House Music: Reading and Listening Guide 1. According to your reading, from what kind of music was Chicago house music born? • Listen to the example of this earlier music from a previous lesson. • Listen to the examples of early Chicago house music, “Love Can’t Turn You Around,” and “What’s up Rocky?” • What do the two house recordings share with the previous music? • How does the new music differ from its predecessor? 2. Your reading refers to the “two sides of house.” • What are these two types of house music? • To which does “Love Can’t Turn You Around” correspond? • What about “What’s Up Rocky?” • In both cases, support your answer with examples from the music 3. From what have the samples in “What’s up Rocky?” been taken? 4. Now listen to the sample of acid house, Armando’s “Land of Confusion.” To which of the two types of house music does this recording correspond? 5. How is there a little of industrial music in acid house? 6. Compare “Land of Confusion” with the other two examples of early Chicago house music. • What kind of new sound do you hear in the acid house recording? • From your reading, how did the producers make this sound? • What instrument are they using? 7. What phase of classical music is acid house reminiscent of? • Why do you say this? • What composer(s) are associated with this kind of classical music? 8. Does acid house fit with Cage’s feelings about expressivity in music? Why or why not? 9. What have Techtronic added to early house music to produce the mainstream hit “Pump Up the Jam”? 10. New Order is the band that Joy Division became after Ian Curtis’s suicide. Listen to “Fine Time” by New Order. • In an earlier lesson you listened to “Shadowplay” by Joy Division. Compare this recording with “Fine Time.” Are the completely different or is there some similarity between the two? • What do you hear from acid house in “Fine Time”? • How is “Fine Time” a more complex recording that the house recordings you have heard? • How does the vocal sound change during the song? How does this change correspond with a change in the lyrics? January 24, 2010 1 11. Listen to “Rhythm is a Dancer” by Snap. • Is this recording influenced by acid house? Why or why not? • Is it influenced by disco? Why or why not? 12. Listen to the two groups from the Madchester scene, The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. • Where was the Madchester scene centered? • The AMG web site says that one of these groups “personified the ugly side of rave culture. They were thugs pure and simple.” 1 From the music, which of the two groups do you think it is? Why? • What group did the original version of “Stayin’ Alive”? • Why is “Stayin’ Alive” and appropriate song to be covered by a house-influenced band? • Compare “Stayin’ Alive” and “Fool’s Gold” with the house and acid house music to which you have listened. o How are they different from the American music? o What kind of earlier house influences can you hear in these two tunes? 13. Compare the two Madchaster recordings, “Stayin’ Alive” and “Fool’s Gold.” • Which recording is more polished? • Which recording is more psychedelic? • Which has the more modal sound? 14. Listen to the recent recordings grouped under “Progressive House and Trance” and “The House Legacy.” How have they been influenced by earlier house music? 1 http://www.allmusic.com January 24, 2010 2 .