Picking a Lane.

As I am on the verge of releasing new music, I have reached an interesting crossroads. I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is involved in the music industry, and he basically told me that I needed to pick a lane. This would mean, that I would have to choose which side of Evan I would like the public to know, musically. This stems from the fact that I love Electronica, House, R&B, Soul, and Hip/Hop - and I am interested in making records across all 5 of those genres. More specifically, I intend to dispel the assumptions and disregard of House music in particular, by fusing it into the genres listed after it on the line above, because if you don't know...House music is black.

Be real, many people of color don't like "House" music. They think it's "white" music. They would rather listen to the watered down, over-sexed, copy-catting, materialistic modern remnant of classic Hip/Hop that is now categorized as "Urban" music, or "Rap" music. For the record, Hip/Hop is not Rap, and a rapper is not an MC, but I digress. The real point is, House music is black. The origins of House music come out of New York and Chicago, where BLACK DJs were spinning Disco records in clubs. These clubs would go all night long, LITERALLY until the sun came up, unlike now a days where it will probably get shut down because of fisticuffs. Back then, everything was about the music. The term House music came from a club in Chicago called "The Warehouse" where a resident DJ known as Frankie Knuckles - a Black man - routinely took the music and the crowd to the next level with his powerful dance mixes. He was originally from New York, and when the music he played was distributed into local record shops, it was labeled "House" music because it was being played by Knuckles in "The Warehouse".

When DJs like Knuckles started running out of Disco records to mix, because the era of Disco was ending, it was around the same time that music technology as we know it today began to evolve into it's earliest forms - drum machines, synthesizers, vox boxes, etc. So these DJs, some of whom were producers, and regular fans of the music who just decided to experiment musically at home, began to stretch the boundaries of Disco and fuse it with the emerging music technology of the day. The end result yielded completely new versions of classic Disco records that would revitalize the dance-floor, and simultaneously spawned new genres of music - still, all based in Disco - which is based on Soul, which is based on Negro spirituals.

After spawning the original "Techno" genre of 1980s Detroit - originated by Derrick May, a Black man - this music started to make it's way across the Atlantic Ocean, as these DJs and producers were beginning to collaborate and perform with other musicians across the world. The first stop was in Europe, where an entire new takes on the genre emerged: Drum n Bass, Synth Pop, Electro, New Wave, French House, Ambient House, Progressive House, and most famously as the 90s emerged, Trance. Now you may listen to this music now, and wonder how this came out of Disco. The secret truly lies in the rhythms of the music. All of these genres listed above share different tempos, chord progressions, arrangements, instrumentation and orchestration - but they all share the same drum beat, the famous "1-2-3-4" which is straight out of the black Disco records of the crates of1970s and 1980s New York and Chicago based black DJs, who heard the music for what it was, and purposed to share it with the world.

House music is a feeling, not a genre. "Urban" music today, I swear, needs a revitalization. It is too cut throat, too commercialized, too dismissive its roots. It has fed our generation a lie, that we cannot think outside of the box musically, and enjoy music, purely for its enjoyment and for the feeling it gives us. It has turned into a popularity contest, a "look how cool I am because I heard this song and learned all the lyrics before you" environment. We place emphasis on the materialism and "fake wealth" that is abundant in our society, particularly in the "Urban" community. My goal is only to make music that makes me feel good, and hopefully make you expand your musical pallet beyond the borders and boundaries that you may have set up, or that may have been set up for you without you even asking. Music is one of the most powerful gifts ever given to human beings, and we need to get back to it being about the music - that feel good music.

I will pick a lane, but it will be a lane that may have very little paving. I don't want to give up the music that I want to share, based on the careers of people who came before me, who never even attempted to accomplish what I intend to - that to me, would make no sense. So I will cover all "genres" since that's what we call them, and fuse them into the genre of "Evan Huggins", full of a tone and undeniable cohesion that will force the closed-box listeners outside of their box. Soul, R&B, Hip/Hop, House, Electronica, are all me. That's why it pains me when I hear black people say, "why do you listen to that white people music?" Then I have to remember, that not everyone knows the truth. But now you do.

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...And for further reading... House Music Wikipedia Article