House music grew out of the disco movement of the early 1980s, with club DJ Frankie Knuckles being widely credited as helping to establish the genre. It was during his tenure as musical director of the Chicago club the Warehouse – after which house music derives its name – that he and other DJs and producers began to experiment with blending disco with the electronic music that was coming out of Europe.

The result was a more mechanical 4/4 drum machine beat with offbeat hi-hats and a kick drum playing on every beat, as well as heavy synth basslines that were repetitive and conducive to dancing. Typically the drums were made with Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines.

Frankie Knuckles

Musically, house incorporated a range of African American musical traditions, including soul, jazz, funk and rhythm and blues, particularly of the varieties that were prevalent in the American mid-west, such…