IMS Dalt Vila 2023

10 Tracks That Defined 80s House Music

With production credits on legendary tracks like 1986’s “Move Your Body,” and Phuture’s 1987 acid house classic, “Acid Tracks,”  Marshall Jefferson is one of the originators of Chicago house.

Jefferson was born in Chicago in 1959, growing up listening to rock bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. As soon as Chicago’s Music Box club started developing a reputation in the early 80s, Jefferson and his friends were in there.

He was drawn to the feeling of house music that was absent from the disco he would hear on the radio. Inspired by artists like Jesse Saunders and Jamie Principle he decided to buy a synthesizer/sequencer and start making his own music.

Then in 1985, the year before Jefferson made “Move Your Body” he also produced now classic hits like "Go Wild Rhythm Trax," Sleazy D’s "I've Lost Control," and the following year with “Acid Tracks,” Jefferson was crucial to popularizing the squelchy 303 sound that is now known around the world as acid.

Always on the forefront of new sounds, when everyone else started getting into acid, Jefferson was moving on to the sounds of deep house, which was more in line with the original style of house he fell in love with at the Music Box.

“Open Your Eyes” was Jefferson’s first significant offering in the realm of deep house, and alongside Chicago legend Larry Heard, the term “deep house” took off just like acid.

With Jefferson’s established talent he was working steadily through the late '80s and early '90s when house music took off globally.

Jefferson is still a staple in the global house scene nearly 40 years after he stepped in the Music Box for the first time. In 2022 he’s releasing music on Ultra Records and playing everywhere from New York to Los Angeles to Scotland.

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