Other names Garage music Derivative forms UK garage
speed garage | Stylistic origins Disco
soul
R&B
gospel | |
Cultural origins Early 1980s, New York City and New Jersey, United States Typical instruments Turntables
synthesizer
drum machine
sequencer
keyboards
vocals | ||
Garage house (originally "garage music") is a dance music style that developed alongside house music. Garage, which had a more soulful R&B-derived sound, was developed in the Paradise Garage nightclub in New York City and club Zanzibar in New Jersey, USA, during the early-to-mid 1980s. There was much overlap between it and early house music, making it difficult to tell the two apart. It predates the development of Chicago house, and according to AllMusic, is relatively closer to disco than other dance styles. As Chicago house gained international popularity, New York's garage disco scene was distinguished from the "house" umbrella. DJs playing this genre include Tony Humphries, Larry Levan and Junior Vasquez.
Contents
Garage music is often confused with speed garage or UK garage; while these genres are influenced by garage music, they are different genres.
Characteristics
In comparison to other forms of house music, garage is more polished, and it includes gospel-influenced piano riffs and female vocals. The genre was popular in the 1980s in the U.S. and 1990s in the United Kingdom.
History
Dance music of the 1980s made use of electronic instruments such as synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines. These instruments are an essential part of garage music. The direction of garage music was primarily influenced by the New York City discothèque Paradise Garage where the influential DJ Larry Levan (1954-1992) played records. Levan got his start alongside DJ Frankie Knuckles at the Continental Baths, but was best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential post-disco DJ François Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music.
At the height of the disco boom in 1977, Levan was offered a residency at the Paradise Garage. Although owner Michael Brody intended to create a downtown facsimile of Studio 54 catering to an upscale white gay clientele, Levan initially drew an improbable mix of streetwise blacks, Latinos, and punks. Open only to a select membership and housed in an otherwise unadorned building on King Street in Greenwich Village, the club and Levan's DJing slowly entered the mainstream. Levan became a prolific producer and mixer in the 1980s, with many of his efforts crossing over onto the national dance music charts.
According to Blues & Soul, garage music started with the early records of the group Visual, i.e. "Somehow, Someway" and "The Music Got Me" in 1983 and the recordings by The Peech Boys.
The popularity of the genre in the UK gave birth to a derivative genre called UK garage.