This summer, some of the biggest names in music decided that we all need to dance.

Drake, Beyonce, Charlie X-C-X, Bad Bunny, they all departed from their usual styles to create albums inspired by a genre called house music.

Now, if you're a boomer like me, you'll know House music was huge in American music during the early 1990s.

Good stuff. Even a nerd like me was able to show off some moves. Maybe not. But just as quickly as House went mainstream, it then went back underground.

Until now.

I'm Gustavariano. You're listening to The Times, essential news from the LA Times.

It's Wednesday, August 10th, 2020.

Today, as summer starts coming to a close,

how house music became the sound of liberation,

and why it's back and more mainstream than ever.

My LA Times colleague August Brown covers pop music and the music industry.

August, welcome to times.

Hey, thanks for having me.

So what exactly is house music? Is it the type of electronic music that goes,

nts, nts, or am I messing it up?

So house music is, I guess the cleanest definition, and you'll know this as a child of growing up in the 90s,

the differences between electronic genres like house music or techno or big beat or anything.

People have fought wars over these definitions.

And I guess house music is, it's dance music that's made with samples, and it's meant to bring

people together on a dance floor.

It's got a strong four on the four beat that kind of allows you to get lost in the music,

and it's a real lattice work for all sorts of interesting musicality on top of it.

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