This has been on my mind for a long time, I mean since I came into house music. I've always heard about this thing called underground… House is underground. Garage is underground. The underground charts, the underground DJ's… What are we hiding here ? When you say underground to me, it's like a chamber beneath the ground to protect you from an atomic explosion, a root cellar where your grandmother keeps her pickle vegetables and mason jars full of fruits she canned during the summer so that you can have some almost fresh in the winter.
I think about little animals that have their little houses under the ground and sleep away the winter. And we wait for that little groundhog to come out in the summer to tell us if there is going to be more extended winter days or if spring is going to just jump out on our asses in the next few hours.
What are we hiding here in the underground? Are we trying to make this music such a specialty that only a few tuned in beings on the planet can enjoy it (the underground crowd) ? Is this some form of musical class hierchy ? Could it be that we only want the music to be enjoyed by the people in the underground ??? If you really look at it. Most things that you eat started as a seed under the ground but they grew to embrace the light of the sun and this is how the planet is fed. Sure we have potatoes and carrots and beets, but these vegetables can be bought plentiful and cheap. 10lb bag of potatoes : $1.99. Now how much is a bag of oranges that were grown in the sunlight ? 4 oranges : $3.50 !!! We need to start looking at above ground.

All other genres of music that have started as underground genres have risen to be exposed to the sunlight. And now look at the cost of those fruits !!! Techno house began after garage house, but look at it now one of the biggest trees in the forest. Trance house began underground and look at it now a raging machine that can't be stopped. Now let's take a look at garage house whos' growth was stunted by it being kept in the ground. Garage house the original child of disco is in the poor house. The child of an extremely wealthy parent is broke and struggling while the step children are eating from the fat parts of the hog. Is it a racial thing ? Garage artists are rarely heard of but when you make dance music pop, now you have a new concept of garage that becomes a major cash cow. Most of the mixes done by the same DJ's and producers that got their names producing garage house music. Most of them got into DJing because of some inspiration from hearing a garage record. Most of the independent labels today that produce garage house are still just releasing 12" records to appease their underground constituency. And thinking that selling 5000 records is a major accomplishment.

There are over 50 million people in just 1/4 of the planet what is the accomplishment. What are you hiding from, wealth ? I know the garage artists are not the ones that are being overrun with an abundance of financial security here. Hip hop was underground, now you can't touch it because it has been exposed to the sun. R&b has always been exposed to the sun as well as country music and pop music. What are you afraid of a fight? The record companies tell you well we won't give a big budget for garage music albums, even record label executives that got their start in garage music won't support garage music when they finally achieve some level of success off the back of garage music. Come out of the dark and let's fight for what we love. It's like you think you got an ugly girlfriend that you sneek to her apartment after dark but you never take her anywhere.
The Winter Music Conference started off the back of garage music and now you hardly even hear a garage record in any credible position at the Conference it is taken over by trance, techno, hip hop. Why because they love their music, they love their house. Do you ? The world should know the garage house artists but we don't even mention their names. If the major labels won't release CD singles on garage house artists, then let's sell them out of the trunks of the cars like hip hop. Stop kissing label asses creating compilations that give no credit to the artists music that are on them. It is wonderful that a DJ put together a collection of different records and his name is blown up for the collection but what about the artists that are singing on that collection ??? A compilation has on the label mixed by, produced by, on the front cover to reach the people that know the DJ but where is the artists names that are on the compilation ?
Unrecognizable because they are being kept in the underground chambers of a slave driven genre that wants them to be invisible. Garage house is the other inner city music, with much more talented artists then any other genre of music on the planet, but they are black and it's just like a black man trying to catch a taxi in New York or Paris. The taxi driver looks at you in passing as if you are invisible and then claims "oh it is not discrimination". Even major producers like Jazzy Jeff and Puff Daddy are doing house music but just on the fringes so the master don't hear it. Slavery is over people, open those windows and let the light in, especially in America. It's time for the fruit to grow, it's time to expose the artists, promote the artists, create artist concerts. Major concerts, not just club appearances. Put those names out there and stop being ashamed and making excuses for not exposing your artists. How can cher that is not in the garage genre at all and really didn't give a damn have such a major hit record from a house song ?
But Barbara Tucker who has been in this genre for years can't get a major hit and the accolades of that magnitude. Hip hop kicked out asses because they love their music and show it, techno kicked are asses because the loved their genre and showed it, r&b kicks our asses because they were never afraid to fight for their music and it shows. This is business ! Where are the garage songs being nominated for Grammies ? No, we have remix category. What about the song and the artist and the writer and the performance ? Let's stop talking about the love of garage house and show it. Garage house music is the mother, a broke ass mother with rich kids. Love your mother, show your love. Fight for our rightful place on top of all the music that is out there. Stand up !!! And put your face in the sun !!

Just another house call… MICHAEL PROCTER