Progressive House: From Underground to the Big Room

Abstract

The electronic dance industry consists of many different subgenres. All of them have their own history and have developed over time, causing uncertainties about the actual definition of these subgenres. Among those is progressive house, a British genre by origin, that has evolved in stages over the past twenty-five years and eventually gained popularity with the masses. Within the field of musicology, these processes have not yet been covered. Therefore, this research provides insights in the historical process of the defining and popularisation of progressive house music. By examining interviews, media articles and academic literature, and supported by case studies on Leftfield’s ‘Not Forgotten’ en the Swedish House Mafia’s ‘One (Your Name)’, it hypothesizes that there is a connection between the musical changes in progressive house music and its popularisation. The results also show that the defining of progressive house music has been - and is - an extensive process fuelled by center collectivities and gatekeepers like fan communities, media, record labels, and artists. Moreover, it suggests that the same center collectivities and gatekeepers, along with the on-going influences of digitalisation, played a part in the popularisation of the previously named genres. Altogether, this thesis aims to open doors for future research on genre defining processes and electronic dance music culture.