House music is the direct descendant of the 1970s dance style of Disco, which blended soul, R&B, funk, salsa, rock and pop with a progressive, pro-diversity message. House music also incorporated other influences, such as new wave, Reggae, Euro-Synth Pop, Industrial and Punk as well as the emerging Rap and Hip-Hop styles. House music DJs experimented with new editing techniques and electronic instruments, such as “remixing,” “sampling”.

House music was developed in the houses, garages and clubs of Chicago and Detroit, and it was produced for local club-goers in the “underground” club scenes, rather than for widespread commercial release. As a result, the recordings were conceptual, longer than the music usually played on commercial radio. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Detroit techno was developed in the mid 1980s and remained popular until the mid 1990s. Though Detroit techno is a distinct musical form, its pioneers were also instrumental in forwarding house music internationally, especially in the UK and Europe.

Detroit techno developed as the legendary disc jockey The Electrifying Mojo, who conducted his own radio program at this time, influenced the fusion of eclectic sounds into the signature Detroit techno sound.

This sound, heavily influenced by European Electronic a (Kraftwerk, Art of Noise), early b-boy Hip-Hop (Man Parrish, Soul Sonic Force) and Italo Disco (Doctor’s Cat, Ris, Klein M.B.O.), was further pioneered by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. [Read the rest of this entry...]