Music of Chicago  

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"In the beginning, there was Jack. And Jack had a groove. And from this groove came the groove of all grooves." --"Can You Feel It" (1986) by Mr. Fingers

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As the largest non-coastal United States city, Chicago, Illinois is a major center for music in the midwestern United States, especially in the early 1900s, when the "Great Migration" of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditional jazz and blues music to Chicago, resulting in the urban variants Chicago blues and "Chicago-style" Dixieland jazz. Notable blues artists included Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf and both Sonny Boy Williamsons; jazz greats included Nat King Cole, Gene Ammons, Benny Goodman and Bud Freeman. Chicago is also well known for its soul music. Chicago has also been home to a thriving folk music scene, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. John Prine, Steve Goodman and Bonnie Koloc were the most prominent folk singer-songwriters of that time. The city is also the birthplace of the House music of music, which is similar to Techno style of music in Detroit, Michigan. Over the 1980s and 1990s the Chicago rock music scene became very popular, especially the heavy rock and punk rock scene, as it is still today. The Hip Hop scene in Chicago is also very influential and popular, with major artists including Kanye West, Twista, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Da Brat, Yung Berg and Shawnna. Chicago also has a growing underground metal scene that is taking shape right now, with groundbreaking bands such as Sweet Cobra, Veil Of Maya, Oceano, Nachtmystium, Plague Bringer, Born Of Osiris, Indian, Lair Of The Minotaur, and Enjoy The Massacre, each making a severe impact in the metal world. And the orchestras of Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra which is one of the nation's oldest and most respected orchestras., the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Chicago Sinfonietta


Soul

During the mid 1960s to the late 1970s a new style of soul music emerged from Chicago. The sound of Chicago soul, like southern soul with its rich influence of black gospel music, also exhibited an unmistakable gospel sound, but was somewhat lighter and more delicate in its approach, or sometimes called soft soul. There have been many popular R&B/soul artists from Chicago such as The Impressions, Curtis Mayfield, Lou Rawls, Jess Powell and the Supaflyz The Chi-lites, The Five Stairsteps, The Staple Singers, Rufus, Chaka Khan, R Kelly, Dave Hollister, Carl Thomas, and Jennifer Hudson. Chicago soul labels, including, Vee-Jay, Chess Records, OKeh, ABC-Paramount, One-derful, Brunswick, and Curtom, established a major presence in R&B/Soul music.

House

House music originated in a Chicago nightclub called The Warehouse. Chicago house is the earliest style of house music. While the origins of the name "house music" are unclear, the most popular belief is that the term "house music" can be traced to the name of that club. DJ Frankie Knuckles originally popularized house music while working at The Warehouse.

House music was developed in the houses, garages and clubs of Chicago initially for local club-goers in the "underground" club scenes, rather than for widespread commercial release. As a result, the recordings were much more conceptual, longer than the music usually played on commercial radio. House musicians used analog synthesizers and sequencers to create and arrange the electronic elements and samples on their tracks, combining live traditional instruments and percussion and soulful vocals with preprogrammed electronic synthesizers and "beat-boxes".

Important musicians in the Chicago house include Adonis, Mark Farina, Keith Farley, Felix da Housecat, Fingers, Inc., Ron Hardy, Larry Heard, Steve 'Silk' Hurley, Marshall Jefferson, Curtis Jones, Paul Johnson, Frankie Knuckles, Lil' Louis, Jesse Saunders, Joe Smooth and Ten City.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Music of Chicago" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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