Chicagoans don’t need an excuse to talk about house music, but when the biggest pop star in the world drops a record indebted to house, you can expect more than just a conversation. Beyoncé’s Renaissance has effectively evangelized for this Chicago-born sound since the album came out in July, not least because she shaped it […]
Tag: Farley “Jackmaster” Funk
Posted inMusic
Vince Lawrence’s greatest moment in Chicago music history
House-music pioneer Vince Lawrence remembers the huge scene-defining parties he helped throw as a teenager.
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Life was just a party: Prince’s 1999 and Chicago house music
Prince could hardly have avoided influencing Chicago house, whose earliest, most ardent fans were queer Black and Brown kids.
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Grün Wasser diversify their apocalyptic EBM on the new Not OK With Things
Grün Wasser diversify their apocalyptic EBM on the new Not OK With Things, the Chicago South Side Film Festival celebrates house music with a documentary by Jesse Saunders, and more.
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Plugging into Chicago’s forgotten house venues
A tour and oral history of the long-gone spaces that birthed one of the foundational sounds in modern pop
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Marcus Mixx has lost his home, but he still has house
Marcus Mixx’s early records fetch hundreds of dollars apiece from a cult of collectors, but he just wants a space of his own to make his new tracks.
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Oldest black-owned nightclub in city faces uncertain future
Harold Washington, Muhammad Ali, and Rick James all dropped in at Taste, the oldest black-owned nightclub in the city.
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Entertainment lawyer Jay B. Ross fought for the people who made the music he loved
An expert negotiator, he went to bat for stars as big as James Brown and Muddy Waters, but he also clawed back royalties for countless forgotten artists who’d never gotten their due.
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How the USA fell for EDM, chapter one
In these excerpts from his lively and meticulous new book, The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America, longtime Reader contributor Michaelangelo Matos chronicles the three-decade ascent of EDM.
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How Chicago house got its groove back
Chicago house music is the sound of global pop today. In the 90s, though, it was on life support—until a new wave of producers got its groove back.
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Gossip Wolf: Texas Can Eat It
A local DIY fest one-ups SXSW with free pizza. Plus: Lost Chicago house sounds come back around, Indie Parlour celebrates the ladies, and more
Posted inBlogs
The Best of the Rest
A day-by-day breakdown of the notable shows this week that aren’t already covered elsewhere in the Reader.