This is Our House

Originally published in 1998. House music has had a considerable influence in shaping the sound of pop music from the late 1980s onwards. From underground dance events to the pop charts, traces of this aesthetic can be found in many guises.

This book traces a genealogy of house and maps some of the power structures that are at play in its production and consumptoin. Places like Chicago, New York, London, Manchester, Amsterdam and Rotterdam have been visited, providing the material to discuss such subjects as contemporary dance culture, DJs and the roles of musical technologies.

The author, Hillegonda Rietveld, was already steeped in dance club culture before she decided to write this loving piece of academic prose about house. Taking critical culture studies as its aesthetic fuel, she ram-raids boundaries of academic disciplines, fusing ideas like a meticulous DJing curator.