TROPICAL HOUSE GENRE

Why is it called tropical house?

 It was (initially) intended as a joke by its inventor, 20-year-old Australian producer Thomas Jack. Known also as 'trop house' (but not to be confused with house and dance hybrid, trouse. Obviously) tropical house is a sub-genre of house music. But where deep house and EDM use synthesisers and compressed mixes to create 'big room' sounds, tropical house employs horns, marimbas and steel drums and takes the tempo down a few beats per minute. 

Who are the leading proponents of tropical house?

 A slew of young producers are responsible for its lunge into the mainstream, many of which are based in Northern Europe and the Nordic countries. While Jack is credited as the founder of the movement and is supported by a roster that includes Klingande, LCAW, Autograf and Bakermat, the undisputed pioneer is Norway's Kygo (a hybrid of his given name, Kyree Gørvell-Dahll). A classically trained musician, who at only 23 has generated over 150 million plays on Soundcloud alone, Kygo has signed a deal with Ultra Records and Sony International that's rumoured to be gargantuan. He also spent summer 2014 playing four sold-out shows at four different venues over three days in New York City and was selected to replace Avicii for his headline slot at TomorrowWorld. Jack says, "at America festivals you've got Skrillex headlining and then you've got Kygo next to him…it's insane to see how it's all starting to merge into the wider scene". 

What was tropical house's breakthrough moment? 

The most recent surge in tropical house's popularity is largely thanks to one of its younger producers, 20-year-old Felix Jaehn. His saxophone-infused remix of OMI's "Cheerleader" brought tropical house into the iTunes and Spotify top ten in 18 and 14 countries respectively, reaching the top spot in Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.