Music Mondays - Origins of today's Dance

I checked wikipedia's history of house and various relevant articles on the origins of house music, and it seems, according to this article, it originated in Detroit. But... reading it leaves me a little confused. I was there dancing to House music in 1988, in Northern England, and in that year remembering reading an article in 'Smash Hits', the good ole bible of pop music back then, that it was a lot of young men in England that pioneered the sound. The old article also mentioned the Manchester nightclub Hacienda as the place to be. Where America wouldn't listen or even dance to this new genre, Europe did, and So did I. Yes, a certain Detroit act may have started certain elements of this genre of dance, but, he also was influenced by a lot of the New Modern Romance electronic music, including that of Human League (yet, another class act from Britain) and he was influenced by Kraftwerk.

It is also the British DJs that are a master of this genre. Name a famous DJ now, and yep, he is British. New York and Chicago danced to this music too alongside Northern Britain, but Detroit was slow to progress.

For me personally, my history of House is a combination of the everything and everyone. In the UK and in the USA, young talented techno musicians were busy as a bee doing their thing and the whole thing emerged. I don't think there is a true origin of the genre, and for me, that is the whole spirit of House, its a mixture of various influences and someone had to give it a name and gain credit for it. But in the UK, a lot of the British acts were champion at it and it hit our mainstream Top 40 Charts, and it was those acts us Brits were dancing to after the not so hardcore dancers went home, we stayed to dance to this new stuff. Detroit who? But its there for all wikipedia readers to read and yak, at least the Brits do get a mention, and most of the names in the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno#Noted_artists and there it is, Hacienda but in 1985 it quotes
"In the UK, a club following for house music grew steadily from 1985, with interest sustained by scenes in London, Manchester, Nottingham, and later Sheffield and Leeds. The DJs thought to be responsible for house's early UK success include Mike Pickering, Mark Moore, Colin Faver, and Graeme Park."

1985 people!!!!! 1985!!!!!Some of the acts in 1987/1989 were influenced and had been listening to the Chicago club scene, so why is Detroit still gaining credit? again, the article confuses me. But it does make reference to Derrick Brown, the Detroit House music pioneer, suggesting one House musician had purchased one of his synths.

As for the Rave scene/parties, now that is a whole different kettle of fish. Did you know it even goes back to the psychedelic scene, including the Beatles, and is all British in origin.

Rave music was pioneered by the likes of Nebula 2, Acen, Altern-8, The Prodigy (Experience), Utah Saints and The Shamen (En-Tact), altern-8 influenced by the Detroit House sound. But in the Last.fm article they are given total credit for changing House music, making it unique, progressive, and British. http://www.last.fm/music/Altern%25208?ac=Altern-8

If you listen to their track Infiltrate 202, that is the sound us UK House junkies were dancing to.
(Video below)




One act I do remember was 808 State, yes, everything had numbers and dashes, maybe because the young men wanted their names to look like the names you give a NASA space rocket. No, wait, they named themselves after various synths. 808 State got their name from the Roland TR-808.

808 State's Pacific State was my first intro to trance/ambient/chill out. BBC's Radio One DJ Gary Davies (remember him people?) played this track every day for 3 months. Wikipedia finally gives credit where do.
"His promotion single-handedly helped propel the acid house group to the top of the UK charts and into the public consciousness"




There's probably more to the history and origin of today's dance scene, but for me, it was and still is the British DJs and acts that get it out there. And don't forget the Ibiza sound, a whole breathing sound of its own for serious clubbers who go to Ibiza from all over Europe.

And don't forget Prodigy, rave/house act or whatever you call them, were signed onto Madonna's label. Still using good old fashioned analogue synthesizers such as the Moog to incorporate their own sounds. They got their name from Liam's first analogue synth, the Moog Prodigy.

And don't forget this little gem
http://www.last.fm/music/A+Guy+Called+Gerald

It is hard to find the full length track on the internet but here is the video someone uploaded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93R-KQ9THa8 I have my collection of old skool house on vinyl/cassette, and no way of getting it into digital format just yet.

And Drum and Bass roots are in the UK http://www.last.fm/tag/drum%20and%20bass
according to Last fm and Wikipedia. Here is one good example of D'n'B http://www.last.fm/music/Aphrodite/_/Karma+Sutra+%28Slinky+mix%29
but there are some acts tagged as Drum'n'bass and they are certainly not, listen to this one, and hear for yourself
http://www.last.fm/music/Pendulum/_/Propane+Nightmares

Did I miss something? it sounds nothing like D'n'B but they do call themselves it. The cheek. Ok, I was wrong, one track was nothing like D'n'B but this one is slightly D'n'b http://www.last.fm/music/Pendulum/_/Hold+Your+Colour but my ears tell me it sounds a lot like rave.


here is the real D'n'B
http://www.last.fm/listen/artist/Goldie/similarartists#pane=webRadioPlayer&station=%252Flisten%252Fartist%252FGoldie%252Fsimilarartists


My favourite of his work is Inner City life as featured in the Soundtrack of Trainspotting, starring a very young and handsome Ewan McGregor. The track featured alongside other house/psychedelic or whatever your want to call them artists Underworld and Leftfield.