House Is A Feeling

It always seems to amaze me how house music has changed over the past few decades. At one point house music actually meant something specific and familiar. There wasn’t techno, or trance, or any of the alter-egos of house, there was just house music. It had a feeling. I say this because fast forward 20 years from the early days in Chicago and you now have people coming up to me while I’m playing something like “To Be In Love” from Masters At Work asking me to “stop playing so much techno,” or “can I play something that isn’t chill-out.” Songs like “Sandstorm” by Darude ruined it for everyone. Now everything with a 4/4 beat is techno, to those who don’t know. No matter how much you advertise a specific genre for the night, or how packed the dancefloor is, or how long the person has been in the place, you can’t escape them.

Last night I played a really cool party and it was packed and sweaty and the musique du jour was predominantly crossover house and club hits (David Guetta, Fedde Le Grand, Bob Sinclar, etc…). I dig these tracks and they definitely provide the soundtrack for a hands in the air party.

At what point does house music stop becoming house? Is it a bassline? Is it the beat? The tempo? Can a track that starts off as an underground house record be held responsible for it’s success if it should happen to cross over? Should a house producer be condemned for producing a pop or R & B remix? Producers have to eat. Who is the moral authority these days? Is there a committee I don’t know about? Anyone?

I have some of my early house music 12” records on the wall in my studio to remind me of where it all started. I saw it today as I sit down to produce my weekly electro house mix show for iPartyRadio.com. I doubt that many people would find the parallel between something like Steve Poindexter’s “Work That Motherf**ker” and “Smash Disco” from Vandalism but its there if you search your soul. I wonder what early pioneers of house music such as Larry Heard, Chip E, Marshall Jefferson and Frankie Knuckles think of how their children have grown up.