Tropical house

Tropical house, also known as trop house, is a subgenre of house music, and a derivation of tropical music, Artists of the genre are often featured at various summer festivals such as Tomorrowland.

Characteristics#

Tropical house is a derivation of deep house music characterized by its relaxed and island-inspired melodies, which give off a “Caribbean, beach-party vibe.” The subgenre distinguishes itself through its use of airy synths, melodic rhythms, and tropical instruments, such as steel percussions, trumpets, saxophones, flutes, marimbas, or bongos. Tropical house does not rely heavily on the build-ups and drops seen in EDM, instead featuring calming melodies and soft vocals that are easy to listen to in any setting. It aims to create a laid-back atmosphere evoking the paradisical imagery of an island holiday, typically associated with the tropics. Producers frequently follow up the vocal delivery of the hook with an instrumental break highlighting the melody. Lyrically, songs often talk about happiness, love, relationships, break-ups, and sadness. While EDM mainly happens in clubs, tropical house is more associated with online platforms and outdoor festivals, beach parties, and boat raves. Successful producers typically break through on SoundCloud or YouTube, where their remixes of mainstream tracks in the tropical style can gather tens of millions of views before they are signed to a commercial label and start producing original singles in the genre.

History#

In the mid and late 2000s, Bob Sinclar and Yves Larock created international hits which had many characteristics of tropical house, drawing inspiration from 1980’s Hi-NRG music and in contrast with other sub-types of Electronic (“EDM”) music of the time. The style was further popularized by “Stereo Love”, an international hit by Edward Maya, a music producer from the Romanian house scene. During the mid-2010s, certain tropical house producers would team up with artists such as Justin Bieber and Little Mix. This helped the genre achieve massive commercial success and gave rise to the playlist term of ’tropical pop’, this success best articulated through the tropical pop hit “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran, which to this day is the second highest streamed song on Spotify.

Tropical house

Characteristics#

History#

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