History
Big room house appeared around 2010 as dance music moved into very large festivals s1. The tracks are simple and loud, with a long build-up that leads to a heavy, empty drop s1. This is the part where the drums and bass hit hard and the crowd is meant to jump s1. Swedish House Mafia's 'One' (2010) helped make the style popular s1. Sandro Silva and Quintino's 'Epic' (2011) and Martin Garrix's 'Animals' (2013) were huge hits with the same shape s1. The name big room came from the size of the rooms these tracks were made for, not from a real music scene s1s2. Producers often used the same simple sounds, and critics said the records sounded alike s2. The style faded after about 2015 but still appears at festivals s1. At its peak the style was played at festivals such as Tomorrowland and Ultra. Many of the tracks were made to sound good on large sound systems rather than at home s1.
Sound
- A long build-up to one large drop
- Very simple, loud synthesizer leads
- A hard, steady four-to-the-floor kick
- Almost no melody in the drop
- A huge, festival-sized sound
Key figures
- Swedish House Mafia — Swedish group that helped popularise the style
- Martin Garrix — Dutch producer of 'Animals'
- Sandro Silva — Dutch producer of 'Epic'
- Quintino — Dutch producer of 'Epic'
Labels
- Spinnin' Records — Hilversum , 1999
- Musical Freedom — Amsterdam , 2009
- STMPD RCRDS — Amsterdam , 2016
Defining tracks
Connections
Came from: Electro House , Dutch House , Progressive House
Led to: EDM , Peak-Time Techno
Sources
- Big room house — Wikipedia
- 2010s: Reverberations of EDM — Pitchfork (2019)