handbag house

A type of House music. Handbag house consists of the obligatory disco diva lyrics, simple four-on-the-floor TR-909 kick drums, hi-hats on the upbeats, Basic synth stabs in a minor key, and sometimes a snare on beats two and four. Videos often feature the singer in a leather costume dancing around while a sculpted bald black man gyrates his hips whilst also attempting to look threatening. Its name comes from the phenomenon of a group of women dancing around a pile of their handbags.

A type of electronic dance music and a subgenre of house music characterized by upbeat tempo (120 – 130 BPM), singable lyrics, and a simple 4/4 time signature that was popular during the late 80s and early 90s, especially in gay dance clubs.
Frequently performed by female vocalists (Whitney Houston, Amber, Kristine W, Deborah Cox) and punctuated with dramatic "break downs" or "dropouts" (where the music builds to a frenetic high, drops off to virtual silence, only to build again), handbag house is also known as "happy house," or "diva house," (and, more derisively, as "plastic disco"). Declined in popularity as harder, less melodic music (aka "tweaker music") became de rigueur.
Name pokes fun at deliriously happy dancers waving their handbags—imaginary or not—in the air. Alternatively, it may refer to a group of club-goers dancing around their handbags thrown on the floor.