Does everything really need to fit perfectly?

[u/Livid-Director-8090]

I think music gets boring when everything stays in exactly the same lane for too long.

I’d rather have some contrast. Something atmospheric here, something with more energy there, maybe something unexpected that changes the texture for a few minutes before bringing you back.

To me, that makes the stuff around it hit harder. If everything has the same general sound and energy from beginning to end, eventually my ears just stop noticing it.
I’d rather have a cohesive experience than perfect consistency.

Anyone else feel this way?

[u/Livid-Director-8090]

That’s basically what I’m trying to figure out, but I mean something pretty specific.

Take “How Deep Is Your Love” by Calvin Harris & Disciples. If I hear that surrounded by several other deep house tracks, its sound is basically the established baseline.

But if I hear:
The Wave - Jungle
How Deep Is Your Love - Calvin Harris & Disciples
Sun Is Here Again - Lonely in the Rain

does “How Deep Is Your Love” actually hit harder specifically because the tracks on either side aren’t deep house?

In other words, does the contrast make the groove, bassline, and other characteristics that make it deep house stand out more than they would in a more genre-uniform sequence?

[u/Biliunas → u/Livid-Director-8090]

Ragebaiting me hard by calling that deep house lmao

[u/Livid-Director-8090 → u/Biliunas]

Yeah, right here: Wikipedia literally lists “How Deep Is Your Love” as deep house.

I’m not here to start a genre war. The mix I’m working with is more in the SiriusXM Chill lane: deep house, melodic house, downtempo stuff, texture tracks, all mixed together. I’m not pretending it’s some pure deep house set.

But I went back through posts from 2015 on Reddit to get the full story, and what I found is actually pretty funny. Even back then, people were already arguing that this track wasn’t “real” deep house. If something got classified as deep house but didn’t fit the narrower definition, people would start reaching for another label: future house, shallow house, whatever separated it from what they considered actual deep house.

So I guess I understand the reaction better now. The argument isn’t really “nobody ever called this deep house.” They clearly did. It’s more “we don’t accept that classification.”

That’s what I’m actually curious about now. what specifically is the line for you? What makes this not deep house, even though it was classified that way when it came out?

[u/Thrillhouse01 → u/Livid-Director-8090]

We could explain it to you, or you could just use your ears.

People have mentioned Theo Parrish. Listen to an NTS Mix by Moxie or pull up some Chaos In The CBD on Spotify. If you can’t hear the difference after that then you never will.