Chicago Music History

As the great migration brought Black folk from the south into Chicago, they brought with them the jazz music that had been baking in New Orleans for more than a decade. In the 1920s and 30s, artists like Louis Armstrong were making Dixieland Jazz in Chicago. This jazz movement was characterized by faster, syncopated tempos, group and solo improvisation and a technique called “stride piano” — a jazz style of piano playing that features a left hand that alternates between bass notes and chords. The right hand plays the melody. Bands were comprised of a trumpet, clarinet, trombone, piano, banjo, drums, and a double bass. Another distinguishing factor of Chicago Dixieland Jazz was song selection. Songs often featured remixed rhythms and lyrics of existing songs in other genres. For example, you might listen to a Dixieland performance of a Broadway show tune or a well-known pop song, giving familiar melodies a new whirl.

Notable Dixieland Artists: Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Carroll Dickerson, Lil Hardin Armstrong & Jimmie Noone.

The 1940s and 50s, brought the second wave of the The Great Migration and with it, Blues music from the Mississippi Delta spilled into Chicago. Where original delta blues had an acoustic sound — acoustic guitars played “slide” style and  harmonicas — Chicago blues musicians “electrified” the Blues. Focused mostly in the open air markets of Maxwell Street. The market, which sprang organically out of the newly established Eastern European Jewish immigrant communities, grew and operated  from 1912 to around 1994. From clothes, to produce, to cars, appliances, tools, and virtually anything anyone might want, Maxwell Street offered discount items to consumers and was an economic hub for poor people looking to get ahead. The popularity of the markets brought musicians to busk and because one hoped to be the most heard, they began to play Blues music on electric guitars, plugged into portable amps. This blues movement launched the careers of many superstar musicians and birthed well known record companies like Chess Records. The sound hopped the pond and influenced the work of artists such as The Rolling Stones and The Animals – helping to prompt the British Invasion of the 1960s. It also led to the popularity of Rock’N’Roll with artists such as Chuck Berry.

Notable Chicago Blues Artists: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Koko Taylor, Little Walter, and Bo Diddley

In the 70s and 80s, as disco was so-called dying, the underground clubs and party houses began to form a new style of music that combined disco, funk, and European synth tunes spliced with gospel influences, drum machines, and electronic synthesizers. On July 12, 1979, a white radio DJ hosted a “Disco Demolition Night” at Comiskey Park. At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the twi-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. It was seen not just as an act against music, but against the communities that created it. Many Chicagoans see House Music as “Discos revenge”.  The same community that created and celebrated disco music – Black, Latino, young, queer kids – used their gathering spots to enact this revenge. The center of this movement was a club called The Warehouse — the place that leant the genre its name. DJ Frankie Knuckles led The Warehouse and pushed the genre out. While Frankie Knuckles is known as the godfather of house music, other Chicago pioneers included Jesse Saunders (credited with producing the first house music record sold to the public), Marshall Jefferson, Farley “Jackmaster” Keith, Ron Hardy, and Steve “Silk” Hurley. House ushered in the nascent stages of the Electronic Dance Music genre that has spilled into our pop music so thoroughly that it can be heard in artists as far spread as Lady Gaga and Pet Shop Boys.

Notable House Artists:  Frankie Knuckles, Jesse Saunders, Farley Jackmaster Keith, Steve “Silk” Hurley and Marshall Jefferson.

If House music is Chicago’s original invention, and Dixieland Jazz and Chicago Blues are its innovations, Hop is an intersection of innovation and invention. Chicago hip hop is characterized by heavy sampling across genres — but particular jazz, gospel and old soul records. The lyrics tend to be about hometown pride, raising “consciousness” – which can be attributed to the influence of the Nation of Islam and Chicago’s strong civil rights history – and audacious cockiness. And while there are countless artists who have shaped and made the genre, there are two figures who loom large over the city — Common and Kanye. Common, who debuted as Common Sense, hit the scene in 1991. He was featured in  The Source's "Unsigned Hype" column and the reviewer wrote "Impressive rhyme skills especially for an MC coming out of Chicago," because before his rise, Chicago rap was mostly being ignored by the larger hip hop community. His entry did not just put Chicago rappers on the map, it brought Chicago producers to the fore too. No I.D., known as the “Godfather of Chicago hip-hop,” would go on to have a production career spanning over 25 years, earning 10 Grammy nominations. No I.D. is credited with establishing the sample heavy sound of Chicago and fostering the very insular community or hip hop artists. Chicago rappers tend to collaborate with Chicago producers and Chicago producers tend to give their best to Chicago rappers — still No I.D. went on to collaborate with folks like Jay-Z, and once served as the in house producer at Jermaine Dupree’s So So Def records. 

It was No I.D. that brought us Kanye. Kanye’s early mentor taught him many of the technical elements involved in music production. Chicago rap would expand and innovate into a hub of hip hop royalty. The 2010s brought with it Drill Music, yet another rap innovation. From local greats like Sandman and the rap group Psychodrama, to impactful artists like Twista and Da Brat, to crossover names like Chance the Rapper and Lupe Fiasco, Chicago hip hop history is long, storied, varied and distinct.