House Music: Then —> Now
House music began as underground European club music, and now has transitioned to some of the most popular mainstream music in the world. Today, house music can be heard at restaurants, radio stations, and even nationally aired television commercials. House music first emerged in the United States when a DJ named “Frankie Knuckles” started mixing disco music with Euro pop music in his Chicago night clubs. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1980's, when the genre was in its infancy. Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often known as “The Godfather of House Music”.
Initially, electronic dance music was associated with European rave and club culture and achieved limited popular exposure in America, but by the mid-to-late 1990's efforts were underway to showcase this dance genre. Americans saw EDM as a foreign genre and didn’t embrace the genre until Europe’s best DJ’s took the United States by storm. In early 2010 the term “electronic dance music” and the abbreviation “EDM” was born. This was largely an effort to re-brand the negative stereotype of U.S. rave culture. In 2011, Swedish House Mafia was the first EDM act to ever perform at Madison Square Garden. Not to mention that they sold out the show in only 9 minutes. During this time large scale EDM music festivals were popping up all over the country. Some of the most popular being: Electric Daisy Carnival (Las Vegas), Ultra Music Festival (Miami), and Spring Awakening (Chicago).
As time went on these music festivals began headlining the worlds most popular DJ’s which caused a boom in attendance, now bringing in hundreds of thousands of fans for each festival. Music festivals of this nature had been going on in Europe long before they moved to the United States and since the European culture was much more accepting of EDM from the beginning most famous DJ’s are of European descent. Here is a list of a few famous DJ’s and their country of origin: Avicii (Sweden), Hardwell (Netherlands), Calvin Harris (England), David Guetta (France), I think you get my point.Once these DJ’s were on board the festivals were no longer just about the music, they were now an experience which placed an increased emphasis on visual experiences (such as video and lighting) and of course fashion.
The DJ’s who started house music did so that people would have fun music to dance to at night clubs. They couldn’t even imagine that the famous DJ’s I listed above would be playing at shows of hundreds of thousands of people and being compensated tens of millions to do so. The EDM genre is one of the largest music movements in history and isn’t anywhere near slowing down. EDM is now not only a genre of music, but a culture followed by tens of millions world wide. For the people that are a part of this culture it means much more to them then good music. They represent their culture by the music they listen to, the clothes they wear, the restaurants they eat at, and most of all the people they choose share their experiences with. It’s not just music. It’s a way of life.
