There are many differences between House music and Techno music. But the basic difference is that Techno is a formal style of music while House music is an informal style of music.
The main difference between House music and Techno music is the type of music which is played. Both categories make use of instruments and various sounds.
House music uses specific sounds according to the music, whereas Techno music is Flexible and uses a wide range of sounds.
Key Takeaways
- House music features a 4/4 beat, while techno has a repetitive, synthesized sound.
- House music originates from Chicago, while techno originates from Detroit.
- House music incorporates soulful vocals, while techno focuses more on electronic sounds and minimal vocals.
House vs Techno
House music is characterized by its repetitive 4/4 beat, synthesized melodies, and soulful vocals that originated in Chicago in the 1980s and were heavily influenced by disco and funk music. Techno is faster and more mechanical in nature than house music that originated in Detroit in the 1980s.
Techno-music beats are more or less straight music sounds and not much hip-hop music. They can be really hard to dance to. Techno music is repetitive. Techno music consists of no vocals.
When they do, they keep repeating them to make it sound like a robotic voice and not a natural human voice.
House music has a very wide range. There is already a developed certain feel and tempo to a house song. A house track is easy to dance to, they also comprise many vocals. Typical House-style songs mainly have an intro, a chorus, Verses, and an outro.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | House | Techno |
|---|---|---|
| Main Style | House Music is mainly informal style music. | Techno music is a formal style of music. |
| Diversity of sounds | House music uses a specific type of sound according to the music. | Techno music uses a lot of type of sounds and instruments as the songs solely consists of beats. |
| Dance | House music is easy to dance to as there is a set feel to the song. | Techno music is hard to feel and dance to. |
| Vocals | House music consists of a lot of vocals divided mainly- Intro, Chorus, Verses, Outro. | Techno Music includes almost zero vocals. |
| Emergence | House music was discovered around the early ‘80s. | Techno music first emerged in the ‘70s. |
What is House?
House Music is the oldest style of electronic music. It is directly a successor of Disco Music, which emerged around the late ‘70s to early ‘80s. House music was originally believed to be discovered by Frankie Knuckles.
House is a type of music that is high-tempo, an electronic dance music genre that started in Chicago. The time was in the early 1980s and has since expanded worldwide.
House merged the famous orchestral sweep and soul diva vocals which belong to the time of the 1970s disco, from the frigid futurism of synthesizer-driven Eurodisco in Chicago clubs catering to LGBT, mostly black and Latino clients.
Producers of Music Houses were invented by deejays like Frankie Knuckles and Marshall Jefferson, and till the year 1986, records on Chicago labels Trax and DJ International were charting in the United Kingdom.
When dancers found that the music’s hallucinogenic bass rhythms worked in tandem with the illicit substance ecstasy, the subgenre referred to as simply house sparked a British youth culture explosion in 1988.
(MDMA, or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a hallucinogen and stimulant). The British scene had split by 1990.
Some people favoured frantic music made for enormous one-time-only raves, in keeping with the bacchanalian ethos of the acid house (all-night parties in warehouses or fields).
Others preferred the garage (named after New York City’s Paradise Garage club), a more “mature,” club-oriented type of soulful house.
What is Techno?
Techno is an electronic dance music genre that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While certain kinds of dance music, such as disco and early R&B, rely on live instrumentation, techno is made with electronic instruments.
Synthesizers like the Roland TB-303 and drum machines like the Roland TR-808 are among them.
Techno may be traced back to German electro-pop bands such as Kraftwerk, but it became popular in American places such as New York, Detroit, and Chicago.
Techno included aspects of house music (especially Chicago house), electro, and synth-pop in the United States.
The characteristics of techno music are:
- Old synthesisers and drum machines: Techno music is made using electronic instruments, and most techno artists have a fondness for vintage synthesisers. Roland’s TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, Roland’s TB-303 bassline generator, Yamaha’s DX7 keyboard, and Korg’s SQD1 sequencer are among them.
- Repetitive, danceable beats: The vast majority of techno music is in 4/4 time, with speeds ranging from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm).
- Repeating-based compositional technique: Most techno tracks start with a looping bassline and drumming, which a producer might embellish with synth pads, diatonic melodies, or samples. Techno tunes are frequently improvised live and vary from one performance to the next.
Main Differences Between House and Techno
- The primary difference between the two is the sort of beats and sounds generated. Techno-music appears to be compatible with a certain genre of music. Techno music, for example, might work well with a rap song.
- Every genre of the song has a greater selection of music in house music.
- House music uses a specific type of sounds according to the music, whereas Techno music uses a lot of types of sounds and instruments as the songs solely consist of beats.
- House music is easy to dance to as there is a set feel to the song, whereas Techno music is hard to feel and dance to.
- House music consists of a lot of vocals divided mainly- Into intro, Chorus, Verses, and Outro, whereas Techno Music includes almost zero vocals.
- House music was discovered around the early ‘80s, whereas Techno music first emerged in the ‘70s.
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/abs/can-you-feel-it-djs-and-house-music-culture-in-the-uk/C44B7EC47F5B2B1A881CB19E4FF64541
- https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1_eCDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT9&dq=house+music&ots=7WjMMlYnGi&sig=siWhRMxOnZ5idUkiYhjK_O0WFW0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=house%20music&f=false
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Piyush Yadav has spent the past 25 years working as a physicist in the local community. He is a physicist passionate about making science more accessible to our readers. He holds a BSc in Natural Sciences and Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science. You can read more about him on his bio page.
The comparison and contrast between house and techno music are very well-researched and informative.
Exactly, it’s a very good article.
The information is quite thorough, and it helps to understand the main differences between the two music styles.
I had no idea that the two styles were so different. Very informative.
The detailed breakdown of each music genre was fascinating. Thank you!
The level of detail and analysis in this article is commendable. Great work!
A fascinating read. I appreciate the effort that went into creating this comprehensive article.
I found the description of the origins of both music genres to be enlightening.