Hard House

Hard house was conceived in the early 1990s at legendary U.K. gay club Trade. Punters wanted harder music to help them make it through to the midday close, so people like Tony de Vit created music that was over 150 beats per minute, with pitched up vocals and high energy repetitive beats. When de Vit became resident at Sundissential in Leeds, England, he helped take the sound to a more mainstream club audience. Although de Vit died in 1998, hard house flourished, and by 2000 it had become the biggest sound in clubland. Over 3,000 people a month packed into Sundissential to see the likes of Lisa Lashes, Rob Tissera and the Tidy Boys. Then came the backlash, and the scene was deserted by its followers who "grew up" and moved into funky house. But thanks to the super slick productions of producers like BK and Paul Glazby, the reputation of hard house as a creditable genre has been restored.