Home » Moments That Changed Dance Music: A Verified Timeline, 1970 to Now

Dance music history gets told in legends, and after more than 25 years in the booth I have repeated a few wrong ones myself. So I built this timeline the slow way. Forty-five moments, from a New York loft party in 1970 to AI tracks flooding the upload queue in 2026, each checked against a source, with a few from here in Seoul. Open any moment to read what happened, why it mattered on the dancefloor, and where there is an official upload, press play.

All 45 moments as a plain list

1970s

1970: The Loft throws its first party

14 February 1970, New York. Venue.

David Mancuso opened his home at 647 Broadway for an invitation-only party called Love Saves the Day. It became a weekly night that ran from midnight until the morning.

The Loft set the template for the private dance party built around one person choosing records for a room, with no bar and no show. Every residency since owes it something.

A brief history of DJing

1976: The first 12 inch single goes on sale

May 1976, New York. Technology.

Tom Moulton found in 1974 that a disco mix cut with wider grooves on a larger disc played louder and cleaner. In 1976 Salsoul sold Walter Gibbons’ remix of Double Exposure’s “Ten Percent” on 12 inch, the first commercial release in the format.

Longer, louder records gave DJs room to mix, and dancers could finally buy the version they heard in the club. The 12 inch is still the club format on vinyl.

Disco in the family tree

1977: Frankie Knuckles starts at the Warehouse

1977, Chicago. Venue.

The Warehouse opened in Chicago in 1977 and Frankie Knuckles became its resident the same year. He played there until November 1982, when he started the Power Plant.

The records he played and re-edited became known by the club’s name. House music is named after a room, which tells you how much the room mattered.

Chicago house in the family tree

1977: “I Feel Love” arrives

2 July 1977, Munich. Technology.

Donna Summer’s single, produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, ran its backing on a Moog synthesizer. It went to No. 1 in the UK for four weeks.

A sequenced, machine-driven groove could fill a floor. David Bowie recalled Brian Eno calling it “the sound of the future”, and Hi-NRG, Italo and techno all took the hint.

Hi-NRG in the family tree

1977: Saturday Night Fever takes disco worldwide

15 November 1977, United States. Industry.

The soundtrack album was released in November 1977 ahead of the film. It sat at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 24 straight weeks in 1978 and won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Disco went from a club culture to a mass market overnight. That made it rich, then made it a target, and the clubs that kept dancing after the boom are where house came from.

Disco in the family tree

1978: The Paradise Garage opens

28 January 1978, New York. Venue.

The club at 84 King Street opened with Larry Levan as resident and ran until October 1987. Its room was designed around a custom sound system by Richard Long.

The Garage made the sound system part of the music. The idea that a DJ plays the room, not just the records, runs from here to every serious club today.

Sound systems and the dancefloor

1979: Disco Demolition Night

12 July 1979, Chicago. Culture.

A radio promotion at Comiskey Park ended with disco records blown up on the field and fans pouring onto it. The White Sox forfeited the second game of the doubleheader and 39 people were charged.

The backlash pushed disco out of the charts in America, but not out of the clubs. The music went back underground, which is where Chicago and New York turned it into house and garage.

Post-disco in the family tree

1979: The Technics SL-1200MK2

1979, Japan. Technology.

Technics followed the 1972 SL-1200 with the MK2 in 1979. It swapped the rotary pitch control for a slider and added a stronger motor and better shock resistance.

A pitch slider and a motor that starts on time is all beatmatching needs. Production stopped in 2010 and came back in 2016, and you still find a pair in most booths.

Why the SL-1200 became a DJ standard

1980s

1980: Roland releases the TR-808

1980, Japan. Technology.

The 808 made its drums from analogue circuits instead of recordings of real drums. Roland stopped making it after about 12,000 units, when its parts became impossible to source.

It flopped as a studio drummer, then turned up cheap in pawn shops. Electro, Miami bass and trap are built on that booming kick.

Electro in the family tree

1982: The Haçienda opens

21 May 1982, Manchester. Venue.

Factory Records and New Order opened the club under the catalogue number FAC 51. It closed in June 1997.

Manchester had a room ready when house records arrived, and the Haçienda became one of the first British homes for them. It lost money for most of its life and changed the city anyway.

The Haçienda: the club that lost money

1983: MIDI is demonstrated

January 1983, United States. Technology.

At the Winter NAMM show Dave Smith connected a Sequential Prophet-600 to a Roland Jupiter-6 over a new shared standard. The MIDI 1.0 specification was published that August.

Machines from different makers could finally play together. Every sequencer, controller and DJ app that talks to another box still speaks MIDI.

The Yamaha DX7 and the 1983 machines

1987: “Jack Your Body” is a UK No. 1

January 1987, Chicago to London. Industry.

Steve “Silk” Hurley’s track topped the UK singles chart for two weeks. It was the first house record to reach No. 1 there.

A Chicago club track in the pop chart told British labels and promoters that house could sell. The rave years started with records like this in the shops.

Chicago house in the family tree

1987: Phuture release “Acid Tracks”

1987, Chicago. Culture.

DJ Pierre, Spanky and Herb J made the track on a Roland TB-303 bass machine. Ron Hardy played it at the Music Box before Trax Records released it in 1987.

Twisting a filter while the pattern runs became a genre. Acid house took its name and its squelch from this record.

Acid house in the family tree

1988: The Second Summer of Love

1988 to 1989, United Kingdom. Culture.

After a 1987 holiday in Ibiza, a group of London DJs started their own nights. Shoom opened in November 1987 in a Southwark gym, followed by the Trip and Spectrum, and by late 1988 parties ran weekly across the country.

The smiley face from the Shoom flyers became the symbol of a youth culture. Clubs moved into warehouses and fields, and British dance music never went back.

Acid house and the Second Summer of Love

1989: The first Love Parade

July 1989, West Berlin. Culture.

Dr. Motte and Danielle de Picciotto took about 150 people onto the streets of West Berlin under the motto “Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen” (peace, joy, pancakes). The Wall fell that November.

A tiny street party grew into one of Europe’s biggest dance events. It ended for good after the 2010 disaster in Duisburg, where 21 people died.

The world’s essential dance music festivals

1990s

1991: Tresor opens in the old vaults

March 1991, Berlin. Venue.

The club opened in the vaults of the former Wertheim department store on Leipziger Straße in Mitte, close to where the Wall had stood. It closed there in 2005 and reopened in a former power plant in 2007.

Detroit records found a second home in a reunified city full of empty buildings. The Berlin idea of a club, dark and long and serious about techno, starts in rooms like this.

The cities that built electronic music

1994: The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act

3 November 1994, United Kingdom. Law and policy.

The Act gave police powers to remove people from an open air gathering of 100 or more at night with amplified music. Section 63 defines that music as sounds “wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”. It followed the week-long Castlemorton Common free festival in May 1992.

The law pushed much of the free party scene into licensed clubs and paid events. It also produced protests in London that year, and a line about repetitive beats that DJs still quote.

The Rave Era: warehouse to field, 1988 to 1994

1997: Daft Punk release Homework

20 January 1997, Paris. Culture.

The duo’s debut album came out on Virgin, carrying “Da Funk” and “Around the World”. It was made in their own home studio, Daft House.

A bedroom record full of filtered disco and Chicago drums became a worldwide hit. French house showed that club tools could also be pop records without losing their edge.

Daft Punk: the enduring legacy

1999: Napster launches

June 1999, United States. Technology.

Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker launched a service for swapping MP3 files between computers. Lawsuits shut the network down in July 2001.

Music became a file, and the record shop stopped being the only way to find a track. The same year, IFPI counts global recorded music sales at their CD-era peak.

Who controls music discovery

2000s

2001: Hongdae starts Club Day

2001, Seoul. Venue.

Four Hongdae (홍대) dance clubs, M1, NB, Underground and SSAB, joined forces so one pass opened all four doors. Club Day (클럽데이, keulleop dei) became the city’s best known monthly night and ran for 116 editions.

It built a clubbing habit in Seoul before the festivals arrived. In 2015 it came back as Live Club Day, built around live bands.

Hongdae vs Itaewon

2001: Pioneer’s CDJ-1000

2001, Japan. Technology.

The CDJ-1000 added a large jog wheel with a Vinyl Mode that let DJs scratch and nudge a CD like a record.

It was the first CD player most vinyl DJs would accept, and it set the layout of the club booth for the next twenty years.

DJ controllers vs CDJs

2001: Ableton Live 1.0

30 October 2001, Berlin. Technology.

A Berlin company released software built to perform music live, stretching loops to any tempo in real time.

A laptop became an instrument you could take on stage. It changed who gets to make dance music, and how quickly they can finish it.

Ableton Live and who gets to make music

2004: Berghain opens

2004, Berlin. Venue.

The founders of the club Ostgut opened Berghain in a former power plant near Ostbahnhof, named for the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. It holds about 1,500 people.

No photos, stickers over phone cameras and a hard door made it the most discussed club in the world. Plenty of rooms have copied the rules since.

The door policy: Berghain’s queue

2006: Daft Punk’s pyramid at Coachella

29 April 2006, California. Culture.

Daft Punk played Coachella inside a light-covered pyramid. It was their first US show since 1997 and led into the Alive 2006/2007 tour.

It showed that an electronic act could own a festival main stage with a show, not only a set. Festival production has been chasing that pyramid ever since.

EDM and big room in the family tree

2008: Spotify launches

7 October 2008, Sweden. Industry.

The Swedish service launched as a freemium streaming app: free with ads, or paid without them.

Listening moved from owning files to renting access. For DJs it changed how people find records, and it changed where the money in recorded music comes from.

How streaming changed the DJ economy

2010s

2010: Boiler Room streams its first session

March 2010, London. Culture.

Blaise Bellville and Thristian Richards livestreamed a DJ mix for a magazine. It turned into a weekly show, then an international series.

A club set became something people watched on a screen, which changed how DJs are seen and booked.

2012: Ultra Korea draws 80,000

2012, Seoul. Culture.

The Seoul edition of Ultra filled the Olympic Stadium complex with about 80,000 people, according to the Korea Times.

It put Seoul on the global big-room circuit. Promoters learned the city could fill a stadium for DJs, and the festival calendar grew around it.

Korea’s DJ festivals, an honest guide

2012: “Gangnam Style”

15 July 2012, Seoul. Culture.

PSY released “Gangnam Style” (강남스타일, Gangnam seutail) in July 2012. On 21 December it became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views.

A Korean dance track with a move anyone could copy became a floor filler far beyond K-pop fans. It showed that a video, not a radio playlist, could carry a floor filler across the planet.

Hongdae vs Itaewon vs Gangnam

2015: Spotify launches Discover Weekly

July 2015, Worldwide. Technology.

Spotify introduced a personal playlist of recommendations, generated for each listener and refreshed every Monday.

An algorithm became a new kind of tastemaker. Getting into the machine’s suggestions now matters to a producer as much as getting into a DJ’s bag.

Who controls music discovery

2016: Seoul Community Radio goes on air

2016, Seoul. Culture.

Londoner Richard Price, known as Rich SCR, founded the online station in 2016. It became the main broadcast home for Korean club music.

Local DJs got a place to be heard between club nights, and international listeners got a window into Seoul. Most of the new names I hear first come through it.

Seoul Community Radio

2018: Musical.ly becomes TikTok

2 August 2018, Worldwide. Technology.

ByteDance merged Musical.ly into TikTok, bringing the short-video app to a global audience.

Fifteen seconds of a song can now break it. Sped-up edits, old records back in the charts and drops written for a clip all come from here.

Sped-up remix culture in the family tree

2020s

2020: Seoul orders its clubs shut

May 2020, Seoul. Law and policy.

After a COVID-19 cluster was traced to nightclubs in Itaewon (이태원), the Seoul city government ordered all clubs, bars and other nightlife venues to close.

Clubs around the world were already dark. In Seoul the shutdown hit the smallest rooms hardest, and the scene that came back was a different shape.

How Seoul’s club scene survived COVID

2022: Fred again.. plays Boiler Room London

July 2022, London. Culture.

Fred again.. played a Boiler Room set in London in July 2022, now one of the most-watched on the channel.

The clip travelled far past club audiences. It showed a new generation how a DJ set built on vocals and feeling can land on a phone screen and then on a real floor.

Fred again.. and what he did

2022: Beyoncé goes house with Renaissance

29 July 2022, United States. Culture.

The album followed the single “Break My Soul”, which samples Robin S.’s house classic “Show Me Love” and Big Freedia’s “Explode”.

The biggest pop star in the world made a dance record rooted in house and ballroom. A lot of new listeners went looking for where those sounds came from.

Vocal house in the family tree

2022: The Itaewon crowd crush

29 October 2022, Seoul. Law and policy.

During Halloween crowds in the narrow streets of Itaewon, a crowd surge killed 159 people.

Crowd safety became part of every conversation about a night out in Seoul. At Halloween 2025 police fenced one-way walking routes, and trains skipped Itaewon Station from 11 p.m.

Itaewon after dark

2023: Peggy Gou’s “(It Goes Like) Nanana”

June 2023, Seoul to London. Culture.

The Korean DJ and producer’s single on XL Recordings entered the UK chart at No. 14 and reached the top 10 the following week.

A Korean-born DJ with a house record in the UK top 10 was new. It was also a proper club track, played by DJs who never play the charts.

Peggy Gou: the Korean DJ who crossed every border

2023: AI music reaches the public

April to December 2023, Worldwide. Technology.

In April an AI-made track imitating Drake and the Weeknd, “Heart on My Sleeve”, spread online and was pulled from streaming services within two weeks. In December Suno opened its song generator to the public.

Anyone could now type a prompt and get a finished track, vocals included. The questions of who owns a sound and who gets paid moved from theory into court.

AI-generated music in the family tree

2024: Spotify’s 1,000 stream rule

1 April 2024, Worldwide. Industry.

From April 2024 a track needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to earn recorded royalties on Spotify. Spotify says 99.5 percent of streams are of tracks above that line.

The long tail of tiny releases stopped earning, and that money moved to tracks above the line. For small labels and bedroom producers the rules of self-releasing changed.

Where the money goes in dance music

2024: Berlin techno becomes cultural heritage

2024, Berlin. Law and policy.

Techno culture in Berlin was added to Germany’s nationwide inventory of intangible cultural heritage, run with the German Commission for UNESCO. It is a national listing, not the international UNESCO list.

A state body now names club culture alongside folk traditions. That gives clubs a stronger case when they argue with planners and landlords.

The cities that built electronic music

2024: Major labels sue Suno and Udio

June 2024, United States. Law and policy.

A lawsuit led by the RIAA accused the two AI music companies of training on copyrighted recordings without licences.

This set the terms for everything that followed in AI music: whether training needs permission, and who gets paid when it happens.

AI-generated music in the family tree

2025: Labels settle with the AI platforms

October and November 2025, United States. Industry.

Universal Music settled with Udio on 29 October 2025 and planned a licensed platform for 2026. Warner settled with Udio, then with Suno in late November, and Suno bought the concert app Songkick from Warner.

The fight turned into licensing deals. Some of the tools DJs and producers will use next are being built with the labels, not against them.

Record labels: who controls dance music in 2026

2026: Bandcamp bans AI-generated music

13 January 2026, Worldwide. Industry.

Bandcamp banned uploads of music and audio generated by AI, saying it wanted to protect its community of real people making music.

For underground labels Bandcamp is the shop. The ban drew a clear line between a store for people and a feed for anything.

Beatport vs Bandcamp

2026: Soap reopens in Itaewon

26 February 2026, Seoul. Venue.

After years as a roving party, Soap moved into a permanent home at 217 Itaewon-ro, with its signature blue light and a launch party on 26 February.

New rooms are the hardest thing to build in Seoul. A club coming back with a fixed address is a good sign for the whole Itaewon scene.

Soap is back

2026: Recorded music hits US$31.7 billion

18 March 2026, Worldwide. Industry.

IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026 put 2025 revenue at US$31.7 billion, up 6.4 percent and the eleventh straight year of growth. Streaming made up 69.6 percent, and physical formats grew 8 percent.

Streaming rebuilt the business the download era broke, while vinyl kept its place. Neither changes how little most dance producers earn from a single play.

Why vinyl came back

2026: AI passes half of new uploads on Deezer

21 July 2026, Paris. Technology.

Deezer reported that AI-generated tracks made up more than half of daily new uploads at their June 2026 peak, about 90,000 a day. In June 2025 it had started tagging albums with fully AI-made tracks, when it put the share at 18 percent.

The flood is in the upload pipe, not yet in the listening. For anyone digging for new records, the filter matters more than ever.

AI-generated music in the family tree

Sources

Every date, place and number above is checked against these pages. Where a claim could not be confirmed, it was left out.

Show all 57 sources
  1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loft_(New_York_City)
    1970, The Loft throws its first party: Date, address, party name, host
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-inch_single
    1976, The first 12 inch single goes on sale: Moulton 1974 test pressing; Ten Percent, Salsoul, 1976
  3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Moulton
    1976, The first 12 inch single goes on sale: Moulton credited with the breakdown and the 12 inch format
  4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Knuckles
    1977, Frankie Knuckles starts at the Warehouse: Warehouse opened 1977, residency to November 1982, origin of the name house
  5. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Feel_Love
    1977, “I Feel Love” arrives: Release date, producers, Moog, UK No. 1 for four weeks, Eno quote via Bowie
  6. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Fever_(soundtrack)
    1977, Saturday Night Fever takes disco worldwide: Release date, 24 weeks at No. 1, Album of the Year
  7. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Garage
    1978, The Paradise Garage opens: Opening and closing dates, address, Larry Levan, Richard Long sound
  8. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night
    1979, Disco Demolition Night: Date, venue, forfeit, 39 people charged
  9. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technics_SL-1200
    1979, The Technics SL-1200MK2: SL-1200 1972, MK2 1979, pitch slider, 2010 stop, 2016 return
  10. smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/history-tr-808-drum-machine-180975205/
    1980, Roland releases the TR-808: About 12,000 units, production ended
  11. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TR-808
    1980, Roland releases the TR-808: Production dates from 1980
  12. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ha%C3%A7ienda
    1982, The Haçienda opens: Opening and closing dates, owners, FAC 51
  13. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI
    1983, MIDI is demonstrated: NAMM 1983 demo, Prophet 600 and Jupiter-6, spec August 1983
  14. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Your_Body
    1987, “Jack Your Body” is a UK No. 1: UK No. 1 for two weeks in January 1987, first house No. 1
  15. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_Tracks
    1987, Phuture release “Acid Tracks”: 1987, Trax Records, TB-303, Ron Hardy at the Music Box
  16. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Summer_of_Love
    1988, The Second Summer of Love: Years, clubs, Ibiza 1987, smiley on Shoom flyers
  17. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoom
    1988, The Second Summer of Love: Shoom opening night, November 1987, Southwark
  18. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade
    1989, The first Love Parade: July 1989, founders, 150 people, motto, end after Duisburg 2010
  19. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tresor_(club)
    1991, Tresor opens in the old vaults: March 1991, Wertheim vaults, 2005 closure, 2007 reopening
  20. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/section/63
    1994, The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act: Section 63 text: 100 or more persons, repetitive beats
  21. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_Order_Act_1994
    1994, The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act: Royal Assent 3 November 1994, Castlemorton link, protests
  22. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlemorton_Common_Festival
    1994, The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act: Dates 22 to 29 May 1992
  23. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homework_(Daft_Punk_album)
    1997, Daft Punk release Homework: Release date, label, singles, Daft House studio
  24. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster
    1999, Napster launches: Launch June 1999, shutdown July 2001
  25. billboard.com/pro/ifpi-global-report-2023-music-business-revenue-market-share/
    1999, Napster launches: IFPI: 1999 sales of US$22.3 billion, the highest level until the 2020s; Then and now: Global recorded music revenue
  26. timeout.com/seoul/nightlife/the-glorious-return-of-live-club-day
    2001, Hongdae starts Club Day: Club Day 2001, four clubs, 116 events, 2015 return
  27. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDJ
    2001, Pioneer’s CDJ-1000: CDJ-1000 introduced 2001, Vinyl Mode
  28. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableton_Live
    2001, Ableton Live 1.0: Release date 30 October 2001
  29. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berghain
    2004, Berghain opens: Opened 2004, name, location, capacity
  30. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alive_2006/2007
    2006, Daft Punk’s pyramid at Coachella: Coachella, 29 April 2006, first US show since 1997
  31. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify
    2008, Spotify launches: Launch date 7 October 2008; 2015, Spotify launches Discover Weekly: Discover Weekly launched July 2015, updated Mondays
  32. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_Room_(music_broadcaster)
    2010, Boiler Room streams its first session: Founded March 2010, founders, first session
  33. koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/k-pop/20130610/midsummer-nights-scream
    2012, Ultra Korea draws 80,000: 2012 edition, 80,000 visitors, Olympic Stadium complex
  34. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnam_Style
    2012, “Gangnam Style”: Release 15 July 2012, first YouTube video to one billion views on 21 December 2012
  35. dazeddigital.com/music/article/68675/1/enter-the-k-bass-seoul-community-radio-korean-club-
    2016, Seoul Community Radio goes on air: Founded 2016 by Richard Price
  36. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical.ly
    2018, Musical.ly becomes TikTok: Acquired November 2017, merged into TikTok 2 August 2018
  37. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_South_Korea
    2020, Seoul orders its clubs shut: Itaewon club cluster, Seoul order to close clubs and bars, May 2020
  38. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Again
    2022, Fred again.. plays Boiler Room London: Boiler Room set in London, July 2022, third most watched on the channel
  39. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(Beyonc%C3%A9_album)
    2022, Beyoncé goes house with Renaissance: Release date 29 July 2022
  40. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_My_Soul
    2022, Beyoncé goes house with Renaissance: Released 20 June 2022, samples Show Me Love and Explode
  41. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Halloween_crowd_crush
    2022, The Itaewon crowd crush: Date, 159 deaths
  42. koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20251101/seouls-halloween-stirs-itaewon-tragedy-memories-as-po
    2022, The Itaewon crowd crush: Halloween 2025 safety controls
  43. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(It_Goes_Like)_Nanana
    2023, Peggy Gou’s “(It Goes Like) Nanana”: Debut at No. 14, top 10 a week later, XL Recordings
  44. officialcharts.com/artist/53160/peggy-gou/
    2023, Peggy Gou’s “(It Goes Like) Nanana”: UK chart history
  45. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_on_My_Sleeve_(Ghostwriter977_song)
    2023, AI music reaches the public: Released 4 April 2023, removed from services 18 April
  46. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suno_AI
    2023, AI music reaches the public: Suno release 20 December 2023; 2024, Major labels sue Suno and Udio: June 2024 lawsuit led by the RIAA against Suno and Udio
  47. artists.spotify.com/en/blog/modernizing-our-royalty-system
    2024, Spotify’s 1,000 stream rule: 1,000 stream threshold, 99.5 percent, live from 1 April 2024
  48. unesco.de/staette/technokultur-in-berlin/
    2024, Berlin techno becomes cultural heritage: Technokultur in Berlin, inventory entry, year 2024
  49. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udio
    2024, Major labels sue Suno and Udio: June 2024 lawsuit led by the RIAA against Udio and Suno
  50. musicbusinessworldwide.com/universal-music-settles-udio-lawsuit-strikes-deal-for-licensed-
    2025, Labels settle with the AI platforms: UMG and Udio settlement, 29 October 2025
  51. hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-industry-news/warner-music-group-settles-ai-infringement
    2025, Labels settle with the AI platforms: WMG and Suno settlement, Songkick to Suno
  52. hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-industry-news/warner-music-group-settles-lawsuit-udio-12
    2025, Labels settle with the AI platforms: WMG and Udio settlement
  53. consequence.net/2026/01/bandcamp-bans-all-ai-music/
    2026, Bandcamp bans AI-generated music: Announcement 13 January 2026
  54. ra.co/news/84608
    2026, Soap reopens in Itaewon: Reopening at 217 Itaewon-ro, launch party 26 February 2026
  55. ifpi.org/global-music-report-2026-global-recorded-music-revenues-grow-6-4-as-record-compan
    2026, Recorded music hits US$31.7 billion: US$31.7 billion, 6.4 percent, 69.6 percent streaming, physical up 8 percent, 837 million paid users; Then and now: Global recorded music revenue
  56. newsroom-deezer.com/2026/07/ai-music-exceeds-50-percent-daily-uploads-deezer/
    2026, AI passes half of new uploads on Deezer: Over 50 percent of daily uploads at June 2026 peak, 90,000 a day; Then and now: Fully AI-made share of daily uploads on Deezer
  57. newsroom-deezer.com/2025/06/deezer-launches-worlds-first-ai-tagging-system-for-music-strea
    2026, AI passes half of new uploads on Deezer: June 2025 tagging, 18 percent, more than 20,000 a day; Then and now: Fully AI-made share of daily uploads on Deezer

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does the name house music come from?

It comes from the Warehouse, a Chicago club that opened in 1977 with Frankie Knuckles as resident. He played there until November 1982, and the records heard there became known by the club’s name.

What was Disco Demolition Night?

A radio promotion at Comiskey Park in Chicago on 12 July 1979. Disco records were blown up on the field, fans rushed onto it, and the White Sox forfeited the second game of the doubleheader.

What was the Second Summer of Love?

The UK acid house boom of 1988 and 1989. It grew from London clubs such as Shoom, which opened in November 1987, and spread to warehouses and fields across the country.

Is Berlin techno on the UNESCO heritage list?

Techno culture in Berlin was added to Germany’s national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2024, run with the German Commission for UNESCO. It is a national listing, not the international UNESCO list.

How much new music is made by AI?

On Deezer, fully AI-generated tracks passed half of daily uploads at their June 2026 peak, about 90,000 a day, up from 18 percent in mid 2025. Deezer says they still account for only 1 to 3 percent of streams.