| Hard house | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | House, Hi-NRG, Hard dance |
| Cultural origins | Late 1980s, UK, |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer, Drum machine, Sequencer, Sampler, Keyboard, |
| Mainstream popularity | High in UK |
| Other topics | |
| Progressive house - Breakbeat | |
UK Hard House or simply Hard House is a style of Hard Dance music that emerged in the 1990s.
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Proper hard house is typified by a set formula of up-tempo house music compressed kick drums, signature style off-beat basslines and the use of 'hoover' type sounds. In contempt of the name it shares some parts in style with house music, but borrows elements heavily from trance music (synths and sometimes breakdown formula), and hardcore/rave music (hoover sounds, chants). Generally, hard house is part of a wider group of styles called Hard Dance and has little in common with the modern trance or house scenes going for a stronger storm sound. Hard Dance also encompasses NRG or Hard NRG, which UK Hard House is often confused for. However, the two have some variance from each other, and are considered two separate genres by Hard Dance enthusiasts.
House was first and foremost a direct descendant of dance. Dance had already been going for about 10 years. But the underground scene was beginning to develop a new style that was deeper, rawer and designed to make people dance. Dance had already produced the first records to be aimed specifically at DJs with extended 12" versions that included long percussion breaks for mixing purposes and the early eighties proved a vital turning point.
Music from Europe also helped change the scene with Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and other English electronic pop. One of the reasons for their popularity was two clubs - Chicago's Warehouse and New York's Paradise Garage. The music was as varied as the people - R&B based Black dance music and disco mixed with things as different as rock. For most people, these were the places that acted as breeding grounds for the music that eventually came to be known after the clubs - house and garage.
In Britain the growth of house can be divided around the "Summer of Love" in 1988. House had a presence in Britain almost as early as it appeared in Chicago; however there was a strong divide between the House music as part of the gay scene that was pioneered by the influential Trade club in London with DJ's such as Tony De Vit and house music as part of the 'straight' music scene. Producer BK took the sound to the international stage with his legendary Hardbeat series on nukleuz records which are defined the sound for a modern generation. He later scored top 40 hits with tracks such as "Revolution" and is still considered the most influential and biggest selling artist on the scene. House grew in northern England, especially Manchester, as an extension of the 'Northern Soul' genre. The key English club was The Haçienda in Manchester, founded in 1982 by Factory Records. But until 1986 the club was a financial disaster, the crowds only started to grow when the resident DJs (Pickering, Park and Da Silva) started to play House music. House was boosted by the tour in the same year of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. (Heard) and Adonis as the DJ International Tour. Amusingly, one of the early anthemic tunes, "Promised Land" by Joe Smooth, was covered and charted within a week by the Style Council. The first English House tune came out in 1986 - "Carino" by T-Coy. Europeans embraced House music, and began booking legendary American House DJs to play at the big clubs, such as Miss Moneypenny's and Ministry of Sound, whose resident, DJ Harvey brought in Larry Levan.
The combination of house and techno came to Britain and gave House a phenomenal boost. A few clubs began to feature specialist House nights - The Haçienda had "Hots" on Wednesday from July 1988, 2,500 people could enjoy the British take on the Ibiza scene, the classic "Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson) was designed for The Haçienda and Madchester. Factory boss Tony Wilson also promoted acid house culture on his weekly TV show. The Midlands also embraced the late 80s House scene with many underground venues such as multistory car parks and more legal dance stations such as the Birmingham Institute (now Sundissencial's 'The Sanctuary').
Rather than be confined in the clubs ambitious promoters took the music to large temporary sites such as fields, handling up to 30,000 people in a single illegal event, called a rave. Promoters like Sunrise, Energy, Biology, Fantasia and World Dance held massive events in defiance of the police and music industry. Unlike many nightclubs they were open to all ages.
The press lead the general public to believe that the events were shaped solely by the consumption of ecstasy, but others pointed out the music was refreshing and intoxicating enough without consumption of drugs. The British tabloid press helped publicize the scene, generally portraying rave parties in a negative light, which tended to alarm institutions such as the government and the police. Many tunes became hits from these events such as "Everything Starts with a E" by the E-Zee Possee," which was created by a savvy music producer rather than a band, "The Trip" by S'Express and "NRG" by Adamski who became the first rave superstar.
The publicity and the knowledge that these events could make significant amounts of money led more professionally criminal groups to take an interest in raves. The police became more active in preventing or closing down raves. As the second "Summer of Love" arrived in 1989 the police became even more oppressive, culminating in a 1990 Act of Parliament. This was counter-productive, it both forced raves back underground and increased the criminal presence in organising raves. But the music continued, one of the longest lasting and influential groups grew out of the rave scene, named Orbital after the M25 motorway. Their British hit "Chime" was snapped up by Pete Tong's FFRR label. By the end of 1989 House was mainstream music in Britain, it charted regularly with "Ride on Time" from Black Box being at number one for six weeks.
In Britain, further experiments in the genre boosted its appeal (and gave the opportunity for new names to be made up).
House and rave clubs like Lakota, Miss Moneypenny's and the original C.R.E.A.M. began to emerge across Britain, hosting regular events for people who would otherwise have had no place to enjoy the mutating house and dance scene.
The idea of 'chilling out' was born in Britain with ambient house albums like the KLF's Chill Out. A new indie dance scene was being forged by bands like the Happy Mondays, The Shamen, Meat Beat Manifesto, Renegade Soundwave, EMF, The Grid and The Beloved. Two distinctive tracks from this era were the Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" (with a distinctive vocal sample from Ricky Lee Jones) and the Happy Mondays' "Wrote for Luck" ("WFL") which was transformed into a dance hit by Paul Oakenfold.
During this time many individuals and particularly corporations realized that house music could be extremely lucrative and much of the 1990s saw the rise of sponsorship deals and other industry practices common in other genres.
To develop successful hit singles, some argued that the record industry developed "handbag house": throwaway pop songs with a retro disco beat. Underground house DJs were reluctant to play this style, so a new generation of DJs were created from record company staff, and new clubs like Miss Moneypenny's, Liverpool's Cream (as opposed to the original underground night, C.R.E.A.M.) and the Ministry of Sound were opened to provide a venue for more commercial sounds.
By 1996 Pete Tong had a major role in the playlist of BBC Radio 1, and every record he released seemed to be guaranteed airplay. Major record companies began to open "superclubs" promoting their own acts, forcing many independent clubs and labels out of business. These superclubs entered into sponsorship deals initially with fast food, soft drinks, and clothing companies and later with banks and insurance brokers. Flyers in clubs in Ibiza often sported many corporate logos.
Many UK clubs were playing much the same music as the commercial dance shows, as were many bars, supermarkets, and television advertisements. Dance music was perceived by many young people as being increasingly outmoded. Many older DJs seemed to be playing year after year, leading to the term "Dad house". House music became racially segregated, in contrast to its inclusive beginnings; some major UK clubs were reportedly refusing to book black DJs. MDMA became less popular than cocaine but created an entirely different atmosphere. Ketamine and GHB also appeared on the club scene during this time.
As of 2003, a new generation of DJs and promoters were emerging, determined to kickstart a more underground scene and there were signs of a renaissance in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and other racially-mixed cities, as well as in Canada, Scandinavia, Scotland and Germany. The key to house music was re-invention. A willingness to steal or develop new styles and a low cost of entry encouraged innovation.
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