Deep
House
House is a form of dance music that evolved
during the early 1980s from disco and the
black American soul-music tradition. It
takes its name from the Warehouse, a Chicago
club where DJs such as Frankie Bones first
played their (often self-produced) records
to a mass audience. ("Garage" house, a more
laid-back, "deep" variation of house,
evolved around the same time and takes its
name from Larry Levan's Paradise Garage in
New York City.) The original "House" sound
is characterized by "four on the floor"
beats at 120-130 BPM, forward-driven bass
lines, an emphasis on the second and fourth
beats of each measure, handclaps, and hi-hat
cymbals. Over the years, house has spawned a
number of variations, including:
acid house (with its "trippy" melodic lines,
usually generated on a Roland 303
synthesizer)
Deep house
(with a greater emphasis on "soul" and
atmospheric background sounds)
Speed
garage
(featuring choppy basslines, reggae-style
vocals and often "broken" beats)
Progressive house
(usually faster than traditional house, with
many volume and phase variations and a
"progression" of different background
sounds)
Disco house
(even greater emphasis on the bassline, and
the return of many disco-ish accoutrements
such as violin sections)
Tech house
("electric" / techno sounds featured over a
house-derived beat, with melodic progression
often less emphasized)
Latin house
(incorporating elements of traditional Latin
American music)
tribal house (greater emphasis on drumlines;
melodies may be present, but with less
traditional "progression")