Information on the Chicago House genre

Chicago house is the earliest style of house music. The term "House music" is thought to have originated in North America at a Chicago, USA, nightclub called The Warehouse. While the origins of the name are unclear, one of the most popular beliefs is that the term can be traced to the name of that club.

House music was developed in the houses, garages and clubs of Chicago initially for local club-goers in the "underground" club scenes, rather than for widespread commercial release. As a result, the recordings were much more conceptual and longer than the music usually played on commercial radio. House musicians used analog synthesizers and sequencers to create and arrange the electronic elements and samples on their tracks, combining live traditional instruments and percussion and soulful vocals with preprogrammed electronic synthesizers and "beat-boxes".

Main stream record stores often did not carry these 12 inch vinyl singles, as they were not available through the major record distributors. In Chicago, records stores such as Importes Etc., State Street Records, JR’s Music shop and Gramaphone Records were the primary suppliers of this music. The record-store Importes Etc, is believed to be where the term “house” was introduced as a shortening of "Warehouse".

The music was still essentially disco until the early 1980s when the first stand-alone drum machines were invented. House tracks could now be given an edge with the use of a mixer and drum machine. This was an added boost to the prestige of the individual DJs. Underground club DJs like Ron Hardy and radio jocks The Hot Mix 5 played Italo Disco tracks like "Dirty Talk" and the "MBO Theme" by Klein M.B.O., Early B-Boy Hip Hop tracks such as Man Parrish's "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)" and Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force's Planet Rock and Looking for the Perfect Beat as well as electronic music by Kraftwerk; these genres were influential to the Chicago genre of House.

Jesse Saunders “Jes Say Records” who had club hits with more “B-boy Hip Hop” oriented tracks like “Come to Me” by Gwendolyn and “Dum Dum” as well as the Italo Disco influenced “Under Cover” by Dr. Derelict released the first Chicago home made house hit, “On and On” (1984) which had hypnotic lyrics, driving bassline, and percussion. This was the first house record pressed and sold to the general public.

In 1985, Mr Fingers's landmark "Can You Feel It?"/"Washing Machine"/"Mystery of Love" showed a jazz-influenced, lush, sound that was created using a Roland TR-707 and Jupiter 6 synthesizer. This song helped to start the trend for the Deep house genre, which had a slower beat of 110-125 bpm. In the same year, Chip E.'s "It's House" is a good example of the Chicago House Music style. In 1986, Phuture's "Acid Trax" (1986) showed the development of a house music subgenre called acid house which arose from experiments with a 303 machine by Chicago musicians such as DJ Pierre.

Early house recordings were Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles' "Your Love"; "On and On" by Jesse Saunders (1984) and Chip E.'s "The Jack Trax" featuring the songs “It’s House” and “Time to Jack”, which used complex rhythms, simple bassline, sampling technology, and minimalist vocals. By 1985, house music dominated the clubs of Chicago, largely in part due to the radio play the music received on 102.7 FM WBMX which was the brainchild of Program director Lee Michaels through WBMX's resident DJ team, the Hot Mix 5.
The Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer

The music and movement was also aided by the electronic music revolution - the arrival of cheap and compact music sequencers, drum machines (the Roland TR-909, TR-808 and TR-707, and Latin percussion machine the TR-727) and bass modules (such as the Roland TB-303) gave House music creators even wider possibilities in creating their own sound. The acid house subgenre was developed from the experiments by DJ Pierre, Larry Heard (Mr. Fingers), and Marshall Jefferson with the new drum and rhythm machines.

Many of the songs that defined the Chicago house music sound were released by DJ International Records and Trax Records. In 1985, Trax released "Jack the Bass" and "Funkin' with the Drums Again" by Farley Jackmaster Funk. In 1986, Trax released "No Way Back" by Adonis, Larry Heard's (as Fingers Inc.) "Can You Feel It?" and "Washing Machine", and an early house anthem in 1986, "Move Your Body" by Marshall Jefferson, which helped to boost the popularity of the style outside of Chicago.

In 1987, Steve 'Silk' Hurley's "Jack Your Body" was the first House track to reach No.1 in the UK Top 40 pop chart. 1987 also saw M/A/R/R/S' "Pump Up The Volume" reach No.1 in the UK Top 40 pop chart. In 1989 Hurley transformed Roberta Flack's soft ballad "Uh Oh Look Out" into a boisterous dance track. S'Express's "Theme from S'Express" (1988) is an example of a disco-influenced, funky acid house tune. It uses samples from Rose Royce's song "Is it Love You're After" over a Roland 303 bassline. In 1989, Black Box - "Ride on time" (which sampled Loleatta Holloway's 1980 disco hit, Love Sensation) hit number 1 in the UK top 40 and Technotronic's song "Pump Up the Jam" (1989) was one of the early house records to break the top 10 on the US pop charts. A year later, Madonna's "Vogue" went to number one on charts worldwide, becoming the highest selling single on WEA up to that time. In 1992, Leftfield's song "Release the Pressure" helped to introduce a new subgenre of house called progressive house.

House music also had an influence of relaying political messages to people who were considered to be the outcasts of society. It offered a "home" for those who didn't fit into mainstream American society, especially celebrated by many black gays. Frankie Knuckles made a good comparison of House saying it was like "church for people who have fallen from grace" and Marshall Jefferson compared it to "old-time religion in the way that people just get happy and screamin'" . Deep house was similar to many of the messages of freedom for the black community. Both House CDs by Joe Smooth, "Promised Land" and Db "I Have a Dream" give similar messages of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. House was also very sexual and had much mystic in it. It went so far as to have a "eroto-mystic delirium" . Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride" begins in a prayer but surprisingly is about a dominatrix who seduces a man to "ride" her through the rest of the song.