The breeze Of Electronic dance genre: House Music
By Pathum Punchihewa
Despite the Hip hop mania sweeping across the country we see an increasing interest for smooth house music. Many beach parties adopt house music and maestros of house music claim that house music is such a peaceful music genre to listen to. They furthermore claim that a party full of house music never causes any hassle, misbehaviour or gang fights unlike many other club parties.
We can agree with those explanations, hence we all agree that any genre of house music is as soft as the sea breeze.
House Music had its origins in Chicago, USA. But House Music was popularized by Afro-Americans and Latin-Americans in the 80th decade. Whether we like it or not, house music was first and foremost a direct descendant of Disco which had already been going on for ten years when the first electronic drum tracks began to appear out of Chicago, and at that time it had already suffered the slings and arrows of merciless commercial music exploitation, dilution and racial and sexual prejudice which culminated in the 'disco sucks' campaign.
House music is up tempo music for dancing, although by modern dance music standards it is mid-tempo. The common element of house is a prominent kick drum on every beat -also known as a four-to-the-floor beat-, usually generated by a drum machine or sampler. The kick drum sound is augmented by various kick fills and extended dropouts. The drum track is filled out with hi-hat cymbal patterns that nearly always include an open hi-hat on eighth note off-beats between each kick, and a snare drum or clap sound on beats two and four of every bar.
Today we roped in a House DJ of the town-one of best House DJs as fans recommend- DJ Shiyam to have a little chat about house genre.
How would you define House music?
House Music generally ranges between 118 and 135 BPM (Beats Per Minute) , You could say HOUSE is electronically generated and up-tempo type of music for dancing with loads of synthesizer , Baselines, Electronic drums, Effects ,Samples and sometimes vocals. House music has deferent types of genres, such as Progressive House, Tech House, Deep House; Funky House… the list goes on…
The international response for house music
Huge! House music is Massive around the globe. At the moment UK & Europe countries have the most influence. You could see many DJ’s/ Producers & Bands that construct and produce House music around the world which are played at each and every Festival & Mega Concert. The response is so good that House Music is at its peak in the Middle East, even in Africa. That’s how far the response is for Dance music internationally.
How does it challenge other music genres like rock or hip-hop around the world?
House Music is based on pure energy that keeps you going constantly. On the other hand House music has its own share of fan base among other music genres. Even if you are a metal-head, you can be a fan of House Music too. Nevertheless even in Sri Lanka we can see an escalating popularity in House music parties in the party culture. So let’s say it’s not a challenge for others.
Let’s talk about the history of House music in Sri Lanka?
It started in the 90’s which was played mostly at nightclubs by the local DJs. Mostly House music was played on and off during that time till it reached a huge outburst in 2005. International DJs and well known Brands were brought down to Sri Lanka and the House Music trend kicked off.
What ingredients do you need to throw a house music party as you see?
Good Sound System + Lights + Venue + DJ with a good knowledge of Dance music.
Well… that’s what experts say about House music. I would like to mention about the various genres of house Music.
Acid house: Hard, uncompromising, tweaking samples which produce a hypnotic effect.
Ambient house: Mixing the moody atmospheric sounds of New Age and ambient music with pulsating house beats.
Baseline house: A sub-genre of UK garage.
Bay Area House: Notable for its blend of Jazz, Funk, Soul, Deep and Disco vocal. Let’s say light and fun sounding.
Electro house: A style of dance music which has rapidly increased in popularity since the early 2000s. It has a lot more in common with Electro-clash, Synth-pop and Italo disco.
Funky house: Funky house can again be sub-divided into many other types of house music. French house, Italian house, Disco house, Latin house and many other types of house have all contributed greatly to what is today known as Funky house. It is recognizable by its often very catchy baseline, swooshes, swirls and other synthesized sounds which give the music a bouncy tempo. It often relies heavily on black female vocals or disco samples and has a recognizable tiered structure in which every track has more than one build-up which usually reaches a climax before the process is repeated with the next track.
Progressive house: Typified by accelerating peaks and troughs throughout a track's duration, and are, in general, less obvious than in hard house.
Disco house: A more upfront variant of house that relies heavily on looped disco samples.
Techno-house: House music with Techno that was popular in the Early Rave Scene.
Tech-house: House music with elements of techno in its arrangement and instrumentation
And there are various House genres including Baltimore House, Bay Area House, Blog house, Chicago house, Deep house, Dream house, Dutch house, Fidget house, Freestyle house, French house, Pumpin House, Hi-NRG, Hard House, Minimal House, Rave House, Piano house , Tribal house, Micro-House etc.
So when you step into your next House music beach party, try to feel the incredible house music and have a little chat with the DJ. You will gain more for sure.
Published on Youth Mirror - Daily Mirror (Thursday, 28 January 2010 10:58 )
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