House vs. Progressive House: The Genre Differences

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House and progressive house are two electronic dance music (EDM) genres that may sound similar to some people. However, there are differences between the two genres.

House and progressive house songs have different typical sounds. Usually, typical house song sounds are bassline/drums/synthesizer riff/vocal. The typical progressive house sound usually focuses on adding and removing sound layers, chords, and its funky and driving sound.

This post will explain many (probably not all) similarities and differences between house songs and progressive house songs. The information in this post comes from online references, and I filtered that information with my knowledge.

The Differences Between House and Progressive House

The EDM genres house and progressive house have similarities and differences, and the table below shows some of these.

This post explains the information in the table below in more detail in the sections under this table.

houseprogressive house
place of originChicago, Illinois, United StatesUnited Kingdom
musical originsBoogie, Disco, Electro, Hi-NRG, Jazz, Latin soulBalearic beat, house, Italo house, and trance
first songJesse Saunders – On and OnLeftfield – Not Forgotten
year the first song released19841990
some well-known artistsBob Sinclar, Frankie Knuckles, Sebastian IngrossoDeadmau5, John Digweed, and Sasha
common temposrange: 115—130 BPMrange: 125—130 BPM
time signature, rhythm pattern4/4, four-on-the-floor4/4, four-on-the-floor
rhythm emphasisUsually, house songs emphasize every beat with a bass drum hit and emphasize the second and the fourth beat even more. The extra emphasis usually happens with a snare or clap hit on top of the bass drum. Also, house songs emphasize the off-beat with a hi-hat usually.Usually, progressive house songs emphasize every beat with a bass drum hit and emphasize the second and the fourth beat even more. The extra emphasis usually happens with a snare or clap hit on top of the bass drum. Also, progressive house songs emphasize the off-beat with a hi-hat usually.
typical soundsA bassline / drums / synthesizer riff / vocal.A focus on adding and removing sound layers, chords, and its funky and driving sound
length of phrasesThe most common length of phrases is 8 bars. However, the same song can also have one or multiple phrases of 4 bars or 16 bars but are less common.The most common length of phrases is 8 bars. However, the same song can also have one or multiple phrases of 4 bars or 16 bars but are less common.
structureA common house song structure has the following parts in this order: intro, breakdown, drop, breakdown, drop, outro.A common progressive house song structure has the following parts in this order: intro, buildup, breakdown, build, drop, outro.
average song length5 minutesbetween 6 and 7 minutes

The Origins of House and Progressive House

House music comes from Chicago, Illinois, United States. The musical origins of house music are Boogie, Disco, Electro, Hi-NRG, Jazz, and Latin soul (source: House music).

Progressive house music comes from the United Kingdom. The musical origins of progressive house music are Balearic beat, house, Italo house, and trance (source: Progressive house).

This website has a blog post about the first house song ever, for which I performed much research. According to that blog post, the first house song is “On and On” by Jesse Saunders, released in 1984.

The first progressive house song ever is “Not Forgotten” by Leftfield, released in 1990 (source: Progressive house, Evolution of Progressive House, How to Talk to Your Kids About Progressive House).

Some Well-Known House and Progressive House Artists

There are multiple DJ lists, such as the “The DJ List Ranking,” and I believe these lists are not always 100% correct, but they can still be useful.

On the “The DJ List Ranking” page of The DJ List, we can see house DJs such as Bob Sinclar and Sebastian Ingrosso. The “The best house music DJs of all time” page of Time Out can show us another great house DJ, Frankie Knuckles, my personal favorite.

On the “Progressive House Artists” page of Last.fm, we can see progressive house artists such as Deadmau5, John Digweed, and Sasha.

I believe the mentioned DJs/artists are house and progressive house DJs/artists.

House and Progressive House Song Characteristics

The subsections below explain the similarities and differences between house song and progressive house song characteristics.

Common Tempos of House and Progressive House

This website has a blog post about the common tempos of EDM genres, for which I did much research. According to that blog post, house songs usually have a tempo within the 115—130 BPM range, and progressive house songs usually have a tempo within the 125—130 BPM range.

Time Signatures and Rhythm Patterns of Both Genres

House has a 4/4 time signature (source: House music).

House has a four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern (source: House music, Books, Is it house? Or is it trance? A beginner’s guide to electronic music genres).

When a song is in the four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern, then that song is in the 4/4 time signature (source: Four on the floor (music)). Progressive house songs have a four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern (source: Progressive house, Know your EDM: Progressive House, Evolution of Progressive House).

The Rhythm Emphasis of House and Progressive House

The rhythm emphasis in a house song is on every beat with a bass drum hit and emphasizing the second and the fourth beat even more. The extra emphasis usually happens with a snare or clap hit on top of the bass drum. Also, house songs emphasize the off-beat with a hi-hat usually (source: House music, How do you explain the difference between house music and techno?, House vs Techno vs Trance Music – What are the Differences?).

The rhythm emphasis in a progressive house song is on every beat with a bass drum hit. With a clap hit on top of the bass drum, the second and fourth beats get even more emphasized. Also, progressive house songs usually emphasize the off-beat with a hi-hat (source: Let’s produce 10: Progressive House Vibe 2).

As far as I know, the extra emphasis on the second and the fourth beat can also happen with a snare hit.

Typical Sounds of House and Progressive House

The typical sound of house songs consist of the elements: bassline/drums/synthesizer riff/vocal. Usually, there is an emphasis on these elements (source: House music, House vs Techno vs Trance Music – What are the Differences?, Is it house? Or is it trance? A beginner’s guide to electronic music genres, Books).

I think that house is a broad genre. Therefore the typical house song sound is also broad.

Female vocalist wearing headphones singing into a microphone in a recording studio

Progressive house songs have rhythmic layers (elements). These songs control their intensity by adding or removing sound layers, and it is common for these songs to add or remove these layers slowly. A progressive house song can grow over time by adding more layers than removing them, slowly building towards a crescendo (climax) (source: Progressive house, Essential Guide To EDM Song Structure, What does the ‘progressive’ mean in progressive house?).

Progressive house songs can have a consistent energy throughout the song’s duration (source: Back In Time: A History Of Progressive House). As far as I know, also these songs grow over time towards a crescendo.

Progressive house music is funky and driving (rolling) (source: What is Progressive House?, What does the ‘progressive’ mean in progressive house?).

Progressive house songs have chord progressions, which can be hearable as a pad/pluck sound (source: What is progressive house EDM?, Which basic principles should I follow while making a Progressive House song?).

The progressive house sound includes a deep bass and a synthesizer lead that carries the song. Progressive house songs can have multiple filtered evolving pad layers, white noise risers, and riffs that the song adds and removes as the song builds up to a climax. The use of white noise, risers, and filters is important since a song can use them for transitions and breakdowns, which can divide an arrangement into sections.

One of the main characteristics of the progressive house music sound is using longer formats (source: Evolution of Progressive House).

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Progressive house songs usually have a duration between 8 and 10 minutes, which is relatively long (source: How To Make House Music: The Complete Guide). Some progressive house songs have sections that last more than six minutes (source: How to make progressive house music: The Complete Guide, EDM Song Structure: Turn Your Loop Into A Song!).

An example of a progressive house song that is shorter than 8 minutes is Deadmau5 – Strobe (Club Edit). The song is 6:21 minutes long. However, there is also a “Radio Edit” version of this song, which is 3:34 minutes long (source: Strobe (instrumental), Strobe Club Edit).

Another example of a progressive house song shorter than 8 minutes is “Aviate” by Yotto (source: Aviate Original Mix).

Below in this post, you can listen to Deadmau5 – Strobe (Club Edit) and Yotto – Aviate.

As far as I know, it is common that there is a shorter and a longer version of the same progressive house song, as is the case with the song “Strobe.” I think (I don’t know for sure) that one of these versions is usually at least 6 minutes long with a maximum length of 7 minutes.

I think that an important part of the progressive house sound is adding and removing sound layers in a relatively long song. The longer the song is, the more possibilities there are with such sound layers.

Some (the newer ones) progressive house songs can have a build-up section lasting up to four minutes (source: Progressive house, Know your EDM: Progressive House).

The first progressive house songs arguably showed the crossover between the house genre and the trance genre (source: Back In Time: A History Of Progressive House). As already mentioned, Sasha is a progressive house artist. When the progressive house music popularity waned, Sasha used to say he played trance with a small ‘t’ (source: What is Progressive House?).

The progressive house sound has similarities with uplifting trance and vocal trance. However, like trance songs, progressive house songs usually lack anthemic choruses, crescendos, and drum rolls (source: Progressive house).

In the video “Ferry Corsten: How to make a trance melody live Q&A,” Ferry Corsten explains that a melody can become a trance melody by choosing the right sound for playing the melody, such as making it lush with delay and reverb. He also explains that people base trance songs around a melody and that it is the hook of a trance song where the emotion is.

The Length of Phrases in House and Progressive House Songs

The most common length of phrases for house songs is 8 bars. However, the same song can also have one or multiple phrases of 4 bars or 16 bars but are less common (source: House music, How To Make House Music: The Complete Guide, House vs Techno vs Trance Music – What are the Differences?).

The most common length of phrases for progressive house songs is 8 bars. However, the same song can have one or multiple phrases of 4 bars or 16 bars, but these are less common (source: Progressive house, Essential Guide To EDM Song Structure, How To Make House Music: The Complete Guide).

The Structure of House and Progressive House Songs

EDMProd analyzed the songs in the Beatport top 100. According to the analysis, in October 2015, EDMProd shared the most found song structures.

EDMProd described each of these song structures with a sequence of letters. Each of these letters is a section type of a song structure. The section types of these letters are:

  • A: verse, breakdown, build-up, or alternative section
  • B: chorus or drop
  • C: bridge, main breakdown, or musically different section

According to the analysis, the most common house song structure is ABAB, which EDMProd only found once more than the house structure ABCB (source: What I Learned from Analyzing the Top 100 Tracks on Beatport).

I believe that the mentioned progressive house analysis by EDMProd is correct. However, I think Beatport wrongly sold songs as progressive house songs that EDMProd analyzed. Because the average progressive house song length in the analysis is 4:55 minutes, and the analysis shows that 16% of the analyzed progressive house songs start with a drop.

As mentioned, progressive house songs are usually between 6 and 7 minutes long.

This website has a blog post about the progressive house genre. That post explains that wrongly categorized progressive house songs are around 5 minutes long and can be already full-on from the first hearable kick. Full-on from the first hearable kick could be that song starts with a drop.

However, for the people still interested in the most common “progressive house song” structure, according to the analysis, that structure is ABAB (source: What I Learned from Analyzing the Top 100 Tracks on Beatport).

I believe (from experience) that the meaning of the mentioned section-type letters for the song structures can be simpler. The simpler meaning of the section type letters could be:

  • A: breakdown
  • B: drop
  • C: main breakdown (the longest breakdown)

To give the structures more detail, I think the breakdowns in these song structures usually end with a build-up. I also believe that the mentioned song structures by EDMProd are the most common ones, not only of the analyzed songs.

Some progressive house songs emphasize the song structure: break, build-up, and drop. Songs of the trance genre also use this structure, by which the relatively long break and build-up can intensify the drop’s impact (source: Back In Time: A History Of Progressive House).

I think (I don’t know for sure) by looking at the use of the mentioned ‘build-up’ part in the song structure, this part is probably more commonly known as ‘build.’

The page “Essential Guide To EDM Song Structure” on hyperbits.com mentions that progressive house songs can have a structure with two drops. An image on that page shows some possible extra useful information. It shows that there can be a drop without a break or a break with a build before it.

Some (the newer ones) progressive house songs can have a build-up, followed by a breakdown, followed by a climax. An example of such a progressive house song is “Strobe” by Deadmau5 (source: Progressive house, Know your EDM: Progressive House).

I think that there is almost always a build section between the breakdown and the climax, but it can sometimes be relatively hard to notice. For example, the song “Strobe” has from 2:44 minutes to 2:52 minutes, in my opinion, a build section.

As far as I know (which I also don’t know for sure), the most common progressive house song structure is the same as a common structure of trance songs. This structure does contain the two already mentioned parts, the ‘break, build, and drop’ part and the two drops mentioned on the hyperbits.com page. Further, this structure also has the ‘build-up, break, build, and drop’ part.

That trance song structure has the following parts in this order: intro, buildup, breakdown (break), build, climax (drop), and outro. The structure could vary a bit by adding one or more bridges.

Currently, this website does not have a post about the trance genre. However, this website has blog posts about a genre vs. the trance genre. An example is a post about the techno genre vs. the trance genre.

Two progressive house song examples with the mentioned structure are Deadmau5 – Strobe (Club Edit) and Jerome Isma-Ae & Weekend Heroes – Left To Hide (Extended Mix) (source: Strobe Club Edit, Left To Hide Extended Mix). You can listen to both songs below in this post.

As also explained by EDMProd, there can be two versions of a house song, the ‘original mix’ and the ‘radio-friendly’ one. The radio-friendly one can be the same structure as the already mentioned structure of the Beatport top 100 in October 2015. The original mix version can be the same as the radio-friendly one, but with an added intro before and an added outro after the radio-friendly structure (source: How To Make House Music: The Complete Guide).

As far as I know:

  • People sometimes name the original mix version as the ‘extended mix’ version.
  • The difference between the extended mix version and the not extended mix version can be more different than the extra intro and outro.

An example with a house song is “Morenita” by HUGEL (ft. Cumbiafrica), which does have an extended mix and a not extended mix, and you can listen to both versions below in this post. This song is part of the house genre (source: Morenita feat. Cumbiafrica Extended Mix).

An example of a progressive house song is “Left To Hide” by Jerome Isma-Ae & Weekend Heroes, which has an extended and not extended mix, and you can listen to both versions below in this post (source: Left To Hide Extended Mix).

The Song Lengths of House and Progressive House

As already mentioned, the song length can depend on the version of that song, such as that the ‘original mix’ or ‘extended mix’ is (probably always) longer than the ‘radio edit’ one.

EDMProd analyzed the Beatport top 100 in October 2015 and found the average song length of multiple genres (source: What I Learned from Analyzing the Top 100 Tracks on Beatport).

The average house song length is 5:09 minutes, according to the analysis by EDMProd. Someone on Quora mentioned that House songs usually are 4 or 5 minutes long (source: What is the difference between techno and house music?). Combining the two sources with my experience, I think the average House song length is 5 minutes.

In a way, the length of progressive house songs is part of their sound. Therefore, their length is already explained above in this post. I think most progressive house songs are between 6 and 7 minutes long.

House and Progressive House Song Examples

This section has some house and progressive house song examples.

The extended mix of the house song “HUGEL (ft. Cumbiafrica) – Morenita.”

Here is the official video version of the house song “HUGEL (ft. Cumbiafrica) – Morenita.” This version has a few moments with a few seconds of video sounds.

The club edit of the progressive house song “Deadmau5 – Strobe.”

The extended mix of the progressive house song “Jerome Isma-Ae & Weekend Heroes – Left To Hide.”

The not-extended mix of the progressive house song “Jerome Isma-Ae & Weekend Heroes – Left To Hide.”

The progressive house song “Yotto – Aviate.”

Closing Words

Hopefully, you have learned something from the explained similarities and differences between the two EDM genres, house and progressive house.

If you like this post, look at some other posts on this website since you might also like them.

You can share this post when you know someone who would like to learn more about the similarities and differences between the two EDM genres, house and progressive house.

By Markus Kreukniet

Markus Kreukniet is an electronic dance music (EDM) producer and founder of Passion for EDM. He wants to share his EDM knowledge with the rest of the world. Read more about Markus Kreukniet.

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