Life was just a party: Prince’s 1999 and Chicago house music (Reader)

By |2019-11-26T23:18:28-06:00November 26th, 2019|Chicago|

The Purple One could hardly have avoided influencing a genre whose earliest, most ardent fans were queer Black and Brown kids. By Jack Riedy @jackriedy Sign up for our newsletters Subscribe Prince Prince in 1982, surrounded by rare releases and ephemera from the extensive Prince collection of Chicago house producer Melvin Oliphant III, aka Traxx ALLEN BEAULIEU/RHINO; [...]

Staff Pick: Best house music DJ (chicagoreader.com)

By |2019-11-18T04:41:40-06:00November 18th, 2019|Chicago, DJ, House Music, Uncategorized|

Duane Powell DUANE POWELL TRACY J. LEE Great DJs keep their ears open to the world, and Duane Powell knows how to listen. He's been plugged into local music since 1983, when he went to his first party at Mendel High School, a famed incubator for the city's house scene. Within a couple years, [...]

Honey Dijon on whether dance music can save us (DAZED)

By |2019-09-11T15:19:40-05:00September 11th, 2019|Chicago, House Music, Interviews, Music, My House Radio, Spirituality|

Honey DijonPhotography Ricardo Gomes The American house DJ discusses her upcoming Comme des Garçons collaboration, how social media transformed club culture and the state of America today “What else do I do besides work? Nothing!” laughs American house DJ Honey Dijon over the phone from Berlin, where she lives. Actually, she adds, that’s not [...]

When Techno Was House

By |2019-08-08T17:41:47-05:00August 8th, 2019|Announcements, Chicago, Disco, DJ, House, House Music, Interviews, news|

Stacey Hale Courtesy of Stacey Hale Techno and house are widely regarded as distinct musical genres these days, but in the beginning, there was more overlap than anyone might realize. While Detroit artists eventually developed their own style, the Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson) have always acknowledged Chicago’s influence and the fruitful musical dialogue between [...]

‘Let’s blow up this black music!’: The ugliness and unrest of 1979’s Disco Demolition Night

By |2019-07-13T13:48:40-05:00July 13th, 2019|Chicago, Classics, Disco, Entertaiment, Interviews, mistakes, producer|

https://www.facebook.com/boilerroom.tv/videos/223659578458779/?t=0  Forty years ago, on July 12, 1979, what was supposed to be a wacky promotional stunt by shock-rock DJ Steve Dahl to sell tickets to a double-header White Sox baseball game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park turned ugly — when piles of vinyl records, many by artists of color, were destroyed as thousands of anti-disco [...]

Chicago’s Mayor Came to the Chosen Few Picnic (5Mag)

By |2019-07-10T03:31:35-05:00July 10th, 2019|5 Magazine, Chicago, Chicago House Music Festival, Czarina Mirani, House Music, Music News, My House Radio|

Lori Lightfoot By  5 Magazine  - July 9, 2019 Recognizing how influential the event has become, Chicago’s newly-elected Mayor Lori Lightfoot appeared on-stage at the Chosen Few Picnic and Music Festival last weekend. Lightfoot – the first black woman elected as mayor of Chicago, which with her election became the largest in United States [...]

Plugging Into Chicago’s Forgotten House Venues

By |2019-05-24T00:54:27-05:00May 22nd, 2019|Announcements, Chicago, Classics, Clubs - Nightlife, DJ, Entertaiment, House, House Music, International, Internet, Interviews, Music News, producer|

For decades, house music has shaped pop worldwide—but many of the spaces that birthed it here disappeared so quickly they barely left a trace. By Leor Galil @imLeor “It was a time when people didn’t put as much emphasis on the DJs or the performer per se, and really danced and enjoyed themselves.” —DJ and producer [...]

No, Pioneer DJ is Not “Exiting The DJ Business”

By |2019-06-03T14:25:34-05:00May 8th, 2019|5 Magazine, Chicago, Czarina Mirani, Music News, My House Radio, Pioneer|

By Terry Matthew May 6, 2019 We don’t need to get deep in the weeds here. Stories circulated this morning that Pioneer is “exiting the DJ business.” While technically true, these stories are conflating Pioneer and Pioneer DJ. “Pioneer DJ” is a company spun off from “Pioneer” itself more than four years ago. The [...]

HOUSE MUSIC IS BLACK AMERICAN MUSIC

By |2018-11-19T13:41:30-06:00November 12th, 2018|Chicago, DJ, House, House Music|

In case you don’t know — and chances are pretty good that if you aren’t from Chicago or a house music-head, you may not — the picture above is that of Frankie Knuckles. Knuckles, who passed away in 2014, is commonly known as the “Godfather of House Music,” but he may as well be [...]

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