A brief history & etymology of acid house

Acid house is the subgenre of house music that brought house music to a worldwide audience. Its influence can be heard on later styles of dance music including trance, hardcore, jungle, big beat, techno, and trip hop. The acid house style was developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago and defined primarily by the "squelching" sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesizer-sequencer, an innovation sometimes attributed to Chicago's DJ Pierre of Phuture or Indian session musician Charanjit Singh.




Acid house soon became popular in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, where it was played by DJs in the acid house and later rave scenes. By the late 1980s, acid house had moved into the British mainstream, where it had some influence on pop and dance styles.




There are conflicting accounts about the origin of the term acid. One account ties it to Phuture's "Acid Tracks". Before the song was given a title for commercial release, it was played by DJ Ron Hardy at a nightclub where psychedelic drugs were reportedly used. The club's patrons called the song "Ron Hardy's Acid Track" (or "Ron Hardy's Acid Trax"). The song was released with the title "Acid Tracks" on Larry Sherman's label Trax Records in 1987. Some accounts say the reference to "acid" may be a celebratory reference to psychedelic drugs in general, such as LSD, as well as the popular club drug ecstasy.




Some accounts disavow psychedelic connotations. One theory, holding that acid was a derogatory reference towards the use of samples in acid house music, was repeated in the press and the British House of Commons. In this theory, the term acid came from the slang term "acid burning," which the Oxford Dictionary of New Words calls "a term for stealing." In 1991, UK Libertarian advocate Paul Staines claimed that he had coined this theory to discourage the government from adopting anti-rave party legislation.