House Music

Putting The Science Into Music

House Music developed in Chicago during the early 1980s from Disco, Soul, Funk, electronic music and the city's Black and Latino club culture. DJs and producers used drum machines, synthesisers, sequencers and edited records to build a new form of dance music around a steady four-to-the-floor rhythm.

The Warehouse and its resident DJ Frankie Knuckles became central to the genre's early history, while Ron Hardy shaped a rawer, more experimental sound at the Music Box. Their sets connected Disco and Post-Disco with European electronic records, drum-machine tracks and early productions made specifically for Chicago dance floors.

Independent labels including Trax Records and DJ International carried Chicago House to wider audiences during the mid-1980s. Artists such as Marshall Jefferson, Larry Heard, Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, Adonis and Phuture established different directions through piano chords, soulful vocals, acid basslines and stripped-back machine rhythms.

House Music soon spread to New York, New Jersey, Detroit, Britain and continental Europe, where local scenes built their own interpretations. These included Deep House, Acid House, Garage House, Vocal House, Tech House, Progressive House, Afro House and many other related styles.

The genre commonly features four-to-the-floor kick drums, repeated basslines, syncopated percussion and extended arrangements built for DJ mixing. Its musical range runs from soulful, melodic recordings through to minimal, experimental and harder club productions.

House Music became one of the main foundations of modern electronic dance music, shaping commercial pop as well as underground club culture. The category now includes both its original Chicago forms and the many regional and stylistic branches that grew from them.

At Scientific Sound Asia, house music spans nearly the whole schedule, with the heaviest presence on Marco Mei, After Hours, Electronic Roots and Esta La Musica.