I’ve been watching a reality show that I’m almost ashamed to admit to, and there is one scene where a guy is accusing his girlfriend of stepping out on him because his friends saw her at a club, dancing with other guys. Her friends step in to explain that she wasn’t cheating on him, it was “house music” she was dancing to with those guys…as if that changed everything! They kept repeating it over and over until he stopped long enough to listen, and then seemed mollified by the information. The friends then added that they were all “battling”, again, as if this made everything better.
So what, pray tell, is “house music” and why is it okay to dance to it with men other than your boyfriend, and what OTHER music may have been playing that WOULDN’T have been okay to dance to?
The short answer is: Disco + Hip-hop Beat = House. The simplest house beat has bass drum every downbeat, snare on 2 and 4, and high hat on the upbeat. Lots of songs follow a formula of starting off with just the beat, adding instrumental layers one at a time to build up to the singing.
You’ve probably heard Pump Up The Jam. That’s house, albeit a very commercialized version. But check out the classics below and the documentary too.
The Marshall Jefferson track & History of House video posted by **enomaj **are both good starting points. House is going as strong as ever worldwide. If the show you’re watching is, in fact, Jersey Shore, the music they’re into isn’t really “house music” per se (more like progressive? trance? assuming here, haven’t seen more than five minutes of the show) but a 4x4 dance beat is good enough for most people to slap the label on.
Nothing specific to house music or generally any music. Everything to do with the relationship / drama, nothing to do with what’s being played over the soundsystem.
See above.
Like enomaj says, sort of like a ‘dance off.’ I haven’t personally seen anyone do this since junior high (10+ years ago) and I regularly go out to clubs (if you’re ever in Chicago, do check out Smart Bar). This is probably specific to whatever’s happening on the show. Nothing wrong with “battling” I guess but there’s definitely something wrong with the people as portrayed on Jersey Shore, so there’s that.
A friend just told me that “battling involves the fist pump:an arm motion made during intense moments of musical euphoria, defined by the outward thrusting of the fist and flexing in-between repetitions. Usually done in groups of 3 or more. They do this facing each other & “battle” from the ground up.” When I asked, “To what end?” she said, “They are just throwing fists to the beat of the music & get higher & higher as they do it. Guess the tallest guido wins?”
I do think this is very specific to the people on the show. If an MTV camera crew followed my friends and I to the bar, they might pick up jokes about “sway” and if a certain Brian Eno song came on over the loudspeakers the cameras would capture at least one person doing a modified Charlie Brown dance. Super-localized phenomena don’t necessarily represent a massive cultural sensation, and so there’s no need to feel quite old just because some people somewhere are doing something quite silly
