Who is the Look of House?

By Gabriela M. Trinidad Pérez

When one thinks about house music, they can think of that rhythmic, upbeat, electronic sound that infatuates listeners with its catchy and upbeat tempo. Yet, when we talk about house, we can’t just talk about the music. We need to talk about the creative minds behind the productions. Specifically, the consumers of the music. House music and its culture does not exist without its people. And who were its people?

Taking inspirations from disco, funk and jazz, house music was born in the city of Chicago. Thanks to DJs like Frankie Knuckles, house found its way through the youth of the city, and as the 80s came to life as a decade, so did the parties, the raves and the community. Artists promoting house music adopted other dance and club cultures, but house culture was not monolith in its composition. The community behind house was mainly and predominantly Black and male dominated. However, the community was open to so much more than just that. Other people of color, queer folk, different subcultures, and kids from all social statuses came to these parties. House music has a diverse electronic sound, and its community reflected that.

Thanks to the interviews and panels hosted by Honey Pot Performance, we have been able to learn and gain the knowledge of people who were invested in these parties and the culture. During the conversation between Dana Powell, Darrel Hill and Frederick Dunston, they talked about how segregation would disappear on the dance floor, and parties were attended by everyone from Chicago: South siders, North siders and West siders. They talked about how rich and poor folk came together to dance and feel free of social pressures. Not to say that there wasn’t any of that. Powell himself talked about the experience of being a gay man attending these parties, and how he did witness discrimination against trans individuals. Theywas also talked about lesbian spaces and clubs, and how women like Lori Branch were able to find spaces of comfort and connection.

Author Diana Crane writes about how identity and culture are very much dictated by the aesthetics of people, and that subcultures come together with people that follow the same trends. However, house music did not have one specific trend or one subculture, in the same way that the 80s did not have a singular look or trend for Americans. The scene in house music was very much dictated by its diversity of people, in the same way house music draws from diverse music genres. In another panel with Todd Mccurry, Tina Howell, Hans Chery, and moderated by Dana Powell , participants dove into the definitionshouse culture. For Powell, house culture was very much rooted in the dance floors, the fashion of different individuals, and the DJs. Still, this was not the only culture that Powell gained from attending house parties. Powell spoke how he had access to learn and see all types of lifestyles, and how thanks to house music, he was able to immerse himself in different types of cultures inside of Chicago.

Years later as house music is getting its resurgence in conversations, documentations and even inspirations for contemporary electronic music, and thanks to the firsthand experiences of these individuals, we are able to understand that house was very much about its people. The music and the location of parties are central to the sound of house, but you can’t have the culture without its producers and dancers. True to its spirit and musicality, house culture was composed of various subcultures, and was home to a variety of young teens and adults. At many instances, house parties were not spaces of division, rather spaces of community. Dana Powell spoke to the fact that in the moment, they were not aware of this, as they were submerged and living in the culture as it was happening back in the house parties in the 80s, and all they could think about was dancing the night away to the sound that brought them together.