House concert
Encyclopedia
A house concert or home concert is a musical concert
or performance art
that is presented in someone's home or apartment
, or a nearby small private space such as a barn, apartment rec room
, lawn, or back yard.
The logistics
of a holding a concert in a 21st century home can be complicated, depending on a number of factors. These considerations include audience capacity, collecting cash or donations, whether the proceeds will be split with the host, marketing and whether to publicize the venue, the equipment or sound system, to provide refreshments or to hold a potluck, whether to have one show or present a series, and the choice of musician.
Common in the historical past, but now unusual in the age of large concert arenas, a house concert is almost invariably described as an "intimate" experience.
Some house concerts in 1930s Harlem were used as covers for illicit sex.
or club
. Some concert spaces may hold 200 people, or 40, yet some hold about two dozen.
Generally tickets are not sold in advance, but cash is collected at the show. Sometimes, the money collected goes straight to the performers, with no "profit motive" on the presenter's part. However, at other times, the purpose
of the show is to collect money to pay for rent, or is paid by a donation. In fact, calling it a donation may prevent zoning
issues that a host is operating a business such as a cabaret
illegally or without a license.
House concerts are conducted "by invitation" (for practical reasons), social media
such as Twitter
or facebook
, or word of mouth
, rather than as "public" concerts like a club or concert hall. However, in smaller towns and cities, the local media may help publicize such a concert. In an academic study on the cataloging
of concert event ephemera
, one of the only two flyers studied that did not have a publicized venue was for a house concert, the other being obscure.
Traditionally, there is little or no sound system
, so performers may play and sing acoustically
, or perform or act without a microphone. Since at least the 1970s, however, extension cord
s and other equipment innovations have enabled such performers to hook into a sound system, either inside or outside a house. Nonetheless, the musicians "use just enough equipment to make for a complete experience
without being too loud for the neighbors."
Refreshments, if any, are usually either a "pot luck
" brought by the listeners, or provided by the hosts using a bit of the gate receipts. Sometimes, the performers get a meal and/or lodging
with the presenters as part of their compensation.
Most house concerts are "one-shots", but others are presented as a series, for example, every two to eight weeks over a "season", of anywhere from six to twelve months. Some lesser-known musicians may go on tour with gig
s consisting primarily of house concerts. Even notable musical acts, such as Sirsy
, may schedule "private party" gigs while on tour.
A true "house concert" today needs to be distinguished from a smaller musical ensemble
, recital
at a high school
, or modern chamber music
concert, which may sometimes be called a "house show" or "house concert".
A house concert is also a unique experience in the United States
of 2010; one blogger at Wired
magazine wrote:
At house concerts, "you don't have worry about whether you'll have a good seat since the show is literally in the living room of the home ... at ... trailside Court, New City." This comes with a duty to recall "that this is a house concert, so behave accordingly and don’t do anything you wouldn’t do in your own house, OK?"
People host house concerts because they "want to share great music," or they may live an a town where "there are too few venues where people can go to experience great music in a close and friendly environment." One may also wish to host a home concert because it makes one happy, or "to give exposure to some incredible musicians whose talents [they] truly believe in and wish to help promote." A retired musician may be a host as "one way of reconnecting with that part of themselves."
Once they go to a house concert, and discover its charms, it is a great experience for children, whether for smaller "kids", or "18-year-olds". It is not for everyone:
, country music
, and blues music have long histories of performances at people's homes and backyards. Most people's only experience of music was house concerts:
In the period of the Renaissance
and Baroque
, especially in the 16th Century, all secular music
was performed in a chamber of the nobleman's home, and thus called chamber music
. Only in 17th Century did it come to mean either secular or religious music
, and only in the time of Beethoven and later were halls built specifically for public concerts. Even into the 20th century, chamber music was performed in home concerts. Ralph Kirkpatrick
, the famous musician, recalled playing a clavichord
at a house concert in Hamburg, Germany.
From the mid 19th century until the mid 20th century, many wealthy individuals had pipe organs installed in their homes. Prior to the advent of recorded music, the organ was the only instrument able to provide a real approximation of orchestral music under the control of one performer with sufficient volume to entertain a group of people. In Great Britain and Europe, and especially in America, a wealthy persons home was not considered complete without a pipe organ. The AEolian Organ Company in particular catered almost exclusively to this clientel. Many house organs were of modest size, with two manuals and 10 to 20 stops, however, the homes of the most wealthy had 3 and 4 manual organs that rivaled a large church or cathedral organ in size. While many home organs began to have automatic player mechanisms (operating in a manner similar to the player piano roll system) from the 1890s, the highest artistic standard was, of course, a live performer. Members of the upper class families, such as the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Mellons, and Schwab regularly had house concerts for their friends to hear a performance by a noted artist on their pipe organ. Dependant on the taste of the host, these house concerts generally included very little "legitimate" organ music, and consisted mainly of arrangements of popular tunes, operatic overatures, and transcriptions of orchestral works. Several prominent organists such as Archer Gibson worked almost exclusively playing house parties. The house parties for organ music (and the organs installed for them) had a decline concurrent with the rise in availability of recorded music, their now being very few examples of house organs or house concerts with live organ music.
House concerts have been attested since at least the early 20th century in New York City
. In the 1930s Harlem
, people rented out "buffet flats" (an apartment room set aside for travellers or shows) for blues concerts or risque performances. At a particularly "open house" of a sex show, Ruby Smith
said, "People used to pay good just to go in there and see him do his act."(sic.) An obese African-American female impersonator did her drag show at a buffet flat at 101 W. 140th Street. The elite of Harlem "called on the police to close the brothels and buffet flats...." that were using such home concerts as covers for illicit sex.
In 1957, short story writer Walter Ballenger described a house concert for students in Chicago
.
is credited with helping to start hip hop and rap music at a house concert at an apartment building in the South Bronx
. The Bronx's evolution from a hot bed of Latin jazz
to an incubator of Hip hop
was the subject of an award-winning documentary, produced by City Lore
and broadcast on PBS
in 2006, "From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale". Hip Hop first emerged in the South Bronx in the early 1970s. The New York Times
has identified 1520 Sedgwick Avenue "an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx Expressway and hard along the Major Deegan Expressway
" as a starting point, where DJ Kool Herc presided over parties in the community room.
On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc was a Dee Jay and Emcee at a party in the :recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx
adjacent to the Cross-Bronx Expressway. It was not the actual "Birthplace of Hip Hop" -- the genre
developed slowly in several places in the 1970s
-- but was verified to be the place where one of the pivotal and formative events occurred. Specifically, DJ Kool Herc:
" may, or may not, have anything to do with house concerts; there is considerable dispute whether the term used for that genre
comes from a particular venue (the Warehouse, or House for short), a DJ who invented it at his mother's house concerts, or a club's own trademark style.
That term may have its origin from a Chicago
nightclub
called The Warehouse
which existed from 1977 to 1982, and which was patronized primarily by gay black and Latino men. The disco music played by the club's resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles
, said in the Channel 4
documentary Pump Up The Volume, that the first time he heard the term "house music" was upon seeing "we play house music" on a sign in the window of a bar on Chicago's South Side. Chip E.
's 1985 recording "It's House" may also have helped to define this new form of electronic music. Chip E. lent credence to the Knuckles association, claiming the name came from methods of labelling records at the Importes Etc. record store, where he worked in the early 1980s: bins of music that DJ Knuckles played at the Warehouse nightclub was labelled in the store "As Heard At The Warehouse", which was shortened to simply "House".
Another South-Side Chicago DJ, Leonard "Remix" Rroy, in self-published statements, claims he put such a sign in a tavern window because it was where he played music that one might find in one's home or house; in his case, it referred to his mother's soul & disco records, which he worked into his sets.
Juan Atkins
, an originator of Detroit techno
music, claims the term "house" reflected the exclusive association of particular tracks with particular DJs; those tracks were their "house" records (much like a restaurant might have a "house" salad dressing).
established a house concert-type venue in downtown Davis, Oklahoma
featuring folk
and Americana
musicians to showcase the Music of Oklahoma
. House concerts are now held across the United States
, especially California
, Texas
, Brooklyn, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. There have been house concerts across America, in such places as Springfield, Ohio
, Bozeman, Montana
, outside Phoenix, Arizona
, Vermont
, Sisters, Oregon
(near Bend, Oregon
), New City, New York
, and Covington, Georgia
.
More recently, they have been reported in many places around the world, from Canada
, to South Korea
, and India
.
A house concert can be a useful step for curing a musician's "performance anxiety", also known as "stage fright
":
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
or performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
that is presented in someone's home or apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
, or a nearby small private space such as a barn, apartment rec room
Recreation room
A recreation room is a room used for a variety of purposes, such as parties, games and other everyday or casual use. The term is common in the United States and Canada, but is less common in the United Kingdom where the preferred term is games room...
, lawn, or back yard.
The logistics
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
of a holding a concert in a 21st century home can be complicated, depending on a number of factors. These considerations include audience capacity, collecting cash or donations, whether the proceeds will be split with the host, marketing and whether to publicize the venue, the equipment or sound system, to provide refreshments or to hold a potluck, whether to have one show or present a series, and the choice of musician.
Common in the historical past, but now unusual in the age of large concert arenas, a house concert is almost invariably described as an "intimate" experience.
Some house concerts in 1930s Harlem were used as covers for illicit sex.
Logistics
Typically, the audience capacity for a house concert is smaller than at a coffeehouseCafé
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
or club
Club
A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...
. Some concert spaces may hold 200 people, or 40, yet some hold about two dozen.
Generally tickets are not sold in advance, but cash is collected at the show. Sometimes, the money collected goes straight to the performers, with no "profit motive" on the presenter's part. However, at other times, the purpose
Consideration
Consideration is the central concept in the common law of contracts and is required, in most cases, for a contract to be enforceable. Consideration is the price one pays for another's promise. It can take a number of forms: money, property, a promise, the doing of an act, or even refraining from...
of the show is to collect money to pay for rent, or is paid by a donation. In fact, calling it a donation may prevent zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
issues that a host is operating a business such as a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
illegally or without a license.
House concerts are conducted "by invitation" (for practical reasons), social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
such as Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
or facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, or word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
, rather than as "public" concerts like a club or concert hall. However, in smaller towns and cities, the local media may help publicize such a concert. In an academic study on the cataloging
Cataloging
Cataloging is the process of listing or include something in a catalog. In library science is is the producing of bibliographical descriptions of books or other kinds of documents...
of concert event ephemera
Ephemera
Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not intended to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters,...
, one of the only two flyers studied that did not have a publicized venue was for a house concert, the other being obscure.
Traditionally, there is little or no sound system
Sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience...
, so performers may play and sing acoustically
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
, or perform or act without a microphone. Since at least the 1970s, however, extension cord
Extension cord
An extension cord, power extender, or extension lead is a length of flexible electrical power cable with a plug on one end and one or more sockets on the other end . The term usually refers to mains extensions but is also used to refer to extensions for other types of cabling...
s and other equipment innovations have enabled such performers to hook into a sound system, either inside or outside a house. Nonetheless, the musicians "use just enough equipment to make for a complete experience
Music appreciation
Music appreciation is teaching people what to listen for and to appreciate different types of music. Usually music appreciation classes involve some history lessons to explain why people of a certain era liked the music that they did...
without being too loud for the neighbors."
Refreshments, if any, are usually either a "pot luck
Potluck
A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food prepared by the person or the group of people, to be shared among the group...
" brought by the listeners, or provided by the hosts using a bit of the gate receipts. Sometimes, the performers get a meal and/or lodging
Room and board
Room and board describes a situation where, in exchange for money, labor or other considerations, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals on a comprehensive basis...
with the presenters as part of their compensation.
Most house concerts are "one-shots", but others are presented as a series, for example, every two to eight weeks over a "season", of anywhere from six to twelve months. Some lesser-known musicians may go on tour with gig
Gig
Gig or GIG may refer to:* Gig , live performance by a musician or other performer** Temporary work, by extension* Gig , 1993* Gig , 1992...
s consisting primarily of house concerts. Even notable musical acts, such as Sirsy
Sirsy
SIRSY is a female-fronted award-winning pop-rock group from Albany, New York founded in 1999. The band's current members are Melanie Krahmer on vocals, drums, flute, and "bass with a stick" and Rich Libutti on guitar, bass, and "snare and bass with his feet"...
, may schedule "private party" gigs while on tour.
A true "house concert" today needs to be distinguished from a smaller musical ensemble
Ensemble
Ensemble may refer to:* Musical ensemble* Ensemble cast * Dance ensemble* Statistical ensemble ** Quantum statistical mechanics, the study of statistical ensembles of quantum mechanical systems...
, recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
at a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, or modern chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
concert, which may sometimes be called a "house show" or "house concert".
Experience
Now unusual in the age of large concert arenas, a house concert is almost invariably described as an "intimate" experience. In "a small setting as a house concert, [a singer] fills the air with her voice and [a musician] with his guitar. You are surrounded by the music." It is "up close and personal."A house concert is also a unique experience in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
of 2010; one blogger at Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
magazine wrote:
At house concerts, "you don't have worry about whether you'll have a good seat since the show is literally in the living room of the home ... at ... trailside Court, New City." This comes with a duty to recall "that this is a house concert, so behave accordingly and don’t do anything you wouldn’t do in your own house, OK?"
People host house concerts because they "want to share great music," or they may live an a town where "there are too few venues where people can go to experience great music in a close and friendly environment." One may also wish to host a home concert because it makes one happy, or "to give exposure to some incredible musicians whose talents [they] truly believe in and wish to help promote." A retired musician may be a host as "one way of reconnecting with that part of themselves."
Once they go to a house concert, and discover its charms, it is a great experience for children, whether for smaller "kids", or "18-year-olds". It is not for everyone:
History
House concerts are not new, yet have had a recent resurgence in the late 20th century and early 21st century.Precursors
Folk musicFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, and blues music have long histories of performances at people's homes and backyards. Most people's only experience of music was house concerts:
In the period of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
and Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
, especially in the 16th Century, all secular music
Secular music
Secular music is non-religious music. "Secular" means being separate from religion.In the West, secular music developed in the Medieval period and was used in the Renaissance. Swaying authority from the Church that focused more on Common Law influenced all aspects of Medieval life, including music...
was performed in a chamber of the nobleman's home, and thus called chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
. Only in 17th Century did it come to mean either secular or religious music
Religious music
Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
, and only in the time of Beethoven and later were halls built specifically for public concerts. Even into the 20th century, chamber music was performed in home concerts. Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Kirkpatrick was an American musician, musicologist and harpsichordist. He is most famous for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas.-Life and work:...
, the famous musician, recalled playing a clavichord
Clavichord
The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...
at a house concert in Hamburg, Germany.
From the mid 19th century until the mid 20th century, many wealthy individuals had pipe organs installed in their homes. Prior to the advent of recorded music, the organ was the only instrument able to provide a real approximation of orchestral music under the control of one performer with sufficient volume to entertain a group of people. In Great Britain and Europe, and especially in America, a wealthy persons home was not considered complete without a pipe organ. The AEolian Organ Company in particular catered almost exclusively to this clientel. Many house organs were of modest size, with two manuals and 10 to 20 stops, however, the homes of the most wealthy had 3 and 4 manual organs that rivaled a large church or cathedral organ in size. While many home organs began to have automatic player mechanisms (operating in a manner similar to the player piano roll system) from the 1890s, the highest artistic standard was, of course, a live performer. Members of the upper class families, such as the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Mellons, and Schwab regularly had house concerts for their friends to hear a performance by a noted artist on their pipe organ. Dependant on the taste of the host, these house concerts generally included very little "legitimate" organ music, and consisted mainly of arrangements of popular tunes, operatic overatures, and transcriptions of orchestral works. Several prominent organists such as Archer Gibson worked almost exclusively playing house parties. The house parties for organ music (and the organs installed for them) had a decline concurrent with the rise in availability of recorded music, their now being very few examples of house organs or house concerts with live organ music.
House concerts have been attested since at least the early 20th century in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In the 1930s Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, people rented out "buffet flats" (an apartment room set aside for travellers or shows) for blues concerts or risque performances. At a particularly "open house" of a sex show, Ruby Smith
Ruby Smith
Ruby Smith was an American classic female blues singer. She was a niece, by marriage, of the better known Bessie Smith, who discouraged Ruby from a recording career. Nevertheless, following Bessie's death in 1937, Ruby went on to record twenty-one sides between 1938 and 1947...
said, "People used to pay good just to go in there and see him do his act."(sic.) An obese African-American female impersonator did her drag show at a buffet flat at 101 W. 140th Street. The elite of Harlem "called on the police to close the brothels and buffet flats...." that were using such home concerts as covers for illicit sex.
In 1957, short story writer Walter Ballenger described a house concert for students in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Hip hop music
DJ Kool HercDJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell , also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in The Bronx, New York City...
is credited with helping to start hip hop and rap music at a house concert at an apartment building in the South Bronx
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
. The Bronx's evolution from a hot bed of Latin jazz
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
to an incubator of Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
was the subject of an award-winning documentary, produced by City Lore
City Lore
City Lore: the New York Center for Urban Culture was founded in 1986 - the first organization in the United States devoted expressly to the "documentation, preservation, and presentation of urban folk culture." Their mission is to produce programs and publications that convey the richness of New...
and broadcast on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in 2006, "From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale". Hip Hop first emerged in the South Bronx in the early 1970s. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
has identified 1520 Sedgwick Avenue "an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx Expressway and hard along the Major Deegan Expressway
Major Deegan Expressway
The Major Deegan Expressway is a north–south expressway in the New York City borough of the Bronx...
" as a starting point, where DJ Kool Herc presided over parties in the community room.
On August 11, 1973, DJ Kool Herc was a Dee Jay and Emcee at a party in the :recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
adjacent to the Cross-Bronx Expressway. It was not the actual "Birthplace of Hip Hop" -- the genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
developed slowly in several places in the 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
-- but was verified to be the place where one of the pivotal and formative events occurred. Specifically, DJ Kool Herc:
House music
"House musicHouse music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
" may, or may not, have anything to do with house concerts; there is considerable dispute whether the term used for that genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
comes from a particular venue (the Warehouse, or House for short), a DJ who invented it at his mother's house concerts, or a club's own trademark style.
That term may have its origin from a Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
called The Warehouse
Warehouse (nightclub)
The Warehouse was a nightclub that was established in Chicago, Illinois in 1977 under the direction of Robert Williams. It is today most famous for being what many consider to be the birthplace and heart of "house music" under its first musical director, DJ Frankie Knuckles...
which existed from 1977 to 1982, and which was patronized primarily by gay black and Latino men. The disco music played by the club's resident DJ, Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles
Frankie Knuckles is an American DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer...
, said in the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary Pump Up The Volume, that the first time he heard the term "house music" was upon seeing "we play house music" on a sign in the window of a bar on Chicago's South Side. Chip E.
Chip E.
Irwin Larry Eberhart II known as Chip E., is an American DJ and record producer.-Life and career:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Chip E. attended St. Ignatius College Prep, Kenwood Academy, Columbia College and DePaul University. He started spinning records in 1982 and by 1984 he was producing records....
's 1985 recording "It's House" may also have helped to define this new form of electronic music. Chip E. lent credence to the Knuckles association, claiming the name came from methods of labelling records at the Importes Etc. record store, where he worked in the early 1980s: bins of music that DJ Knuckles played at the Warehouse nightclub was labelled in the store "As Heard At The Warehouse", which was shortened to simply "House".
Another South-Side Chicago DJ, Leonard "Remix" Rroy, in self-published statements, claims he put such a sign in a tavern window because it was where he played music that one might find in one's home or house; in his case, it referred to his mother's soul & disco records, which he worked into his sets.
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
, an originator of Detroit techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
music, claims the term "house" reflected the exclusive association of particular tracks with particular DJs; those tracks were their "house" records (much like a restaurant might have a "house" salad dressing).
Recent uses
Recently, Americana UnpluggedAmericana Unplugged
Americana Unplugged is a live music series established in 2006 by Larry Lyon featuring singer/songwriters from the across America and abroad, while contributing to local charities. Artists also perform free concerts for children, the local Veteran’s Center and retirement centers...
established a house concert-type venue in downtown Davis, Oklahoma
Davis, Oklahoma
Davis is a city in Garvin and Murray counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 2,610 at the 2000 census. Davis is the home of the 1979, 1986, 1990, and 1995 Oklahoma State Football Championship teams...
featuring folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
musicians to showcase the Music of Oklahoma
Music of Oklahoma
While the music of Oklahoma is relatively young, Oklahoma has been a state for just over 100 years, and it has a rich history and many fine and influential musicians.-Official state songs:*Official state song:...
. House concerts are now held across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, especially California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Brooklyn, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. There have been house concerts across America, in such places as Springfield, Ohio
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northeast of Dayton. Springfield is home to Wittenberg...
, Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...
, outside Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters, Oregon
Sisters is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Bend, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 959 at the 2000 census, but more than doubled to 2038 as of the 2010 census.- History :...
(near Bend, Oregon
Bend, Oregon
Bend is a city in and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States, and the principal city of the Bend, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bend is Central Oregon's largest city, and, despite its modest size, is the de facto metropolis of the region, owing to the low population...
), New City, New York
New City, New York
New City is a hamlet , in the Town of Clarkstown Rockland County, New York, United States, part of the New York Metropolitan Area. The hamlet is a suburb of New York City, located 18 miles north of the city at the closest point, Riverdale, The Bronx...
, and Covington, Georgia
Covington, Georgia
Covington is a city in Newton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 13,118. The city is the county seat of Newton County...
.
More recently, they have been reported in many places around the world, from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, to South Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
A house concert can be a useful step for curing a musician's "performance anxiety", also known as "stage fright
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially . In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common...
":
Further reading
- H. Raynor, A Social History of Music (in two volumes)
- Eric David Mackerness, A Social History of English Music (Routledge, 2006) ISBN 0415413060, Length 336 pages; at Google Books.
- Joseph A. Mussulman, Music in the cultured generation: a social history of music in America, 1870-1900 (Northwestern University Press, 1971) ISBN 0810103508, 9780810103504 Length 298 pages; at Google Books.
- John H. Baron, Intimate music: a history of the idea of chamber music (Pendragon Press, 1998) ISBN 9781576471005 Length 489 pages ; at Google Books.
External links
- HouseShowsZine a comprehensive website/zine about various types and aspects of house concerts.
- Free Guide to putting on House Concerts 24 page PDF download or 48 page soft booklet.
- Global House Concert Map Interactive map of 500+ house concert hosts around the world.
- Backyard Concerts with the Stars - October 21, 2006 MP3 NewswireMP3 NewswireFounded in 1998, the same year as MP3.com, MP3 Newswire is the oldest active news site devoted to digital media technology. Notable for its series of essays that chronicled the rise of digital music and the Internet’s acrimonious relationship with the record industry, MP3 Newswire initially was...
article details the advantages of the house concert experience - BBC Radio 4 feature on House Concerts - BBC Radio 4 feature on House Concerts
- House Concert "How-to" Videos describing the "feel and appeal" of house concerts
- Tips and tools for house concert hosts
- Acousticroof - the Canadian House Concert Network A non-profit organization dedicated to providing a network for acoustic artists and home concert venue hosts to connect across Canada.
- Home Routes A non-profit organization dedicated to creating logistical tour routes for folk artists across Canada
- Tips for hosting a house concert in the Star TribuneStar TribuneThe Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...
, July 14, 2010 - Fats Waller's famous song, This Joint Is Jump'in, which illustrates his idea of a house concert in Harlem in his time
- Review and Photographs of Melissa Greener playing at House Concert