That's probably because there isn't some overgrown gorilla in a leotard going 'ra-ra-ra-ra' or a human safety pin cushion screaming 'anarch-ee-ee' at you (while getting paid a wedge and going on 'I'm A Celebrity...' later on in life).

Take your favorite song – be it rock, punk, or blues. Now strip away the vocals. It, most likely, will have a steady 4/4 beat, a riff (be it piano, guitar, or what have you), and most likely a steady bass line, too.

House music isn't that much different, except, perhaps, the fact that it's mostly based upon the manipulation of electronic equipment – drum machines, keyboards, samplers, and as they got more advanced and cheaper, computers too.

But what is making music if it is not the manipulation of instruments? A guitar makes a sound when it is strummed, and a keyboard makes a sound when the keys are hit. A computer, which makes a sound when you press a key or a button, is just a valid instrument as a drum or a guitar. The key is in the method; it's not what you have, but how you use it.

In any case, there is a whole back catalogue of electronic dance musicians using 'proper' instruments in their music. Leading examples which spring to mind include quite a few tracks on the Chemical Brothers' 'Dig Your Own Hole' album, 'Finished Symphony' by Hybrid which incorporated a full orchestra as well as Ferry Corstien's remix of William Orbit's interpriation of 'Adagio for Strings'

'Saltwater' by Chicane features the vocals of Marie Brennan of Clannad and Tammy Wynette was in on it when she collaborated with The KLF on 'Mu Mu Land'.

It's not a very well known fact that electronic music as we know it today came not from West Germany (as was), nor the United States, not even from that bastion of strange electronic gadgets, Japan, but from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Many electronic music connoisseurs (I do guarantee that they are out there – sort of like post-modern Jazz fans, if you like) regard the first proper electronic track to be made by a young woman called Delia Derbyshire who, with an arrangement by Ron Grainer, created perhaps the most instantly recognisable television theme tune; Doctor Who.

It was the first time that the burgeoning, not to mention quite avant-garde scene of musicians with anything they could find which made a sound and cassette racks (usually ten or twenty recorders in a single rack – ask anyone who's worked in broadcasting) came to the fore and finally into the public consciousness. Naturally, like all musical forms which had a minority interest, it found a home on the BBC's Light Programme (now Radio 3).

However, house music as we know it today evolved from this electrical manipulation (albeit with much more advanced technology) and everyone's favorite excuse to wear white suits, golden hot pants, platforms and Afro wigs; disco.

I'm sure a lot of Dave's Part readers are well acquainted with disco, some even curling into a pit of shame and embarrassment as they remember when they used to strut like Travolta. So I'll save you further shame-tripping by skipping that part of the story.

What you might like to know is how we manage to get John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever into the same sphere as Delia. For this, we have to whisk ourselves away to Chicago, Illinois, and back into the 1980s.

While DP readers spent the better part of the eighties down picket lines and on demonstrations against the bomb or in support of abortion rights, there was a burgeoning musical revolution going down in a small nightclub called the Warehouse, and the DJ'ing of a rather strange man called Frankie Knuckles.

Knuckles started off as a DJ playing soul, disco and R&B. When the Warehouse opened in 1977, he was asked to play a regular slot there. Inspired, one assumes, by the emerging electronic music coming out of Europe (which also served to inspire Afrika Bambaata and give birth to modern hip-hop), he started to mix together soul and disco tracks with the likes of Kraftwerk, and modern house as we know it today was born, taking it's name from the club where Knuckles pioneered the sound.

Mixing different forms of music together isn't unique to house. It was to serve the basis of many different sub-genres of electronic dance music. The big beat sound, pioneered by the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, merged 303 broken beats, acid house, early electronica (again), hip-hop samples 'Micheal Jackson' and 'You're Not From Brighton' by Fatboy Slim are good examples of the big beat sound.

Drum & Bass incorporates many elements of Jazz as well as harking back to its roots in the acid house scene. 'Logical Progressions' by LTJ Bukem and 'Horny Mutant Jazz' by T-Power show the influences quite clearly.

It really, really irritates me when people say that electronic dance music is souless, cold music. Some of it is, but some of it, to me anyway, can inspire a whole plethora of emotions.

When I listen to the opening strains of 'Drop The Pressure' by Mylo, I feel euphoria and joy, just as much from the string arrangement to the harsh electronic beeps. 'Midnight In A Perfect World' by DJ Shadow reminds me of a cold, winter's evening, outside, walking down the banks of the Thames – which, despite having lived in London for over two years now, I've never done.

I feel a sense of loss and pain when I listen to 'Silence' by Delerium, with the harking vocals of Sarah McLoughlin having more of an impact, with lyrics like 'Passion choke the flower /Until she cries no more /Possessing all the beauty /Hungry still for more /Heaven holds a sense of wonder /And I wanted to /Believe that I'd get caught up /When the rage in me subsides'.

I think that it might be worth DP readers who are still skeptical to download the songs I've mentioned from iTunes Shop or wherever, and listen to online stations like Groove Radio, sky.fm and many others.

Of course, there is a lot more to house and dance music, much more that I can't mention here. I did write a much longer article outlining the history of dance music, and the rise of many sub-genres in their political settings, as well as the political nature of dance music in an essay called 'Revolution 303: The Radical Roots of House Music' but I seemed to have misplaced it. I'll track it down and upload it.