Music Definitions
House music : history : after the "summer of love" (early
1990s mid 1990s)
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, Renegad 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 Rickie Lee Jones) and the Happy Mondays' "Wrote
for Luck" ("WFL") which was transformed into
a dance hit by Paul Oakenfold.
The Criminal Justice Bill of 1994 was a government attempt
to ban large events featuring music with "repetitive beats".
There were a number of abortive "Kill the Bill" demonstrations.
Although the bill did become law in November 1994, it had little
effect. The music continued to grow and change, as typified
by the emergence of acts like Leftfield with "Release
the Pressure", which introduced dub and reggae into the
house sound. In more commercial areas a mix of R&B with
stronger bass-lines gained favour.
The music was being moulded, not just by drugs, but also
the mixed cultural and racial groups involved in the house
music scene. Tunes like "The Bouncer" from Kicks
Like a Mule used sped-up hip-hop break-beats. With SL2's "On
A Ragga Trip" they gave the foundations to what would
become drum and bass and jungle. Initially called breakbeat
hardcore, it found popularity in London clubs like Rage as
a "inner city" music. Labels like Moving Shadow and
Reinforced became underground favorites. Showing an increased
tempo around 160 bpm, tunes like "Terminator" from
Goldie marked a distinct change from house with heavier, faster
and more complex bass-lines: drum and bass. Goldie's early
work culminated in the twenty-two minute epic "Inner City
Life" a hit from his debut album Timeless.
UK Garage developed later, growing in the underground club
scene from drum and bass ideas. Aimed more for dancing than
listening, it produced distinctive tunes like "Double
99" from Ripgroove in 1997. Gaining popularity amongst
clubbers in Ibiza, it was re-imported to the UK and in a softened
form had chart success: soon it was being applied to mainstream
acts like Daniel Bedingfield and Victoria Beckham.
4 Hero went in the opposite direction - from brutal breakbeats
they adopted more soul and jazz influences, and even a full
orchestral section in their quest for sophistication. Later,
this led directly to the West London scene known as Brokenbeat.
3345, the Vinyl Records Home.
|
