Re[2]: Techno, ahem, Electronic music

Guru George (gurugeorge@sugarland.idiscover.co.uk)
Sat, 4 Jan 1997 17:06:33 GMT

MaxM wrote:
>> From: Guru George
>
>> Speaking as a techno musician, of both house and drum&bass genres, I
>> have to say that you are quite right about techno not being experimental
>> in a sense. Modern techno music is a quite narrowly constrained genre.
>> All the sounds, fx, etc., are designed with people in mind who are out of
>> their trees on drugs. There is a selection pressure that comes from the
>> dance floor, via the DJ, to the music-makers, that drives us to copy what
>> other people are doing that works on the dance floor
>
>The techno scene died because of the popularity of the DJ's in the mid
>eighties. Ever since then it has been mostly dance thats been focused on.
>DJ's world view is so narrow minded. Techno could be so much more, and of
>course it will be again, but the last ten years has mostly been a musical
>dead zone. (with some exeptions.)
>
>> The whole thing is a beautiful example of 1) the free market at work,
>> and 2) the aesthetic notion that great art comes from tightly
>circumscribed
>> art forms, not rule-less free-form 'self-expression'.
>
>I find that it's a perfect example of what happens when technology makes it
>too easy for thousand of people with no imagination or nothing to say to
>make something that "sounds right" or seems like art.
>
Max, Max, you sound like a luddite, or the contemporary equivalent of one
of those guitar bores who used to object to synthesized music! Have you
been out clubbing lately with your mates? Have you taken any E or acid
at a club lately? You can have no idea what's going on with techno
nowadays unless you do. Millions of kids all over the world are doing
just that (I can assure you the guardians of our nations' youth haven't
a clue how far things have gone!), and the selection pressures I spoke of
above are driving the music to psychotropic heights undreamed of back in
the sixties. DJ's are a very important part of this process, and their
job is not easy. The competition in techno music is FEROCIOUS.

Mind you, I gather from some American friends of mine that the club
scene in the States is only just now starting to catch on in the way it
has been going here in the UK and the rest of Europe since the late 80s,
and even then, only among much younger kids of very specific tribal
affiliations (here in the UK the scene is all ages and cultures).

As Vonnegut said, 90% of everything is crap, and there is indeed a lot
of crap techno around, but it certainly isn't the artistic desert you
seem to think it is.

(Oh and puh-leeze don't give me any of that "But what sort of music is
it if you need to take drugs to get into it?" shit. I love good guitar
music, I love classic techno of the sort you like, I like music that goes
without drugs too - jazz, 'classical'. Modern techno is music designed
for people on drugs in a specific environment, and you won't understand
it, or be able to appreciate it at home on your hifi or on the radio
unless you have gotten into it in those circumstances. That's the reality,
take it or leave it.)