Progressive house

Deadmau5 at Coachella 2008.

Progressive house is a style (subgenre) of house music. House music is a type of electronic dance music (EDM).^[1] The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology

In the context of popular music the word "progressive" was first used widely in the 1970s to differentiate experimental forms of rock music from mainstream styles. Such music attempted to explore alternate approaches to rock music production.^[2] Some acts also attempted to elevate the aesthetic values of rock music by incorporating features associated with classical instrumental music. This led to a style of music called progressive rock, which has been described as "the most self-consciously arty branch of rock." ^[3]

In disco music, and later house, a similar desire to separate more exploratory styles from standard approaches saw DJs and producers adopting the word "progressive" to make a distinction. According to the DJ and producer Carl Craig, the term "progressive" was used in Detroit in the early '80s in reference to Italo disco.^[4] The music was dubbed "progressive" because it drew upon the influence of Giorgio Moroder's Eurodisco rather than the disco inspired by the symphonic sound of Philadelphia soul.^[4] In Detroit, prior to the emergence of techno, artists like Alexander Robotnick, Klein + M.B.O. and Capricorn filled a vacancy left after disco's demise in America.^[4][5] In the late 1980s, UK music journalist Simon Reynolds introduced the term "progressive dance" to describe album oriented acts such as 808 State, The Orb, Bomb the Bass and The Shamen. Between 1990 to 1992, the term "progressive" referred to the short-form buzz word for the house music sub-genre "progressive house".^[6]

Stylistic elements

	"Passion" (Original radio edit) by Gat Decor
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The genre was distinctly English with harmonic and trancey sounds such as extended synthesizer washes. It features elements of dub, deep house, big riffs and extended track lengths.^[7] The style distinguished itself from Euro-trance and vocal trance by the lack of anthemic choruses, crescendos and drum rolling.^[7] Intensity is added by the regular addition and subtraction of layers of sound.^[8] Phrases are typically a power of two number of bars and often begin with a new or different melody or rhythm.^[9]

Progressive house tunes often feature a build-up section which can last up to four minutes. This is followed by a breakdown and then a climax.^[9] Elements drawn from the progressive rock genre include the use of extended or linked-movement tracks, more complexity and reflection but almost always within the four on the floor rhythm pattern.^[10] The more experimental parts of house music are described as progressive.^[11] Detractors of the genre have described it as elitist and over-produced.^[12]

History

Progressive house emerged after the first wave of house music.^[13] The roots of progressive house can be traced back to the early 1990s rave and club scenes in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and Northern America. A combination of US house, UK house, Italian house, German house, and techno largely influenced one another during this era.^[6] The term was used mainly as a marketing label to differentiate new rave house from traditional American house.^[6] Progressive house was a departure from the Chicago acid house sound.^[13] The buzz word emerged from the rave scene around 1990 to 1992, describing a new sound of house that broke away from its American roots.^[6] The label progressive house was often used interchangeably with trance in the early years.^[6] Progressive house has been described as anti-rave as its popularity rose in English clubs as the more hardcore, dance focused styles flourished at raves.^[12]

Notable early productions

In June 1992, Mixmag published a list that contained what the magazine viewed as the top progressive house tracks at that time.^[6]

Late 2000s and 2010s saw multiple new sounds in house music developed by numerous DJs. Sweden knew a prominence of snare-less "Swedish progressive house" with the emergence of Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell, Steve Angello (These three formed a trio called Swedish House Mafia), Avicii, Alesso, etc.

Subgenres

Big room house

The term big room house refers to a style of progressive house straddling electro house, often incorporating drops carrying an emphasis on minimalistic, percussion and synth-driven breakdowns. In recent years, "big room" tracks have been popularly played at major electronic music festivals (hence the name "big room").^[14][15]

The genre has been criticized by some producers for becoming a stereotypical "EDM" sound lacking differentiation and creativity. Mixmag described big room tracks as consisting of "titanic breakdowns and spotless, monotone production aesthetics (read: lowest common denominator 'beats')." In a Reddit AMA, Wolfgang Gartner described big room as a "joke", and considered it, along with conglomerates such as SFX Entertainment, the oversaturation of events in North America, and "major label A&R’s shoving digestible cheap dance music down teenager’s throats [sic]" as the biggest problems affecting the EDM industry. Notable producers such as Avicii and Steve Angello of now-defunct Swedish House Mafia (who had been credited with their influence to progressive house) have emphasized the need for more creative and experimental EDM tracks overall.^[15][16]

In mid-2013, Swedish duo Daleri posted a mix on SoundCloud entitled "Epic mashleg", consisting purely of breakdowns from 15 "big room" songs on Beatport's top electro and progressive house tracks (including artists such as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Hardwell, and W&W) played in succession. The intent of the mashup was to serve as a commentary on the "big room" movement and the lack of differentiation between tracks; member Eric Kvarnström commented that "the scary thing is that there are new tracks like this every day. Every day, new tracks, all the same. It just keeps coming all the time." The duo defended their use of big room characteristics in their own music (particularly their releases on the Armada Music imprint Trice, which primarily releases big room tracks), by emphasizing their complextro influences.^[14] In the midst of a feud between Deadmau5 and Afrojack over social media regarding originality in dance music (culminating with the Dutch producer creating a style parody of Deadmau5's music entitled "something_"), Deadmau5 posted a song on SoundCloud, "DROP DA BOMB", satirizing the style of "commercial" house music and big room.^[17][18]

References

External links

• Progressive House production tips