Changes in House Music due to Changes in the World
Over the years music has changed its sound for multiple reasons and it has changed in multiple different ways. As time goes on music evolves and takes inspiration from not only other genres of music but from whats going on in the world. From its creation to today house music has evolved in multiple forms and has been changed from what its usually known as into something different due to the multiple artists in the genre like The Chainsmokers. The Chainsmokers came up in the music industry in 2012 and became a worldwide sensation and their main demographic is young adults. House music became popular because it gave people a chance to escape reality and their problems most notably their economic problems. With their main demographic being young adults most of them will be in college progressing their education and getting ready for the rest of their life, it is a stressful time for them as well as a costly time paying thousands of dollars a year with most taking out loans and being in debt for years after their schooling is done. The Chainsmokers fast tempo, loud volume, and rhythmic focus music allowed the listeners to escape reality and escape their poor economic status and be free. With the listeners attracted to the high volume, beat drops, and fast tempo of house music it helped them forget about their worries and they inadvertently impacted the genre.
With their demographic being in debt and living in a stressful time in their life they seek out ways to forget about their problems and one way is house music, when you go out to a Chainsmokers concert you will see the entire crowd dancing and enjoying the music. When it comes to the dancing you’ll notice that not everyone can do it but people don’t care to embarrass themselves by dancing since they are only trying to be free and do what ever they want that makes them happy but they are also forgetting their worries and living in the moment. One musical trait in the song “Closer” by The Chainsmokers is the song builds up a lot of energy during the song and it leads to it all coming to a head and the beat eventually “drops”. “Drops” are when the songs tempo gets faster and all the instruments get louder and louder until at a point when the songs comes to a stop and then progresses with a new rhythm and sound for the next portion of the song. The whole point of “drops” are to build energy for not only the artist but for the crowd and listeners too. One of the main reasons house music became popular was because of the ability that house music had to let the listeners forget about their problems and to dance the day or night away. “Drew Taggart, Alex Pall and Matt McGuire had an insane amount of energy and was on their feet jamming out with the audience the whole entire set (Louisiana State University)”. The Chainsmokers music gives an energetic vibe to its listeners and it results in the listeners dancing to their music and forgetting about all their worries that are going on in their life even just for a few minutes until the song comes to a close.
Another musical trait for the song “Closer” by The Chainsmokers is that the song has two different styles when it comes to the chorus and regular verse. When the verses are being played, they are in a calmer and more of an easy going tone, when the chorus is being played it’s in a faster tempo and it is payed at a much higher pitch compared to the verses pitch. “That’s because the human voice generates more energy in its upper range, and we obviously want more energy to occur in a chorus than in a verse (Ewer)”. The Chainsmokers are known for their energetic style of music and they also do crazy stunts on stage while performing for their fans causing the energy for their set to be through the roof. They not only produce energy for their shows for the fans by their music but they also do things on stage during the show so that not only is the crowd entertained by the music but they are also entertained visually through the stunts on the stage by the artists (Hyman). The chorus for songs are what people tend to remember more than the verses, thus why they are catchier and get stuck in listener’s head. It’s also why in this song it’s in a higher pitch causing more energy in the song and transferring it to the listeners, imprinting the notion of high energy with this song.
Another musical trait in the song “Closer” by the Chainsmokers is the songs beat and its structure of it. Unlike the regular structure of house music, the song “Closer” started with an intro and went into the first verse instead of going to the chorus, after the verse it continued to the chorus and proceeded to the second verse. It then proceeded to the chorus again but it was an extended chorus and by that, I mean it performs the chorus same as it did previously but when it would’ve finished it instead played the second half of the chorus a couple more times until the song finishes. During the chorus the tempo is faster than the verses and all of the music played during the chorus is sped up as well. When it comes to the beats of house music this song possesses much of them, for instance the general beat played throughout the entire sound is electronic programs making notes and percussion instruments with the insertions of claps, snares, and cymbals. “Claps and snares will be added to create syncopation on the drum track itself (Hydlide)”. Another aspect of the beat made for the song is the audio editing put into songs like this. There are sounds like the main sound you hear throughout the song that can’t be made with instruments, instead it’s made with programs on the computer and they are edited until the producer likes the sound they made.
Overall the world and the listeners of music has impacted the genre of house music. With people trying to escape their economic worries and just trying to blow off some steam they turned to house music and indirectly shaped some of the traits of the genre over time. The fast tempo, beat drops, and the loud volume are common staples in the house genre that we know today. If it wasn’t for the listeners or the changes in the world, the house music genre could be something completely different than what we know what it is today.
Work Cited:
Hydlide. “Basic Elements House Music.” Reason Experts. Published on Reason Experts, 05 May 2018. Web.
Ewer, Gary. “6 Characteristics That You Find in Almost All Songs.” The Essential Secrets of Songwriting, 29 Sept. 2012, www.secretsofsongwriting.com/2012/09/29/6-characteristics-that-you-find-in-almost-all-songs/.
“The Chainsmokers give fans an energetic nonstop party in NOLA with Lennon Stella and 5SOS”. The Reveille: Louisiana State University, October 30, 2019 Wednesday. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5XDB-KX91-DY7P-T41G-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed November 6, 2019.
Dan Hyman, Chicago Tribune. “Chainsmokers firing on all cylinders DJ duo starts tour with supersized fame intact — speaking of which, what the heck is a Globe of Death?”. Daily Press (Newport News, VA), October 11, 2019 Friday. https://advance-lexis-com.hoover2.mcdaniel.edu:2443/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5X7V-WTC1-DY37-F0VT-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed October 15, 2019.
