It’s nine pm on a Friday night in Tallahassee, and the streets are already lined with flocks of people going out in the city. The air is filled with an electric pulse, and the steady thrum of house music can be heard from every location on campus. People stand on their balconies to take pictures; music spills out of apartment doors, coalescing with the cars driving down Tennessee Street blasting Cloonee.
While this may paint the picture of a typical weekend in Tallahassee, house music has become a staple in the capital’s community far beyond simply the going-out scene. House music has transformed from a novelty of sorts to a popular genre of its own right. Within the freshman dorms at any given time, you can almost guarantee that there will be someone blasting house music while cooking dinner with their friends. It has become a Tallahassee rite of passage for new students to start listening to house music their freshman year, and rightfully so. The effortless, yet vivacious vibe that house music brings to the table is unmatched and it helps curate an energy that is uniquely college.
While house music may have been picking up traction nationwide, Tallahassee has been at the forefront, infusing energetic beats into the culture of this city. Many of the biggest names in House and EDM have made pit stops at Florida State, including but not limited to the DJs/producers Chris Lake, Cloonee, Omar+, and Max Dean. Even Snow Strippers, a more niche band that lives on the edge between electropop and EDM recently stopped by Tallahassee while making their way across Florida on their 2026 tour.