A Brief History of House Music
Published on Friday 14 March 2025
House music has been around for almost half a century now. Originating from the east coast of the United States, it’s a style with an interesting backstory, so let’s dive into how it came to exist, how it has developed over time, who pioneered it and what kind of crowd feels drawn to it.
Typical Traits
House is an uptempo style. The tracks have 116 to 128 BPM range and are characterised by what’s known as a four-on-the-floor beat: a prominent kick drum blast on every count, created by a drum machine or a sampler. The kick sound is supported by hi-hats, cymbal patterns, claps and snare drum sounds on every second and fourth count — a pattern that stems from drum beats pulled from ‘60s dance music, which made its way into ‘80s house beats via ‘70s disco drummers. House producers use a wide variety of instruments – including synthesizers and samplers – to generate the bass, and they often borrow electronic sounds sampled from jazz, blues, disco, funk and soul as the basis for their beats and bass lines, which are often sprinkled with disco and soul-based vocals and percussion effects to finish.
Origins
New York
While some argue it’s Chicago, most agree that house music emerged in New York, following the commercial disco-craze that now cult-classic Saturday Night Fever started. In 1977, the Paradise Garage club opened in New York. Those who stepped inside were treated to a unique and eclectic mix of disco and dance music. Together with his mate Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan, the driving force behind the club, turned the place into the most successful club in the history of dance. The mixed, open-minded audience mirrored the music that was played there — which spanned everything from disco and dance to soul, rock, gospel, rap and funk, resulting in a real melting pot of cultures. Fun fact: the subgenre ‘garage house’ is actually based on the club’s name.
Chicago
As soon as house music started catching on in New York, Frankie Knuckles moved to Chicago to work as a DJ in a new club called The Warehouse, bringing the New York-sound to the Windy City. Knuckles successfully promoted the funky, soulful and darker version of disco in Chicago, and it wasn’t long before house blew up.
Spurred on by technological developments, house producers started making fresh versions of well-known tunes, adding unique bass lines and rhythms. These remixes were created in home studios and were often served up in the club later the same day. As technology advanced, gear became more affordable as well as more available to the masses, which led to a kind of DIY culture within the house scene. The fact that anyone could now go from ‘consumer’ to producer was an important step in the development of EDM.
Meanwhile, Frankie Knuckles’ way of weaving beats at The Warehouse became increasingly energetic, and more and more house fans found their way to the club, looking to get a taste of the free-spirited, open-minded vibes. In fact, escapism was and still is one of the pillars of house culture. In the late eighties, The Warehouse almost buckled as a result of its success, which is when Knuckles started his own club, The Power Plant. At the same time, The Warehouse changed its name to The Music Box and hired a new resident DJ: Ron Hardy. Hardy pumped up the jam even more than Knuckles had done and would practically bring club-goers into a trance state, like a guru leading the crowd on a musical trip. The nightlife in Chicago at the time was marked by unprecedented levels of energy and dedication, and after house revellers started asking for ‘Warehouse music’ in record shops, the style was officially a thing.
In 1988, Larry Heard aka Fingers Inc. released Can You Feel It — one of the most important, genre-defining house tracks ever dropped. The beat captures the essence of the style and marked a turning point: house was now mainstream.
