An e-mail from Sam:
Seems to be some sort of editing war going on on Wikipedia, with one editor insisting that modern day House Music is derivative of Garage Music (without backing this up with any reliable links I might add!) and another insisting it isn't. Do you know the answer, oh '80s Guru?
LOL, Sam! Had a similar query a week or two back, but I'll address the question again - just for you! Wikipedia has many great folks involved with it but it is not, at the end of the day, a dependable source of information because anybody can edit anything and edit wars do take place! No, house music is not derivative of garage music. None of my 1980s/1990s literature on the subject mentions such a link. The two forms of '80s dance music are related as they were developing at the same time, but separately. I believe New York garage slightly pre-dated Chicago house, but house broke through into the mainstream much earlier. The Channel 4 documentary Pump Up The Volume, which contains many interviews with original house music pioneers, describes 1983 as "Year Zero" for the genre. It was hitting the mainstream pop charts here in England from 1986 onwards. Garage was something I heard more of in the 1990s. I'm not sure about modern day house, but garage should certainly not be listed in the "stylistic origins" section for house on Wikipedia. That is potty.
I'm amazed that sources like the BBC link so readily to Wikipedia. It is worrying. Wikipedia is a great idea, but needs closer monitoring. It is one of the biggest purveyors of misinformation around - and that's a great shame.
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Wikipedia is a nightmare of sock puppetry and cliques. High profile subjects are often studied and corrected by good editors, but there is always the chance to revert or alter. Banning solves nothing as miscreants simply use a different computer. It's mad. And it's here. And it's widely used. 21st Century brains seem to be somewhat different to 20th Century brains, somewhat lacking in logic, with reputable organisations linking to this nonsense and Google ranking it so highly. Does not compute. Do not trust.
I'm really glad to read this post. I've thought Wikipedia a crazy concept for a long time. I'm glad I'm not alone!
I read once that Wikipedia is "crap wrapped in a computer". It is. A friend of mine was actually bullied off there for insisting that a certain on-line music site was not a reputable source of encyclopedic information. It isn't. But nobody listened to her, and editors from that site were actually also editing Wikipedia!
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