hop influences, such as the quicker sampling and the more rugged basslines.
Ibiza House was also being developed by DJs and record producers in the booming dance club scene in
Ibiza, notably when
DJ Alfredo, the father of
Balearic house, began his residency at
Amnesia in 1983. While no house artists or labels came from Ibiza at the time, mixing experiments and innovations done by Ibiza DJs helped to influence the house style. By the mid-1980s, a distinct
Balearic mix of house was discernible. Several influential clubs in Ibiza, such as Amnesia, with DJ Alfredo at the decks, were playing a mix of rock, pop, disco, and house. These clubs, fuelled by their distinctive sound and copious consumption of the club drug
Ecstasy (MDMA), began to influence the British scene. By late 1987, DJs such as Trevor Fung,
Paul Oakenfold and
Danny Rampling were bringing the Ibiza sound to key UK clubs such as
the Haçienda in Manchester. Ibiza influences also spread to DJs working London clubs, such as
Shoom in Southwark,
Heaven, Future, and Spectrum.
Other regional scenes in between. By the late 1980s, house DJing and production had moved to the US's west coast, particularly to San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Fresno, San Diego, and Seattle. Los Angeles saw an explosion of underground raves, where DJs mixed dance tracks. Los Angeles DJs Marques Wyatt and Billy Long spun at
Jewel's Catch One. In 1989, the Los-Angeles-based former
EBN-OZN singer/rapper
Robert Ozn started indie house label One Voice Records. Ozn released the Mike "Hitman" Wilson remix of
Dada Nada's "Haunted House", which garnered club and mix show radio play in Chicago, Detroit, and New York as well as in the UK and France. The record went up to number five on the
Billboard Club Chart, marking it as the first house record by a white artist to chart in the US. Dada Nada, the moniker for Ozn's solo act, did his first releases in 1990, using a jazz-based deep house style. The Frankie Knuckles and
David Morales remix of Dada Nada's "Deep Love" (One Voice Records in the US, Polydor in the UK), featuring Ozn's lush,
crooning vocals and jazzy improvisational solos by muted trumpet, underscored deep house's progression into a genre that integrated jazz and pop songwriting and song forms (unlike acid house and techno). The Twilight Zone (1980–89) located on Richmond Street in Toronto's
entertainment district was the first after hours club to regularly feature New York and Chicago DJs that first spun house music in Canada. The venue was the first international gig destination for both Frankie Knuckles and David Morales. One of the club's owners, Tony Assoon, would make regular trips to New York in order to purchase funk, underground disco and house records to play on his regular Saturday night slot.
The Montreal Scene Historically deeply influenced by musical trends coming from England, France, and the US, Montreal has developed a distinct house music scene. Shaped more specifically by the impact of UK's techno scene, France's
French Touch movement, and American DJs and club owners such as Angel Moraes, David Morales, and Danny Tenaglia, the city has evolved to become a distinct dance music hub. Ever since the middle of the 1990s and early 2000s, an ever-growing number of house music festivals take place in the city throughout the year, including
Igloofest, Nuit blanche,
Piknic Electronik,
Mutek,
Ile Soniq,
Montréal Pride, and the
Black and Blue festival. South Africa Kwaito was created during the 1980s, in
South Africa during the collapse or near-end of the
apartheid regime. It was popularized by the likes of
Trompies, Mdu Masilela,
Arthur Mafokate,
Boom Shaka,
Mandoza, Brown Dash,
Oskido and many others.
Brenda Fassie released a song titled, "Le Kwaito" and Boom Shaka,
Bongo Maffin as well as
TKZee performed in
London.
1990s In 1990, Italo house group Black Box's big hit "Everybody Everybody" reached US Billboard Hot 100. In Britain, further experiments in the genre boosted its appeal. House and rave clubs such as
Lakota and
Cream emerged across Britain, hosting house and dance scene events. The 'chilling out' concept developed in Britain with
ambient house albums such as
The KLF's
Chill Out and
Analogue Bubblebath by
Aphex Twin. The
Godskitchen superclub brand also began in the midst of the early 1990s rave scene. After initially hosting small nights in
Cambridge and
Northampton, the associated events scaled up at the
Sanctuary Music Arena in
Milton Keynes, in Birmingham, and in Leeds. A new indie dance scene also emerged in the 1990s. In New York, bands such as
Deee-Lite, with Bootsy Collins, furthered house's international influence. In England, one of the few licensed venues was
the Eclipse, which attracted people from up and down the country as it was open until the early hours. Due to the lack of licensed, legal dance event venues, house music promoters began organising illegal events in unused warehouses, aeroplane hangars, and in the countryside. The
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was a government attempt to ban large rave dance events featuring music with "repetitive beats", due to law enforcement allegations that these events were associated with illegal club drugs. There were a number of "Kill the Bill" demonstrations by rave and
electronic dance music fans. The
Spiral Tribe dance event at Castle Morten was the last of these illegal raves, as the bill, which became law in November 1994, made unauthorised house music dance events illegal in the UK. Despite the new law, the music continued to grow and change, as typified by
Leftfield with "
Release the Pressure", which introduced dub and
reggae into the house sound. A new generation of clubs such as
Liverpool's Cream and the Ministry of Sound were opened to provide a venue for more commercial house sounds. Major record companies began to open "
superclubs" promoting their own groups and acts. These superclubs entered into sponsorship deals initially with fast food, soft drink, and clothing companies. Flyers in clubs in Ibiza often sported many corporate logos from sponsors. A new subgenre, Chicago hard house, was developed by DJs such as
Bad Boy Bill,
DJ Lynnwood,
DJ Irene, and
Richard "Humpty" Vission, mixing elements of Chicago house,
funky house, and
hard house. Additionally, producers such as George Centeno, Darren Ramirez, and Martin "Nemesis" Cairo developed the Los Angeles Hard House sound. Similar to
gabber or
hardcore techno from the Netherlands, this was associated with the "rebel", underground club subculture of the time. Towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, French DJ/producers such as
Daft Punk,
Bob Sinclar,
Stardust,
Cassius,
St. Germain and
DJ Falcon began producing a new sound in Paris' club scene. Together, they laid the groundwork for what would be known as the
French house movement. They combined the harder-edged-yet-soulful philosophy of Chicago house with the melodies of obscure funk records. By using new digital production techniques blended with the retro sound of old-school analog synthesizers, they created a new sound and style that influenced house music around the world.
Afro house (ostensibly or was also simply referred to as 'house' before being categorized or titled as an official sub-genre) was emerging in
South Africa, during or slightly before this period according to various natives especially due to seemingly the emergence simultaneously during or shortly after
kwaito and was being popularized globally in various locations such as in the
United States. Former, kwaito artists such as
Oskido and
DJ Tira are also associated with, the genre.
2000s Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley proclaimed 10 August 2005, to be "House Unity Day" in Chicago, in celebration of the "21st anniversary of house music" (actually the 21st anniversary of the founding of Trax Records, an independent Chicago-based house label). The proclamation recognized Chicago as the original home of house music and that the music's original creators "were inspired by the love of their city, with the dream that someday their music would spread a message of peace and unity throughout the world". DJs such as Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Paul Johnson, and
Mickey Oliver celebrated the proclamation at the Summer Dance Series, an event organized by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs. It was during this decade that vocal house became firmly established, both in the underground and as part of the pop market, and labels such as
Defected Records,
Roulé, and Om were at the forefront of the emerging sound. In the mid-2000s, fusion genres such as
electro house and
fidget house emerged. This fusion is apparent in the crossover of musical styles by artists such as
Dennis Ferrer and
Booka Shade, with the former's production style having evolved from the New York soulful house scene and the latter's roots in techno. Numerous live performance events dedicated to house music were founded during the course of the decade, including
Shambhala Music Festival and major industry sponsored events like Miami's
Winter Music Conference. The genre even gained popularity through events like
Creamfields. In the late 2000s, house style witnessed renewed chart success thanks to acts such as
Daft Punk,
Deadmau5,
Fedde Le Grand,
David Guetta, and
Calvin Harris.
Afro house increased in popularity in other regions such as
London and the genre's solidified emergence accelerated, resulting in it becoming preeminent, it also appeared to have been attributed to "giving rise to" the
UK funky, scene.
2010s and Italian DJ
Benny Benassi performing in 2011. During the 2010s, multiple new sounds in house music were developed by DJs, producers, and artists. Sweden pioneered the "Mainstage
progressive house" genre with the emergence of
Sebastian Ingrosso,
Axwell, and
Steve Angello. While all three artists had solo careers, when they formed a trio called
Swedish House Mafia, it showed that house could still produce chart-topping hits, such as their 2012 single "
Don't You Worry Child", which cracked the Billboard top 10.
Avicii was a Swedish DJ/artist known for his hits such as "
Hey Brother", "
Wake Me Up", "
Addicted to You", "
The Days", "
The Nights", "
Levels", "
Waiting for Love",
"Without You", and "
I Could Be the One" with
Nicky Romero. Fellow Swedish DJ/artist
Alesso collaborated with Calvin Harris,
Usher, and David Guetta. In France,
Justice blended garage and alternative rock influences into their pop-infused house tracks, creating a big and funky sound. During the 2010s, in the UK and in the US, many records labels stayed true to the original house music sound from the 1980s. It includes labels like Dynamic Music,
Defected Records, Dirtybird, Fuse London, Exploited, Pampa, Cajual Records,
Hot Creations, Get Physical, and Pets Recordings. From the Netherlands coalesced the concept of "Dirty Dutch", an electro house subgenre characterized by abrasive lead synths and darker arpeggios, with prominent DJs being
Chuckie,
Hardwell,
Laidback Luke,
Afrojack,
R3hab,
Bingo Players,
Quintino, and
Alvaro. Elsewhere, fusion genres derivative of 2000s progressive house returned, especially with the help of DJs/artists Calvin Harris,
David Guetta,
Zedd,
Eric Prydz,
Mat Zo,
Above & Beyond, and
Fonzerelli in Europe. in 2011 in Paris
Diplo, a DJ/producer from
Tupelo, Mississippi, blended underground sounds with mainstream styles. As he came from the southern US, Diplo fused house music with rap and dance/pop, while also integrating more obscure southern US genres. Other North Americans playing house music include the Canadian
Deadmau5 (known for his unusual mask and unique musical style),
Kaskade,
Steve Aoki,
Porter Robinson, and
Wolfgang Gartner. The growing popularity of such artists led to the emergence of electro house and progressive house sounds in popular music, such as singles like David Guetta feat. Avicii's "
Sunshine" and Axwell's remix of "
In The Air".
Big room house became increasingly popular since 2010, through international dance music festivals such as
Tomorrowland,
Ultra Music Festival, and
Electric Daisy Carnival. In addition to these popular examples of house, there has also been a reunification of contemporary house and its roots. Many hip hop and R&B artists also turned to house music to add a mass appeal and dance floor energy to the music they produce.
Tropical house went onto the top 40 on the UK singles Chart in 2015 with artists such as
Kygo and
Jonas Blue. In the mid-2010s, the influences of house began to also be seen in Korean
K-pop music, examples of this being
f(x)'s single "
4 Walls" and
SHINee's title track, "
View". Later in the 2010s, a more traditional house sound came to the forefront of the mainstream in the UK, with Calvin Harris's singles "
One Kiss" and "
Promises", with the latter also incorporating elements of
nu-disco and
Italo house. These singles both went to No.1 in the UK.
Gqom was developed from
kwaito predominantly in
Durban, it was popularized globally as artists who popularized and pioneered the genre for instance
Babes Wodumo and
Distruction Boyz were nominated for the
MTV Europe Music Award for Best African Act, collaborated with
Major Lazer, featured on the
Black Panther (soundtrack) and
DJ Lag,
The Lion King: The Gift, album.
Afro tech presumably began to initially emerge as artists like
Black Coffee for example ostensibly started experimenting with what appeared to be a departed sound, similar to
afro house however led by a more
techno-like sound. Moreover, seemingly definitely not conventional
techno nor
deep house such as demonstrated in the song "We Dance Again" featuring
Nakhane. The song won the Breakthrough of the Year award at the
DJ Awards. The genre is both a sub-genre as well as fusion genre of afro house, there are also opinions that it is "still"
afro house. one of the South African offshoots of house music, called
amapiano, became popular first in
South Africa, and then later spread to London and elsewhere worldwide, largely due to online music distribution. Amapiano draws heavily from earlier
kwaito house music of South Africa and from jazz and
chill-out music. In 2022, the music portal Beatport added an "amapiano" genre to its catalogue. During the late 2010s and early 2020s and partially due to
YouTube music channels, closely related house subgenres
Brazilian bass and
slap house became popular worldwide, drawing from deep house and menacing basslines of
tech house.
Fred Again, United Kingdom-born DJ, released a song in 2021 called
Marea (We've Lost Dancing) about the pandemic. He wrote this song to express his sadness about losing the house music scene including clubs, music festivals, and being able to dance with one another. This is another example of how COVID-19 affected the house music scene. In 2019, the
DJ Awards introduced an additional new Afro house category.
Da Capo won the award. In 2020, American singer
Lady Gaga released
Chromatica, which was her return to her dance roots towards deep house, French house, electro house, and
disco house. In 2022, Canadian rapper
Drake released
Honestly, Nevermind, which was a departure from his signature hip hop,
R&B, and
trap music sound, and moved towards house music and its derivativates:
Jersey club, and
ballroom. South African, artist
Black Coffee and German music producers, collective
Keinemusik(Crue/Kloud) were amongst the list of co-producers on the album. American singer
Beyoncé's album
Renaissance, also released in 2022, incorporated ballroom house and gqom. ==See also==