House music legend Frankie Knuckles dead
3 April 2014 11:13 PM GMT
Frankie Knuckles, a pioneer of house music who mixed records for the likes of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, has died at the age of 59, news reports said early on Tuesday. His death was confirmed by his longtime business partner, Frederick Dunson, the Chicago Tribune reported. Dunson was quoted as saying more details would be released later on Tuesday.
Besides developing the sound and culture of house music, Knuckles mixed records for performers like Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode, the Tribune said. After learning to be a club DJ in New York, Knuckles moved to Chicago in the late 1970s and forged fame as one of the city’s most influential dance music forces.
Knuckles came to Chicago just as disco was dying out. The Tribune said that for many music buffs disco literally died when a radio deejay named Steve Dahl blew up hundreds of disco albums. ‘I witnessed that caper that Steve Dahl pulled at Disco Demolition Night and it didn’t mean a thing to me or my crowd,’ Knuckles told the Tribune. ‘But it scared the record companies, so they stopped signing disco artists and making disco records. So we created our own thing in Chicago to fill the gap.’
Besides developing the sound and culture of house music, Knuckles mixed records for performers like Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode, the Tribune said. After learning to be a club DJ in New York, Knuckles moved to Chicago in the late 1970s and forged fame as one of the city’s most influential dance music forces.
Knuckles came to Chicago just as disco was dying out. The Tribune said that for many music buffs disco literally died when a radio deejay named Steve Dahl blew up hundreds of disco albums. ‘I witnessed that caper that Steve Dahl pulled at Disco Demolition Night and it didn’t mean a thing to me or my crowd,’ Knuckles told the Tribune. ‘But it scared the record companies, so they stopped signing disco artists and making disco records. So we created our own thing in Chicago to fill the gap.’
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