Progressive house
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of North American and European house music of the late 1980s.[1][2]
Progressive house
Stylistic elements[edit]
According to Dave Seaman, house DJs who had originally played what was known as Eurodance borrowed from that genre.[9] This led to a commercial sound that people associate with progressive house today.[9] Seaman notes that with the various lines between genres having become so blurred that true progressive house is often found "masquerading" as techno, tech house or even deep house.[9] As such, the music can feature elements derived from styles such as dub, deep house and Italo house.[17]
The progressive sound can be distinct from the later uplifting trance and vocal trance. It tends to lack anthemic choruses, crescendos and drum rolling,[17] but holds an emphasis on rhythmic layers.[9] Intensity is added by the regular addition and subtraction of layers of sound.[18] Phrases are typically 4, 8, or 16 bars long and often begin with a new or different melody or rhythm.[19]
Later progressive house tunes often featured a build-up section which can last up to four minutes. This is followed by a breakdown and then a climax.[19] "Strobe" by Deadmau5 is a good example, which had been cited by Billboard Dance as the artist's all-time best song and one of the reasons for EDM's resurgence in the 2010s mainstream.[20][21][22][23] Elements drawn from the progressive rock genre include the use of extended or linked-movement tracks, more complexity and reflection but almost always within the four on the floor rhythm pattern.[24]