Disco, House, and Everything In Between

After spending the first weeks of class exploring the history behind Electronic Music, the class has steered more towards the direction of contemporary music and how the electronic music world has developed more recently. More specifically, the emergence of Disco as a precursor to house and techno inspired many musicians to create more propulsive types of beats to their music.

With beats largely following 4-4 Time, disco bands consisted primarily of: drums, keyboards, and guitars. Lots of hi hats came on the off beats, while the bass drums came on the on beats, creating a consistently energetic rhythmic structure. This newfound type of music spurred a sporadic growth within the dance club communities, with clubs such as Studio 54 and Galaxy 21 rapidly growing in popularity.

This type of growth in dance club popularity was perpetuated even more with the growth of house and techno music thereafter. Following the decline of disco as a popular form of music, the house “culture” soon took over. The quick growth in technology of important musical instruments such as drum machines paired with the emergence of the DJ culture defined the house culture. These developments allowed for even more heart-pounding beats and thereby fostered an energized dance environment.

Paradise Garage was one of the prime examples of the house culture at its finest. Led by legendary DJ Larry Levan, Paradise Garage was a haven for music junkies and those next-generation disco club aficionados. And more than anything, it set a defining precedent for other clubs and dance houses to follow.

But the evolution of electronic music didn’t just stop at house. A website titled “A Diversification of Genres” illustrates how each genre of music connected to other forms of music. Music genre titles are all over the place: house, trance, techno, breakbeat, jungle, hardcore, downtempo, europop, jpop, and even “stupid hard dance.”

One of the more popular electronic music artists now is Daft Punk, and Juraj spent the majority of one of our classes dissecting the song “Around the World.” More specifically, the sounds used in the song are: drum machine, bass guitar, synth, “wah wah sound” and vocoder voice. By rearranging these sounds in different ways, then modifying those sounds by adjusting volume and sound quality, Daft Punk achieves a relaxed, yet energized song that is easy to listen to. The cool part about the lecture was the fact that Juraj single-handedly re-created the song on Reason using the sounds themselves, and actually managed to create a successful reproduction of the piece.

In labs, we are using Reason now, after spending a few weeks on radial. The thing that makes Reason so special is the fact that it has so many versatile “instruments” (i.e. software synthesizers) and has so many abilities that seemingly combine the abilities of all the other sequencers together. Whether it be looping tracks, creating more digitized sounds, or just making simple drum machine beats, Reason has it all.