Electronic Music For Dummies – House Edition

This post was inspired by my dear friend Karine =D

First of all, let us distinguish between electromechanical music and electronic music. Electromechanical music is music produced by instruments such as the Hammond organ and the electric guitar. Electronic music are made by devices such as synthesizers and computers.

Technology has opened up new horizons for music and the traditional understanding of musical performances has become totally revolutionized. Expensive studios and instruments can now be replaced by music production programs on any standard laptop (creating a movement in the electronic scene called laptronica)

So, music is now essentially a highly personalized, highly versatile and virtually limitless source of art and entertainment. You do not have to be endowed with special abilities (nice voice or musical ear) to create good music with a computer. That however does not mean it is something bad. If that were true for everything, you’d probably be reading Bacon or Nietzsche instead of this blog right now. Having brought that point up, not all electronic music is good, just like not all blogs are fun to read.

Electronic music has usurped the throne of dance music in the 90s and 2000s, today it is common knowledge that a respectable club = electronic music. As a result of this massive proliferation within the EDM (electronic dance music) industry, EDM has branched out into countless subgenres, of which I’m going to highlight a few.

In this post, I’ll be dealing with House Music

House Music

House music can trace its origins back to one specific city in one specific moment of time: Chicago in the early 80s. To be even more specific, in a club called Warehouse between 1977 and 1982. The music got its name because the new genre, heavily influenced by disco, soul and funk, was the Warehouse’s trademark. When it caught on and similar tracks started emerging, people would say “Hey, that’s ‘house music” and hence the name of today’s House Music.

House music is the music for dancing. It is synonymous with clubbing and glamour. It is also known to have established itself among the rich and famous, with many brands eventually springing up to support this rising movement.

House found itself to Europe quickly after is US debut, and there it flourished. Although the US has seen less success of the music, Chicago’s mayor announce August 10th “House Unity Day” in 2005.

To the veteran ear, House music is easily discernible. But to those of you aren’t as educated in EDM, here’s the juicy part:

Beats Per Minute: 115 to 135 BPM (usually 120-128 BPM nowadays)
Famous DJs: Sasha, John Digweed, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Benny Benassi
Famous Classics: Love Parade’98, Alarma – 666, Satisfaction – Benny Benassi, The World is Mine – David Guetta, Let Me Be Your Fantasy – Jerry Ropero
Famous Recent Hits: One Love, Sexy Bitch, Memories – David Guetta, Leave the World Behind You – VA,
Famous Clubs: Pacha – Ibiza, Ministry of Sound – London, b018 – Beirut, The Basement – Beirut
Samples I Recommend: Slip (Original Mix) – Deadmau5 I’d also recommend the Sebastian Leger Remix of Slip
Open Your Mind (Dinka D.E.E.P Remix) – Daniel Portman
Some DJs in Lebanon Who Spin House: Most DJs who play EDM play house music in leb, to name a few: Jade & Diamond Setter, Gunther & Stamina, Ronin’n'Nesta, JoJo, Dray

I hope you can now know what a House song should sound like. Hopefully, with coming editions bringing forth the characteristics of other EDM genres, you will never ask me ‘how d you know it’s house?’ or ‘how can you tell the difference?’