Sunday, 19 June 2016

Underground house and its mainstreaming

Underground house has been a common club choice in the United Kingdom, Benelux, etc for many years. The reason for this is because it is one of the most danceable genres in the scene. It is the easiest thing to shuffle, c-walk, cut shapes and more to. The easily determinable beat as well as the significant bass are what shaped the club bangers to be what they are today.
The big room era lasted quite long, almost three years in the mainstream. A lot of DJs still play big room tunes at festivals because they make the crowd jump...literally. The post-big room era is happening now, with a lot of artists refusing to play big room in general due to its lack of originality and abundant predictability.

So a question may arise: what house music is being played now? Truthfully the answer is that the community is quite split up, everyone enjoying slightly different types of house. One of the major communities of house fans are focused on the Kygo-inspired tropical house, which there is an abundance of in 2015 following the huge success of Kygo. Massive air-time on UK and American radios for Kygo meant attracting a lot of new fans to the tropical house genre.
Tropical house isn't the only genre that received tons of new attention after big room declined; there is also “future house” which would be typically described as deep house with a metallic synth, typically a few beats per minute faster deep house but also a few beats per minute slower than electro house. Best examples of this genre are Tchami with his unofficial remix of AlunaGeorge’s You Know You Like It. That tune along with his remix of Janet Jackson’s Go Deep are what truly defined the future house known today. Music is constantly evolving, as is future house. Modern acts of future house include Oliver Heldens, Jonas Aden, Mesto (the man responsible for co-producing Martin Garrix’s debut “future house” tune), Mike Williams, DEVI, and more.

Related: http://thrills.xyz/week-in-review-11-11-2015/
Lastly there is the classic case of jackin house which has been popular in UK clubs for the past 20 years, in some form or another. Jackin house often gets influences from older underground house, garage, speed garage, and more combinations of genres. Usually jackin house and related genres are exclusively made for club and dance related environments. Due to this, it is very uncommon to see popular examples of this kind of music. The closest thing to jackin house that has become mainstream is the act known as Gorgon City, scoring a top-ranking album in the UK charts, smashing all competition. Another popular instance of this kind of music is “House Every Weekend” by David Zowie, which is sitting at a cool 22 million views on YouTube. It is still nothing compared to the likes of Taylor Swift or Katy Perry, but it shows that if you expose people to different kinds of music, they will definitely listen to it.

Related: Thrills
It is important to have a varied taste in music, even if that means ditching what you already listen to. There is a lot of good music out there, a lot of it even available for free download. In the underground house scene, exposure is often valued more than money, as most money for artists in this genre comes from performing at events. If you haven't checked out songs in the genres aforementioned in the article, consider doing so and expanding your taste in music.

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