Chicago House Music Festival And Conference Celebrates The Birth, Evolution Of Hometown Genre
A genre that began more than four decades ago at The Warehouse, a Chicago club with a mostly black gay crowd, has grown into a global phenomenon, and the city will showcase this style of dance music on June 23rd and 24th during the Chicago revive festivals. . House Music Festival and Congress.
The event includes a conference at the Chicago Cultural Center on June 23 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., discussing everything from activism to safe spaces to technology and the South African sound known as Amapiano.
The music festival takes place on the lawn of the Humboldt Park Boathouse on June 24th and features artists like Noshaluw and Roy Davis Jr. and more. and Robert Owens (who will also deliver the keynote address at Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center on June 23 from 8-9 p.m.).
But what exactly makes Chicago house music what it is, with all the house music subgenres that have been released, including acid house, hip house, and even gospel house?
"How much time do you have?" asked the organizer of the event, Chavez, without wasting a second (without a word). "I think what's special about it is that the genre was born and raised in Chicago and is influenced by the rich cultural history that we have here. Chicago is a major music center for jazz, blues and gospel. The house breaks with this tradition. It's an evolution of all those things and he brings them all into his music.
He added, "It was led by a group of black and brown people who were struggling with a lot of things, like homophobia and the city's socio-economic difficulties." All of that is reflected in this music. I think that's why he also painted the freedom of jazz and the inspiration of gospel. And the blues. Such successes cannot be achieved in other cities.”
And in more than 40 years, house music has certainly changed.
"If evolution stops, I don't think it's interesting to humans anymore," Chavez said. "I think what started in the early 1980s and what we know as house music is different from what people think of as house music, which is usually disco and bass. It created an atmosphere. But when you make house music, you talk about technology like drum machines, synths and samples that inspired what we know as Detroit techno.
But evolution has different branches, subspecies and patterns. There's acid house, deep house and foot traffic, and this is different. So there's a lot of stuff that some might think isn't native, but it's there, like EDM [electronic dance music]. House music has revolutionized dance music internationally.
And thanks to artists like Beyoncé and Drake, whose recent albums have paid homage to the format, house music has certainly made its way into the mainstream.
"I think Beyoncé called Fake Roots home," Chavez said. “There are many home producers who have reworked and remastered a lot of commercial pop music. Think back to the '80s and '90s with Mariah Carey. There are Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated producers like Maurice. Joshua, Frankie Knuckles and Terry Hunter.
Commenting on the future of house music, Chavez said, "It's hard to say. We're definitely seeing a revival of house music in the city. The new generation was so touched by the music that they formed communities around it. ... They promote music and culture. It's like a house music revival.
Among those slated to perform at the festival is DJ Psycho-B (who told The Sun-Times he's using a more popular version of his name, DJ Psycho-B****, for a festival for the ages).
Psycho-B (real name Val Scheinpflug), who has been in music since the 1980s, recalls meeting Knuckles, the late DJ who is now known as the 'Godfather of House Music', and discovering his profession .
"It was just dance time: there were no cell phones, no fights and no cops," he said. There was a guy named Billy Cooper who did the lighting at [drag club] Baton. One night he said: "I'd like to invite you to meet Frankie Knuckles and of course we [Chainflog and friend/DJ Terry Bristol] knew who he was but we never met him. Here two white women and a DJ were a bit against the odds.
After we headed to the warehouse, "[Cooper] led us into the cabin and that was my awakening moment," added Psycho-B. "Frankie's smile was the cutest and kindest... I just saw the crowd eat out of his hand. I realized that I didn't really want to be a DJ, but I wanted people to think like that. ... I had turntables and lots of vinyl, "but I never realized I wanted to do it until now."
Interestingly, Psycho-B doesn't really like the club scene these days, although he says he has an undying passion for what he does.
“With so many DJs and bottle service in the clubs, it's all about money, money, money now. Now I only take jobs that are really important to me; I'm very passionate about it. I'll never stop playing, but I don't drink." [Curro]."
Speaking of the appeal of house music, Psycho-B said, “House music is a feeling and Chicago loves good music. It's a great music city.”
