Celebrating 40 Years of Chicago House Music History
From House Historian, Chuck Carlson
House music is “the indigenous Folk Music of Chicago.” - Vince Lawrence, December 14, 2023
In 2024, the city of Chicago will be celebrating the global influence of Chicago House music with a full year of 40th Anniversary events. Chicago House AC is proud to partner with House 40 by highlighting the importance of House music within our soccer community. So how has House influenced House AC?
It was amid the pandemic year of 2020 when Peter Wilt announced a new Chicago men’s pro soccer team. While the announcement indicated that a team would be forming, the name of that team was intentionally generic. An NCAA bracket style tournament, dubbed “Moniker Madness,” was initiated to give fans a hand in giving this new team a proper Chicago name. Instead of geographic regions, the competitions’ regionals were named after Chicago’s major highways, and from the more than 400 ideas suggested by fans, 68 unique team names were seeded from #1-17 in each region. Some of those team names were very time specific (remember Murder Hornets?!), some were previous Chicago soccer teams (Bricklayers, Sting), while others recognized unique Chicago history (Haymarket, Seven). Ultimately, this contest was fittingly won by the most inclusive team name which, like the music genre itself, incorporated many categories into one: Chicago House AC.
House AC, of course, is an homage to the musical gift to the world that was started, incubated, and fought for in this city: Chicago House Music. As most historians enjoy explaining, specific celebrated dates often acknowledge an endpoint in a historic development and not its actual beginning. House music is, of course, no different in that “fact” of historical categorization. That said, these contention points of “Who was first?” “When did it exactly happen?” are certainly no reason to stop us celebrating (and dancing to!) important human achievements, and the 2024 year-long 40th Anniversary of House music celebration is definitely a reason to dance.
THE WAREHOUSE
By 1984, The Warehouse, the music space often cited as the launching pad for Chicago House music, had actually changed its name, and the DJ closely associated with the venue, Frankie Knuckles, had moved on to DJ in another club. Yet, the primarily Black and Latino LGBTQ+ community coalescing around the sounds emanating from The Warehouse, located at 206 S. Jefferson St in Chicago’s west loop, in the late 70’s and early 80’s, make it an apt physical gathering space for remembrance. The City of Chicago acknowledged that physical importance by naming a slice of Jefferson St “Frankie Knuckles Way” in the early 2000’s and, thanks to dedicated preservationists in House music fandom, 206 S. Jefferson is now a protected historical landmark.
Even before the Warehouse opened in 1977, however, a unique, and as yet unnamed musical genre, had been percolating in the Black communities on Chicago’s South and West side for about a decade. School dances at Mendell High School and Resurrection Elementary School had allowed DJs to experiment with mixing genres of music such as disco, R&B, Electronica in front of live audiences. Those school dances ultimately translated to the Chicago club scene, and in 1984, the release of On and On by Jesse Saunders and Vince Lawrence is considered by many to be the “first” commercially released Chicago House music song. Within a couple years, Chicago artists such as Knuckles, Lawrence, Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson and more were releasing House songs to the world, often via Chicago based record label, Trax Records.
CHICAGO HOUSE MUSIC AND CHICAGO HOUSE AC
The newest professional men’s soccer team in Chicago had hired a head coach, CJ Brown, before an official team name was selected. However, on February 23, 2021, Chicago House AC was officially launched with a video and press release which included an explanation of team colors, and reiterated the new club’s commitment to community building and inclusiveness. Soccer fan Brian Costin had submitted the Chicago House name and attributed his motivation for that suggestion to the “peace, love and acceptance” spirit at the core of House music.
In addition to the team name, Chicago House AC released a theme song composed by Vince Lawrence and Chuck (the Voice) Roberts called “This Is Chicago House.” When I asked Vince Lawrence what being part of the Chicago House AC soccer community meant, Vince said “listen to the lyrics in the song, it tells you everything.” While we play this song at all home games, and you will hear it blasting from the team locker room after wins, Lawerence is spot on with the importance of the words in that song: “Once you are in the House, there is no turning back, there is no going back…” “You be you and let me be me” “When you are House, it’s all for one and one for all” and “When you are House, it makes no difference what color you are, where you came from…House is everybody” So next time you are at a House game, it’s worth listening carefully to the words which inspire this community.
THE GLOBAL GAME AND THE GLOBAL MUSIC
Coincidentally for me, 1984 was the year that I expanded my own global horizons, which I try to incorporate into the House community through my club historian work. In April that year, my High School soccer team headed to Trier, Germany to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of that city’s founding. I attended an Eintracht Trier 3rd division game while there and I saw 10,000 people packed into a local soccer ground. In addition to discovering the joys of lower division soccer, I also found out how Germans from SW Germany, (who could speak English anyway!) viewed my city. Inevitably, when asked where we came from, after answering Chicago, the response would be, “Ah, Chicago! Al Capone, Bang Bang!” Fortunately, some things have changed, and while living in Germany in 2014, when saying I was from Chicago, the response to that “Where are you from?” query often elicited, not an homage to Prohibition era violence, but an “Ah Chicago, home of House music” response!
THE 40th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
During 2024, the city of Chicago will be celebrating this important anniversary for Chicago House music, and House AC is extremely proud to be associated with this year-long celebration. We will be creating a unique soccer jersey with our uniform partners Diaza to acknowledge the founding of House. In addition to the team wearing this jersey, 40% of all profits from sales of the jersey will be going to a charity set up to assist House DJs without medical insurance in costs associated with Health Care. Keep an eye on Chicago House AC website and help support House Music Community at all our games (Men’s, Women’s, and Youth) this coming year.
For an example of that historiography in action, check out Chicago Reader’s House archive, including this one about Mendel HS dances in 70’s:
https://chicagoreader.com/music/catholic-school-house/