My ‘House’ is Your ‘House:’ Ditch the Mainstream for Better Dance Music

With many songs over ten minutes long, house music is some of the best music to dance to.

Matty Adame/omgitsmattyvee / CC0 provided via Wikimedia Commons

With many songs over ten minutes long, house music is some of the best music to dance to.

Luis Parker, Staff Writer

If there’s anything I know about music nowadays, it’s that a song has to have a fire beat to be considered a banger. Every popular song that comes out can have great lyrics, but rarely does anyone care about that anymore. I for one don’t really pay attention to lyrics if the beat is tough, and for that reason, I don’t really listen to mainstream music. I’m after the beat and only the beat, and to find it I listen to underground house music.

House music has been around since 1977, but it gained popularity in the 1980s and is still tough! No one is 100% sure why it’s called house music, but there’s a prominent theory that it came from “The Warehouse” nightclub in Chicago. The club attracted people from all over because of its emerging new, weird electronic sounds. 

House music is a genre of electronic music with an abnormally repetitive beat at a tempo of 120 to 130 beats per minute. It is reminiscent of disco but has a modern, electronic twist. If you are looking for new music and getting tired of what’s on the radio, this article should help you get into what I think is some of the grooviest music out right now. 

Choosing what type of house music you like is as easy as choosing your favorite ice cream. With house, there is a large variety to choose from. Some house songs are 3 minutes long with lyrics spread across, others are 10 minutes of just a beat. Some are groovy and upbeat, while others are chill and help you concentrate. 

You may actually recognize some of the more famous house artists such as Calvin Harris, Avicii, Daft Punk, and Zedd, but the list goes on. Although their music may be labeled as Dance or Electronic, it’s still all a part of house! You’re probably a little confused right now, but it’ll make sense in just a second. Imagine a literal household right? You have the family members, which are the artists, and a family makes a what? A household, or a house. Now with that understanding, knowing that no family is the same, you can guess that every “house” is different. You have different types of house music that come from that. Deep house is my personal favorite. Deep house is characterized by songs with abnormally long beats with no lyrics. I know, I know… weird.

As I grew older, I became more curious as to how the music is made. I asked myself what is used and where the sounds come from. I came to find that there may be no instruments involved, and a turntable is the tool that pieces everything together. DJs made it look so easy to use a turntable, so I tried to get into it myself and found out I don’t know jack about making house music. It’s difficult, like driving for the first time. But the point here is that I was so inspired by the music that I wanted to participate in its production. Not to shoot down other talents like singing, but I don’t think it compares to DJing. I believe DJing is a hard skill to learn, especially at the beginning, and it requires access to a lot of music and some expensive equipment. It’ll probably be a while until I actually get into it, but one day I will… hopefully.

I recently heard a house song called “Morning Factory” by Ron Trent and it put me into a trance, so I downloaded the rest of the album and oh my gosh… magnificent. I hardly ever like more than 4 songs on an album, let alone ever do I like every song off an album. “Word, Sound & Power” by Ron Trent is the first album where I loved every song. The music sounds sexy and groovy. I like listening to it when I’m doing homework or am just trying to chill. 

If you’re looking for new music, I highly recommend deep house, especially “Word, Sound & Power.” It has sounds you have never heard before, I guarantee it. Ron Trent is the artist behind the album, and I’d say he’s a good deep house artist to start with. After him, follows Kerri Chandler, as his sound is more uptempo. 

Take the time to explore and you’ll find what suits you best. This music may not be for everyone, but I have a feeling that most people will like it once they are exposed to it.  Just because it doesn’t get as much radio-play as mainstream pop doesn’t mean it’s not accessible. You don’t have to be afraid of walking through the door into a new style of music. ¡Mi casa es tu casa!