House music is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discoth?ques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other cities such as New York City, Toronto, Montreal, London, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami. It then reached Europe largely due to the infamous House Music Tour visiting England. England played a pivotal role in the development of house music throughout Europe. Since the early to mid-1990s, it has become infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide. While house music does not have a direct predecessor in genre, it is considered by some to be strongly influenced by disco with elements of soul and funk. House music is based on four-by-four dance structure, popularized by disco, frequent use of a prominent bass drum on every beat, and may feature a prominent synthesizer bassline, electronic drums, electronic effects, funk and pop samples, often with reverb- or delay-enhanced vocals.

House is uptempo music for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo, generally ranging between 118 and 135 bpm. Tempos tended to be slower in the early years of house. The common element of house is a prominent kick drum on every beat (also known as a four-on-the-floor beat), usually generated by a drum machine or sampler. The kick drum sound is augmented by various kick fills and extended dropouts. The drum track is filled out with hi-hat cymbal-patterns that nearly always include a hi-hat on quaver off-beats between each kick, and a snare drum or clap sound on beats two and four of every bar. This pattern derives from so-called "four-on-the-floor" dance drumbeats of the 1960s and especially from the 1970s disco drummers. Producers commonly layer sampled drum sounds to achieve a more complex sound, and they tailor the mix for large club sound-systems, de-emphasizing lower mid-range frequencies (where the fundamental frequencies of the human voice and other instruments lie) in favor of bass and hi-hats

Electronically-generated sounds and samples of recordings from genres such as jazz, blues, disco, funk, soul and synth pop are often added to the foundation of the drum beat and synth bass line. House songs may also include disco, soul-style, or gospel vocals and additional percussion such as tambourine. Many house mixes also include repeating, short, syncopated, staccato chord-loops that are usually composed of 5-7 chords in a 4-beat measure.