Thursday 29 September 2011

Codes and Conventions of Dance/House Music

House music is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. House is uptempo music for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo and the tempo for house music tended to be slower in the early years of house.
House was boosted in the UK by the tour in March 1987 of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc.
The second best-selling British single of 1988 was a house record, the Coldcut-produced "The Only Way Is Up" by Yazz and this was the first house song in the UK.

The music videos for House music tend to have messages about dancing, love, sexuality, and drugs all underpined with repetitive arrangements and a steady bass drum beat.
Another code&convention of a House music video is that it tend to have scantily clad women doing sexy and seductive dance moves. Also, they are usually dressed in clothes that expose their bodies and clothesthat will attract a male audience.

A house music video sometimes has a group of people doing dance moves (freestyle) in a circle and people watching them showcase their talent because the theme of the songs are usually about dance of the beat of the song is supposed to motivate a person to dance.

Similarly another code&convention of a house music is that it will have a shot where a lot of people are dancing in a club, and the DJ is performing this is usually a reference to the home of dance/house music, Ibiza.

Also, the DJ who produced the song usually doesn't appear and the vocals of they song are always sung by a female artist and they usually appear in the music video


The first house music video in the UK 'The Only Way Is Up' by Yazz had a few code&convention of House music.



In this video we can see a few of the codes&conventions of a House music video. The beat of the music shows that it is a House music video. Also, the singer Yazz is dancing all through out the video. She also dances with a group of people of girls. There is also a griup of people gathered around her in a shot that is reminscent of a performance in a club.

The 2007 House song 'Let Me Think About It' Fedde Le Grand and Ida Corr is a modern House music video.

This differs from the 1988 video because of the beat is more up-tempo and suitable to play in a house club. There is also a code&convention of a House music video because the girls are dressed quite skimpyly and throughout the song they are shown dancing. However, the DJ is not visible and the female vocalist Ida Corr is the only singer visible. The female singer also, has a group of girls dancing behind her dancing rather seductively.

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