Still Dancing: Intergenerational Continuities in Chicago House Music

In this paper, I explore the contemporary subculture of Chicago house music and examine the ways in which the current iteration of the Chicago house subculture is formed by and diverging from the 'early days' of the subculture, when Chicago house gained popularity in the 1980s 1990s. As digital mediums expand access to the spaces in which this subculture is practiced, contemporary DJs and party organizers have adopted new strategies to maintain a sense of the core values—personal significance, spirituality, and positive group experience—that founded the subculture. I conducted interviews with an intergenerational sample of Chicago house DJs that complement a review of recorded history on Chicago house to evaluate attitudes towards the contemporary Chicago house subculture. I argue that contemporary Chicago house is mediated by digital mediums and this shift demands new theoretical frameworks to effectively analyze. Specifically, the subcultural theory put forward by Dick Hebdige and the post-subcultures field is inadequate for contemporary analysis.