Marshall Jefferson's 'Move Your Body' added piano to house music despite resistance, naming the genre in the process

Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 ‘Move Your Body’ was the first house track to prominently feature a piano, which the Chicago scene initially rejected — ‘everybody said it wasn’t house music when I first did it that piano what the hell is that doing there.’ Jefferson named it ‘the house music Anthem’ deliberately, and its international success prompted journalists worldwide to ask ‘what’s house music?’ bringing the term to global attention. Jefferson equated it to ‘Bill Haley and the Comets’ Rock Around the Clock’ — a song that named a genre rather than simply belonging to it. The gospel/soul-derived piano became one of house’s signature elements, especially in the garage house and piano house branches.

Examples

Jefferson pushed house toward live-performance values, later hiring live musicians and ‘16 people to do hand claps.‘

Assessment

Explain Marshall Jefferson’s role in establishing the piano as a house music element and in naming the genre, and discuss why resistance to the piano reveals something about early house music’s self-definition.