The History of House Music
Considered the first direct descendant of disco, house music is a multicultural dance genre that remains relevant decades after its 1980s peak. These long dance tracks, born in underground clubs in Chicago, are characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats, soulful vocals, synthesized melodies, and samplers - but house music is more than just a genre.
This sound was a culture, an extension of the disco scene that had flared so brightly in the late 1970s, just to be dimmed by mainstream backlash. House flourished in the post-disco underground scene, and its influence rippled throughout art.
Universal Production Music has curated a collection of diverse house tracks for use in your next media project. Our licensing solutions give you access to professional tracks in all styles. Learn more about the house music genre and browse a multicultural tapestry of groove through our library.
The Godfather of House
House music’s specific origins are most solidly traced to the Chicago club, The Warehouse. Local record stores branded hot dance records “as played at The Warehouse” and “house” became quick shorthand for those in-the-know.
The records the stores were selling would not give listeners the full Warehouse experience, however – they were just the raw materials, older disco records that were being transformed for the dance floor with tape edits by DJ Frankie Knuckles.
Knuckles, known as “The Godfather of House,” was a Bronx native who started spinning dance music at the clubs and gay bathhouses of New York City before beginning his legendary five-year stint at friend Robert William’s club in Chicago. At the invite-only Warehouse, Knuckles grew in notoriety.
“There were nights that he played at the Warehouse, there were maybe 10 people there, and then all of a sudden, like a switch, people started coming,” Frederick Dunson, former Warehouse employee, told NPR. “Just to see this influx of people start coming in, you're like, oh, okay, well, I guess everybody's catching on to what's going on?”
Knuckles and other DJs on the scene used what little equipment was available to them to transform standard disco songs into transcendent house tracks that kept people dancing for hours. House was a loving DIY effort. Knuckles used reel-to-reel tape machines to add percussion breaks, extend breakdowns, and rearrange sections of disco, funk, soul, and electro-pop songs.
DJs took the genre further with synthesizers, samplers, vocals, and other mix-in effects. As with all genres, teenagers spread the word. What began in underground clubs that were predominantly queer and Black spread into the middle-class homes of the South Side, and eventually the suburbs.
The first “true” hit house record was Jesse Saunders’ “On & On” in 1984. House was huge in Chicago in the late eighties. According to beatportal, 12-inch house records were selling by the tens of thousands in the city, and house music dominated local radio with millions of listeners. The genre spread across the U.S., and eventually the world, picking up local idiosyncrasies with every new DJ.
Global Rise and Staying Power
From its beginnings, house has been a global genre. House pioneers leaned on samples of European electro pop like Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire to get the dance floor bumping.
Sharing and sampling was part of the culture, and new sounds were always welcome. These European electro artists entered a two-way dialogue with American DJs, and house music got noticed overseas. The genre fueled the emerging acid rave scene in the U.K., spawning an entire subculture.
House was still growing in popularity in the U.S., truly hitting the mainstream with Madonna’s 1990 hit “Vogue.” Her iconic music video featured dancers from the queer 1980s ballroom scene in New York City, a haven for gay, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people of color. Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul, Ricky Martin, Björk and other pop stars scored radio hits with house origins throughout the 90s.
House’s influence is still felt through modern dance trends worldwide, and the genre is a perfect mood setter for a variety of cinematic projects.
Credit to the Community
When Beyoncé accepted her record-breaking Grammy for 2023’s Renaissance, she shouted out one group of people directly for inspiring the throwback dance album.
“I’d like to thank the queer community for your love, for inventing the genre. God bless you,” the pop star said. Her Renaissance World Tour featured a tribute to her late Uncle Johnny – a victim of AIDS – and visual references to the Harlem ballroom scene.
The tiny Chicago parties and clubs that began the genre were ad hoc spaces created for people who were pushed out of almost every other. House music gave marginalized communities a world of glamor and acceptance, if only for a few hours each weekend.
“The reason that the underground clubs evolved was because most of the gay clubs gave most of the minorities a really hard time in getting in,” Frederick Dunson explained to NPR. House music’s popularity and evolution is sonic evidence of the queer community’s resilience and the outsized contributions of Black culture. Find uplifting house anthems in Universal Production Music’s collection to create joyful moments in even the bleakest of circumstances.
House music is a genre full of rich history, an inspiring and cathartic sound for a spectrum of people looking for connection. Register to access a library of high quality tracks and elevate your art.