Is there a certain song structure for house music?

Not just cos "house is a feeling" or anything but there are definitely trends.

tempo 4/4 though.

4/4 133bpm

INTRO:
First 16 bars: intro, basic introduction of the main theme, sparse mix with loud kick drum for easy mixing. NEVER NEVER NEVER fade in the track, __ALWAYS__ start the track with a loud clearly discernable kick drum so that the DJ can match the kick with the record currently playing and then adjust the pitch accordingly.

FIRST SECTION OF HARD TRACK:
Bars 17-24: This is your very first section of hard track. All house music is based on the 8 bar loop. Bare minimum there should always be some kind of fill on the 8th bar of every section. This is where you bring in your first layer of additional instrumentation into the mix.

Bars 25-32: Repeat bars 17-24 with slight variation on the fill for bars 28 and 32.

Bars 33-40: Repeat bars 17-24 verbatim

Bars 41-48: Repeat bars 25-32 verbatim

FIRST BREAK:
Bars 49-56: This is the first 8 bar section. This is a very hard part to write because you have to transition from the first 32bar section of hard track into the second section of the break where you drive the crowd into a frenzy. You need to deviate enough to let people know something is coming, but you cannot go too far or you lose the energy. This is where you start building the tension.

Bars 57-64: This is where you drop out the kick drum, break into a more complex rhythm and introduce the next set of weird noise that are going to be the hook for your track. It should build up in two bar units 2-4-6-8 so that by the last two bars of the break the crowd is about to explode.

SECOND SECTION OF HARD TRACK:

Bars 65-104: This is where you drop whatever hook you have come up with to really bring the track into gear. This is basically two 32 bar section pasted back to back. This is where you track it out and let the groove work. The same structure that you used on the first section of hard track applies, but you will want to think about using other sonic tricks to keep peoples ears.

FIRST MIX OUT SECTION:
Bars 105-120: You have just beaten the crowd over the head with the main theme and your first set of production tricks, you need to give the crowd a half minute to catch their breath or give the DJ a chance to mix out into the next record. The arrangement becomes sparse again, and you make it easy for another similiar record to overlap with this section so that the DJ can seamlessly mix out of this record. This is basically the second break, but it is just a stripped down version of the first hard track section. You might want to introduce a new theme here that will be carried out in the next section of hard track, but the main idea is to keep it simple and sparse.

SECOND HARD TRACK SECTION:
Bars 121-184: This section works just like the first section of Hard Track, but with a slightly different hook and a different set of production tricks. You want this section to have a little more punch than the first section in order to justify the second repetition of the track.

SECOND MIX OUT SECTION:
Bars 185-200: This works exactly the same as the first section, but is a little more complicated because it needs to lead into the next section which is:

SECOND BREAK SECTION:
Bars 201-216: Works just like the first break section, but it needs to be even more spectacular because the crowd has already been listening to this record for the last 5 minutes. You need to bear in mind that a beginner DJ may have already flubbed the mix on the last two mix out sections and is starting to sweat it a little.

THIRD HARD TRACK SECTION:
Bars 217-280: This is the last section of Hard Track and this is where you pull out everything you have got to make this track storm.
This track has already been playing for six minutes, so you have got to hit them with the best variation of the theme.

FINAL MIX OUT SECTION:
Bars 281-312: This is the outro for a dance record. You just state the basic theme of the record and make the mix sparse and kick drum heavy so that it is easy to mix out of.

There are a million variations on this basic structure. It is how you break the rules of it and how well you write and produce your sounds that sets you apart from other producers. I cannot tell you too much more than that; Just listen to a lot of records, and learn as much as you can about music.

2. When things have warmed up nicely, add a fat bassline, some percussion and maybe a little slab of vocal, whatever's lying around the house.

3. Add another layer of percussion about the 3 min mark. Bring to boil.

4. Just before things overheat around the 4.30 mark, break down some of the percussion layers. Bring in a new musical part.

5. Build it up again!

6. around 5-7 mins, break it down again. Drop out the kick, let the percussion run for about 30 secs. End on a crash cymbal.

If you do it this way, you will sound just like every other house record, which is a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective.

??? If you think most house sounds like this, perhaps it isn't your genre at all...

When did this format establish itself? I don't listen to much House these days but in the long distant past when I was into it it was more usual to build up the intro from a sparse beginning eg start with a piano or rhythmic riff (or percussion elements whatever) and gradually add more. The introduction of the kick drum was a major event. I can see that it makes it easier for the dj if the kick is there at the start though.

I wasn't saying he was wrong. I was asking when the format changed.

House - 125-135
Garage - 140-150
Drum & Bass - 170-180
Hardcore - ?
Hip Hop - 80-110

No I'm talking about late '80s - early '90s. I'm sure quite a few (though not all of course) records from that period started without the kick and introduced it as a BIG THING. I think at that time there was still a residual concept of someone listening to the record from start to finish as a thing in itself rather than viewing it *totally* from the dj mixing point of view. I've just checked my copy of Frankie Knuckles' 'Tears' and that does indeed start with the kick/hh but OTOH Turntable Orchestra's 'You're Gonna Miss Me' starts with the piano. Perhaps people like Knuckles (djs turned producers) were always clued in to this aspect. I was querying when the format got solidified. Presumably mid to late '90s. Just curiosity really.

x-post, I had a feeling David meant Knuckles style stuff, which I love, don't get me wrong.

When you are about to beat-match into the next record you don't cue the new record according to the acid squiggle or the pad or the vocal sample, you cue it according to the first kick drum. You find the first kick and scratch back and forth over it until you have it locked up, then you let it play with the first beat the current bar of the record that is currently playing, then you let the new record play in the headphone submix with the record that is currently playing on the system. You adjust pitch according to whether the kick on the new record is slower or faster than the record that is currently playing.

You don't _have_ to do this with your records, in fact Jeff Mills fades in a lot of his shit, but fade in's and non kick oriented intro sections do make it a lot harder for beginner and intermediate level DJ's to play your records. ILM people don't really think about this kind of thing because we generally don't view these records as tools, but little things like that actually mean a lot to DJ's. If a record is hot, it's hot, but DJ's are aware of things like how difficult a track is to mix when they shop for records.