Serving the Sound: Essential Ballroom and Voguing Tracks

Ballroom was never just a party. Born from Black and Latin LGBTQ+ communities, Ballroom culture is a world of houses, chosen family, runway, performance, humor, and command. The music has always carried that charge. Disco, garage, Chicago house, New York house, chants, crashes, the snap of “The Ha Dance,” and newer ballroom mutations that's keep ripping through clubs, TV, fashion, and the internet for decades. 

It is club music, but it is also survival music. Music that owns and celebrates the house scene's queer roots. Music made for people who know exactly what they are doing when they step onto the floor (or the runway). 

That spirit is at the center of Making Music with Pride: The 909 Ball – a gathering on June 23 presented by Plugin Boutique, Roland, Banjee Ball Foundation, and Beatport. The night brings together a community mixer, a panel with Shaun Ross, Larry Tee, DJ Monte Cristo, and more, a Roland TR-909 demonstration, and a live ballroom demonstration and community ball with Vogue and Runway categories. Event details below:

Ahead of the event, US dance music duo and Banjee Ball founders Purple Crush have put together a Beatport chart that opens the door to ballroom and voguing through the records, rhythms, voices, and club sounds that shaped it.

This chart represents a starting point for those interested in Ballroom and Voguing. It is not meant to be ranked list, but a collection of tracks that make up the sound of Ballroom, including many genres that span decades. Ballroom music traces its roots from the innovations of Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles, to the deep house contributions of Masters at Work through to the artistry of Kevin Aviance, Kevin JZ Prodigy, Vjuan Allure, and the modern contributions from DJs like MikeQ, Byrell the Great, and DJ Delish.

Explore the tracks that walk in, fan out, take the room, and make the floor answer back below.