Pod Insights Throughline Throughline Dances About this episode Stuck in traffic? Glued to your desk chair? Folding yet another pile of your kids’ laundry? We GOT you!! Take a break, turn up the volume, and shake it out with this special episode of Throughline, a tribute to dance music, all songs composed by our very own Ramtin Arablouei.
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Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 This message comes from Live Right, publishers of John U. Bacon's New York Times bestseller, The Gales of November, a chronicle of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald's 1975 shipwreck, The Gales of November, in paperback wherever books are sold.
0:16 Speaker 01 Hey, everyone. It's Ramtin here. So, other than being a host and producer on Throughline, I'm also a musician who writes all the music for the show. And over the years, I've written a bunch of music in different genres. But the music that's close to my heart is electronic dance music. That includes everything from techno, house, drum and bass, trance, so on. A few years ago, Throughline producer Christina Kim and I made this episode about the history of house music in Chicago and how it influenced the entire genre of EDM. In the process of making that episode, I wrote a bunch of music that didn't make it in. So I went back, I listened to it, and I decided, whoa, there's a lot of great music here
1:01 Speaker 01 that no one has heard that I could put together in a mix that we could all dance to. Because, honestly, we need it. It's kind of a stressful time. So throw on your headphones, or however you listen, and use this music to squeeze a little bit more fun out of your day. This is Throughline Dances.
1:35 Speaker 02 There's still an inherent joy to going somewhere where the only thing people care about is the DJ.
1:42 Speaker 03 How does house music make me feel?
1:44 Speaker 02 An experience to forget about your problems.
1:48 Speaker 03 House music makes me feel euphoric.
1:50 Speaker 04 Empowered. Powered, especially.
1:52 Speaker 03 Stuff that will move around.
1:54 Speaker 02 Moving, like energized.
1:56 Speaker 03 I like that it allows you to just ride the wave and go along with it.
2:00 Speaker 02 Joyful.
2:01 Speaker 04 You get lost in the music, and it just makes you feel at one with everyone and yourself.
2:06 Speaker 02 It's church. Yes. We worship on the dance floor. We worship on the dance floor.
2:12 Speaker 04 Here you're accepted for who you are.
4:11 Speaker 04 You.
7:16 Speaker 05 Mind the gap.
7:55 Speaker 05 To all this crazy music.
8:01 Speaker 05 Experience, experience, dancing, dancing, dancing. Wow, alive is alive is alive is alive.
8:46 Speaker 05 These parties are said to be linked with drug-taking or worse. They're in breach of local authority licensing regulations. And besides, they keep the home counties awake at night, awake at night, awake at night, awake at night, awake at night, awake at night, awake at night.
9:18 Speaker 06 I have nothing against meetings that are legal and young people having fun. But this is an illegal meeting, it's against, it's a threat to public health, public order, and a real nuisance to people who have lived around it. And that must never, ever happen again.
10:21 Speaker 06 It was the American import of house music which started the craze. Linked with the so-called designer drug ecstasy, it became known as acid house.
10:35 Speaker 06 The trend is said to be probably the most distinctive development in popular youth culture since punk rock in the 1970s, and just as controversial.
13:25 Speaker 01 Okay, let's take a little break, get some water, wipe the sweat off your forehead. And when we come back, more Throughline Dances.
13:42 Speaker 00 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.
13:47 Speaker 05 This message comes from Whole Foods Market. Cheers to fall savings at Whole Foods Market, home of higher ingredient standards. This Halloween, share chocolates and candies made without that spooky high fructose corn syrup. Throwing a party? Make it easy with a berry chantilly cake, ready to cook pizza, no antibiotics ever chicken wings, and sushi made fresh daily. Fall gatherings never tasted better. Save through November 3 at Whole Foods Market.
14:12 Speaker 00 Support for this podcast and the following message come from the Southern Environmental Law Center. No one voted for a dirty air. No one voted for polluted water. That's why S E L C is fighting back to defend the healthy environment everyone depends on, just as they've done for 40 years. Because clean air, clean water, and a healthy climate aren't political, they're fundamental. Learn more at S E L C dot org. This message comes from Live Right, publisher of John U. Bacon's New York Times bestseller, The Gales of November, a chronicle of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald's 1975 shipwreck. "Never has it been told better than by Mr. Bacon in this colorful book," writes John J.
14:54 Speaker 00 Miller of The Wall Street Journal, while author Hampton Sides proclaims it's destined to be a classic. The Gales of November, now in paperback.
15:04 Speaker 01 You're listening to Throughline from NPR. I'm Ramtin Arablouei. Right now, I'm actually playing DJ. You're gonna listen now to the second half of Throughline Dances with music from me.
15:23 Speaker 03 Set at the party. And people kept dancing just like it was any other record, like a regular record. Hey, wait a minute, hold on, we can make these records.
15:57 Speaker 03 And we came up with a bunch of songs.
16:01 Speaker 03 One week in, so we had, you know, got a little drum machine and
16:06 Speaker 03 said, let's go make some music.
16:32 Speaker 03 I want to be the guy who goes to party. That way for sure I get anything.
18:05 Speaker 06 We were open for six, seven, eight, nine, and then some days, maybe midnight, following that because they were marathon parties.
18:24 Speaker 06 I guess if you had to describe it, you could say it was akin to gospel dance music.
19:20 Speaker 06 Right, he was in a car driving on the south, he was in a car driving on the south side of Chicago, and he saw a sign in some club that says "We Play House Music", and he asked, "What is that?", and it says, "That's stuff that you play at the warehouse, hence house music."
19:53 Speaker 04 It was all about the music, it was all about the DJs, and it was all about getting together and, you know, jacking. Jacking is a type of dance? Ja- jacking is a type of dance. So tell me, what is jacking?
20:07 Speaker 04 We had to jack our bodies. Um, jacking was this motion. You bend your knees and you pump your hips and basically you're just like doing this pumping, running, like frantic, frenetic movement, just to the beat of the music, to the rhythm, like hard, hard, like just, it's like a train, choo-choo, like the wheels are turning.
21:21 Speaker 06 House music is music that fills your soul.
21:31 Speaker 06 It's a lifeline.
21:35 Speaker 06 It's a feel-good music. That's, that's the only way I can keep saying, describing.
22:38 Speaker 06 You walked up a long landing of stairs. And there was a little window. And then you walked toward the back of that room. And there was a long stairway downstairs to the dance floor.
24:16 Speaker 03 All of the things that separate us kind of fade away.
24:21 Speaker 06 Underneath the boom, boom, boom, boom.
25:15 Speaker 04 House is about love, it's about community, and it's an inspirational type of music.
25:33 Speaker 06 We all accept each other and we all love each other.
28:32 Speaker 01 爷爷 爷爷 我来了 爷爷 爷爷 爷爷 爷爷
30:10 Speaker 01 We have reached the end of Throughline Dances. Thanks for sticking around and dancing with us. I'm Ramtin Arablouei. You're listening to Throughline from NPR. And as always, leave us a review on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you hear your podcasts. It does a lot to spread the word. Thanks for listening and dancing.
31:27 Speaker 00 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.
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