Scouse house

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Scouse House is one of the dominant forms of House music in the North West/East of England. It is thought this genre of music evolved from Happy Hardcore.

Towns/cities including Wigan,Liverpool and Newcastle with large nightclubs like Maximes, Wigan Pier and Pleasure Rooms,Klubbedout & Naughty that play this type of music and bring crowds from all over the UK every weekend.

Scouse House originates from a Liverpool record shop, 3 Beat Records. A DJ called Lee Butler who was a resident at the very popular 051 nightclub in Liverpool had been playing a slightly more poppy and vocal take on the 'Hard house' and 'Euro house' styles that were more popular in southern England pioneered by Radio 1's Judge Jules. 3 Beat Records had categories for Uk House and Euro House/Trance but no where that this new variant Lee Butler was playing would happily fit. At the time there were only a handful of releases but to categorise them something was needed to be done and during a meeting with staff, Pez the store manager as a joke, coined the phrase 'Scouse House'. Whilst having a witty rhyme to it and being by definition a true representation of a musical style only at the time being presented in Liverpool it also gave the young 'Scouse' crowd something they could call their own.

The structure of the music is characterised by its very 'bouncy' texture and use of samples from happy hardcore and various dance/hip-hop tracks. The choice of ‘bass line’ used in scouse house tracks, is very consistent with the majority of tracks produced. It is basically a ‘pipe’ sample with added fx, and when heard, sounds like a “donk” noise. The donk bass line is so popular within the scouse house scene, that donk is actually an alternative name to this genre. Due to licensing fears over samples and melodies used, records are often released on white labels as a form of protection for the artist.

Such is the rising popularity of "Scouse house" that it has been mistakenly been merged with the genre of electronic dance music called "NRG." Therefore adding to the demise of the "scouse house" sound, a beneficial point is that more and more clubs playing the genre.

Even popular holiday destinations have got in on the act and clubs abroad playing Scouse have influenced locals and widening their musical tastes. Notably the clubs "Bananas" in Magaluf, Mallorca; and "KKO" in Torrevieja, Spain; Club UK (Malia) are the forefront of these.

In 2006, one of the highest UK chart entries for a Scouse tune, was at # 10. The song was Micky Modelle Vs Jessy - Dancing in the dark. Although in itself, this song could also be classed as commercial dance or Trance, its roots belong to Scouse. The tune spread through the scouse world by forums and downloads, known as "Ignostikz Vs The White - Donk in the Dark", and gained such popularity that someone made white label 12" vinyls from the mp3 that was going round. After being one of the most popular scouse tunes of the year, but still not very commercial, this fueled AATW to sign Modelle's version and seek authorisation to use Jessy's vocal.

Many Scouse House clubs often use an MC live over the top of the music, however most material released onto CD does not contain such MCing.

Well known Scouse House DJ's include:

Lee Butler, Pez Tellett, Lee M, DJ Carlos, Chris Henry (Ultrabeat), Ian Redman (Ultrabeat), Mike Di Scala (Ultrabeat), Alex K, Lil Jon, Danny Walsh, Mikey B, Ben T, Welly, DJ Nemesis

Scouse House MC's include;

MC Paul OH, JFMC, Finchy MC, Roach MC, Mc Tazo, Mc Jet Stretch MC.

Some popular record labels are;

AATW (All around the world), YCUK (Youth Club Records), Big Fish Audio, Tuff Traxx, BCD Records, Up North Records, Power Records