House, style of high-tempo, electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s and spread internationally. Born in Chicago clubs that catered to gay, predominantly black and Latino patrons, house fused the symphonic sweep and soul diva vocals of 1970s disco with the cold futurism of synthesizer-driven Eurodisco. Invented by deejay-producers such as Frankie Knuckles and Marshall Jefferson, house reached Europe by 1986, with tracks on Chicago labels Trax and DJ International penetrating the British pop charts. In 1988 the subgenre called acid house catalyzed a British youth culture explosion, when dancers discovered that the music’s psychedelic bass lines acted synergistically with the illegal drug ecstasy. Continue reading from Encyclopedia Britannica
It was a late night in 1971 after a show at Stage 45, and DJs Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan happened upon a parked pastry truck. At that point in their careers, both had graduated from regular gigs at the Continental Baths – Levan had made a name for himself at The Loft and Knuckles was DJing regularly as well. That night, hungry and seizing the opportunity for some free food, the best friends lifted a few bags of donuts and ran – right into a police car. Arrested and sent to Spofford Juvenile Center in the Bronx (with their parents refusing to bail them out), Knuckles was panicked and distraught. Levan was unphased. But then by chance, a juvenile counselor approached the duo – a man they recognized from the parties they played, named Robert Williams. In a few years, Knuckles (who passed away in 2014) and Williams would change music forever at a club called the Warehouse.
If you were in downtown Chicago, you probably could have walked right by the Warehouse and never noticed. But come nighttime, the former factory came to life as a place where young predominantly black and predominantly gay men came to dance in an otherwise heavily segregated club scene. At the helm of the DJ booth was now musical director Frankie Knuckles. The funky tracks, meshed with relentlessly hard-hitting 808 kicks, embodied a new sound: “house.” Continue reading from Splice
