House music is a style of electronic dance music, the earliest forms of which originated in the United States in the early- to mid-1980s. The name is said to derive from the Warehouse nightclub in Chicago, where the resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles, mixed classic disco and European synthpop recordings. Club regulars referred to his selection of music as house music. However, since Frankie was not creating new music at that time, it has been argued that Chip E. in his early recording "It's House" defined this new form of electronic music and gave it its name. However, Chip E himself claims the name came from methods of labelling records at the Importes Etc record store he worked at in the early eighties. People would come in looking for music Knuckles played at the Warehouse, so eventually a sign was put up that said "As Heard At The Warehouse". Eventually it was shortened to simply "The House", and the name became the vernacular.

The common element of house music is a prominent 4/4 beat (a prominent kick drum on every beat, also known as four-on-the-floor) generated by a drum machine or other electronic means (such as a sampler), together with a continuous, repeating (usually also electronically generated) bassline. Typically added to this foundation are electronically generated sounds and samples of music such as jazz, blues and synth pop, as well as additional percussion. As new recordings adhering to this general style emerged, the house genre divided into a number of subcategories, some of which are described below.

House Music also refers to the recorded music played while a theater audience takes their seats before a performance, or, in live music venues, the recorded music played before the live music begins. Well-known live acts can demand their choice of house music, or that there be none at all. Such demands are made in the technical rider to their contract (the same document that specifies what items must be present in the dressing room).

Proto-history: from disco to house: late 1960s to early 1980s
Main article: Electronic music history

House, techno, electro and hip-hop musicians owe their existence to the pioneers of analog synthesizers which enabled a wizardry of sounds to exist, available at the touch of a button or key.

Although many people believe house music to have originated from Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", fully formed electronic music tracks actually came before house. Early American Sci-Fi films and the BBC Soundtrack to popular television series Doctor Who stirred a whole generation of techno music lovers like the space rock generation during the 1970s, influenced by the psychedelic music sound of the late 1960s and bands such as Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Amon Düül, Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and the so-called Krautrock early electronic scene (Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze). Shunned by many as a gimmick or children's music, it was a genre similar and parallel to the Kosmische Musik scene in Germany. Space rock is characterized by the use of spatial and floating backgrounds, mantra loops, electronic sequences, and futuristic effects over Rock structures. Some of the most representative artists were Gong and Hawkwind.

The late 1970s saw disco utilize the (by then) much-developed electronic sound and a limited genre emerged, appealing mainly to gay and Black audiences. In 1977, disco music crossed over into the mainstream American culture, following the popularity of hit film Saturday Night Fever and its accompanying soundtrack. As disco clubs filled there was a move to larger venues. "Paradise Garage" opened in New York in January 1978, featuring the DJ talents of Larry Levan (1954–1992). Studio 54, another New York disco club, was extremely popular. The clubs played the tunes of singers such as Diana Ross, CHIC, Gloria Gaynor, Kool & the Gang, Donna Summer, and Larry Levan's own hit, “I Got My Mind Made Up.” The disco boom was short-lived. There was a backlash from Middle America, epitomised in Chicago radio DJ Steve Dahl's "Disco Demolition Night" in 1979. Disco returned to the smaller clubs like the Warehouse in Chicago, Illinois.

Opened in 1977, the Warehouse on Jefferson street in Chicago, was a key venue in the development of house music. The main DJ was Frankie Knuckles. The club staples were still the old disco tunes but the limited number of records meant that the DJ had to be a creative force, introducing more deck work to revitalize old tunes. The new mixing skills also had local airplay with the Hot Mix 5 at WBMX. The chief source of this kind of records in Chicago was the record-store imports, etc., where the term “house” was introduced as a shortening of Warehouse (as in these records are played at the Warehouse). Despite the new skills, the music was still essentially disco until the early 1980s when the first stand-alone drum machines were invented. Disco tracks could now be given an edge with the use of a mixer and drum machine. This was an added boost to the prestige of the individual DJs.

In Sheffield, England the industrial band Cabaret Voltaire is often considered to have pioneered their own version of the "house sound" as early as 1981 with tracks like "automotivation". Some recordings of The Clash have also been seen in a similar light.

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Chicago years: early 1980s - late 1980s
Main article: Chicago house
In 1983 the Music Box club opened in Chicago. Owned by Robert Williams, the driving force was a DJ, Ron Hardy. The chief characteristics of the club's sound were sheer massive volume and an increased pace to the tunes. The pace was apparently the result of Hardy's heroin use. The club also played a wider range of music than just disco. Groups such as Kraftwerk and Blondie were well received, as was a brief flirtation with punk, with dances such as Punking-Out or Jacking being very popular.

Two tunes were arguably the first House music, each arriving in early 1983. The tune that was chronologically first was Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles' Your Love, a huge hit in the clubs, but only available on tape. The second, On and On by Jesse Saunders was later put on vinyl (1985). (Shapiro, 2000). Immediately on the tails of these recordings was Chip E. Jack Trax, which defined the genre with its complex rhythms, simple bassline, use of sampling technology, and minimalist vocals.

By 1985 house music dominated the clubs of Chicago, in part due to the radio play the music received on 102.7 FM WBMX, and their resident DJ team, the Hot Mix 5. Also, the music and movement was aided by the musical electronic revolution - the arrival of newer, cheaper and more compact music sequencers, drum machines (the Roland TR-909, TR-808 and TR-707, and Latin percussion machine the TR-727) and bass modules (such as the legendary Roland TB-303 in late 1985) gave House music creators even wider possibilities in creating their own sound, indeed the creation of acid house is directly related to the efforts of DJ Pierre, Larry Heard, and Marshall Jefferson on the new drum machines.

Two record labels dominated the house music scene in Chicago: DJ International Records, owned by Rocky Jones, and Trax Records, owned by Larry Sherman. Trax self-pressed its records and the quality was not as good as the DiscMakers pressings of DJ International.

Many of the songs that defined the era came from these record labels. Steve “Silk” Hurley's 'Music is the Key, Chip E's Like This, and Fingers Inc.’s Mystery of Love (1985) were among some of the defining songs that came from DJ International. Trax released Jack the Bass and Funkin with the Drums Again by Farley Jackmaster Funk in 1985, followed the next year by the house classic Move Your Body (The house Music Anthem) by Marshall Jefferson, and No Way Back by Adonis.

This was something of a double-edged sword. In its favor, Trax was very fast to sign new artists and press their tracks, establishing a large catalog of house tunes, but the label used recycled vinyl to speed up the pressing process, which resulted in physically poor-quality records. Also disappointing was that many artists signed contracts that were rather less favorable towards them than they had hoped.

Trax became the dominant house label, releasing many classics including No Way Back by Adonis, Larry Heard's (as Fingers Inc.) Can You Feel It and the first so-called house anthem in 1986, "Move Your Body" by Marshall Jefferson. This latter tune gave a massive boost to house music, extending recognition of the genre out of Chicago. Steve 'Silk' Hurley became the first house artist to reach number one in the UK in 1987 with Jack Your Body. This and other tracks such as Music is the Key and Love Can't Turn Around helped moved house from its spiritual home to its commercial birthplace —the United Kingdom. Acid house and hip-house scene was dominated by international producers like Tyree Cooper, Mr Lee, Fast Eddie, Kool Rock Steady and Ralphi Rosario at the end of the 1980s.


The Detroit Connection: early 1980s - late 1980s
Main article: Detroit techno
A form of music was forming at the same time in Detroit, what became known as Detroit techno. A major influence to the fusion of eclectic sounds into the signature detroit techno sound was a radio program that ran in the mid 1970s until the 1980s by legendary disc jockey The Electrifying Mojo. Music heavily influenced by European Electronica (Kraftwerk, Art of Noise), early b-boy Hip-Hop (Man Parrish, Soul Sonic Force) and Italo Disco (Doctor's Cat, Ris, Klein M.B.O.) this music was pioneered by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. The first group of songs to be rotated heavy in Chicago house-music circles were the 1985 releases of NO UFOs by Juan Atkins's group Model 500 on Metroplex Records, Let's Go by Trans X-Ray (Derrick "MAYDAY" May") and "Groovin' without a Doubt" by Inner City (Kevin Saunderson) on KMS Records.