Tribal House - Current Popularity

Current Popularity

Tribal house is currently the primary genre of dance music played in the gay circuit party scene, large festival-like dance events held world-wide that can be described as the gay equivalent of a rave party. While this is the broad term generally used to describe the music played at these events, the actual music played by disc jockeys often will be a wider range of sub-genres within house music, but often maintaining a tribal house characteristic in the sound of the tracks chosen. This music first entered the circuit party scene in the 1990s through the releases of gay-oriented music labels like Tribal America and its successor labels Twisted and Star 69.

In the early 2000s, tribal house evolved into a very percussive, repetitive hard-edged sound that was frequently described as 'pots and pans' for its supposed similarity to the sound made by banging such cookware together. In the mid-2000s, the sound shifted to incorporate more vocals, perhaps as a reaction to the extremity of the 'pots and pans' sound. Presently, tribal house remixes played by DJs frequently are the 'dub' versions, remixes that use only minimal vocals from the original track, with the music often in a minor key to keep it sounding edgier and more tribal, unlike the major key that a more mainstream club remix might use.