Yesterday someone asked me what I’ve been listening to recently. I answered “house music.” Then she gave me a puzzled look. “What’s house music?” she asked. I tried to describe it for her and stumbled over my words coming up with a solid definition: “It’s sorta like disco; sample-heavy, funky, loop-based…” I trailed off and quickly changed the subject. Later that day I realized: I don’t even know what house music is.

So I headed to Wikipedia (of course) and read the whole entry. Six thousand words later, I still didn’t have a firm idea of how to properly explain house music to someone who’s never heard it. Here’s the problem: the term “house” has been tossed around so frequently and carelessly that the word has been stripped of its original meaning (at least, to the extent that it even had an original meaning). The label is completely empty because everyone’s got his or her own definition. There’s no such thing as house music. At least, no such definition that we can all agree on.

Today, referring to something as “house music” doesn’t say much about how it actually sounds. It means different things to different people. So don’t ask me to properly characterize the genre. I can’t. Nobody can. I just know what I think house sounds like. All I can offer is a personal ostensive definition in the vain of Potter Stewart. That is to say, I can’t define it, but I know it when I hear it. When I hear the term “house music,” I think of the guy below.

CZR

My east coast friends always complain that I love anything and everything that’s from Chicago. I’m Chicago-centric, they say. They’re right, of course, but even if CZR wasn’t from the Windy City I’d still be a huge fan. Only here’s the kicker: if I wasn’t from Chicago I probably wouldn’t know about him. CZR’s got a huge local following, but he’s largely unknown to the rest of the country. He doesn’t tour outside of the Midwest and he’s been playing the same clubs for years. He’s a perfect example of what I consider to be a classic house artist. I won’t spend any more time trying to describe what that means. Just take a listen below.

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CZR – Deep Into The Track

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CZR – Chicago Southside

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under Disco Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.