What is techno, exactly?

[SlavikSvensk]

Is it a specific style (or set of styles) with established sounds and themes? a style of music where, when you pick up a new record, you already know what to expect from it?

Or is it a broad orientation towards electronic music, a way of thinking about sound, rhythm, etc.? a style of music that's fundamentally open and experimental, so when you pick up a new record, you might be surprised by what's on it?

Or something else entirely?

...and whatever you think it is, what do you think it should be?

[xes]

What is techno?

Dirty, hard, electronic music

What should it be?

F*CKING LOUD!!

[DarkYoung]

i think we need derrick may - only he can define techno in his own crazy way.

[tonyc2002]

I'll tell ya what techno is!


Over Analysed

:lol:

[The_Laughing_Man]

yeah we`ve had this question many times.
It`s sooo subjective.

For me it is electronically made music that utilisises and embraces technology, is somewhat futuristic in ideal, is rhythmically based, and steers way from the current norm or zeitgeist of electronic music.

[The Overfiend]

Aural Expressions

[judas_beast]

what isn't Techno, exactly?

[The_Laughing_Man]

classical music
indy pop
shoreditch retro rock
gangster rap
the list goes on......

[judas_beast]

classical music
indy pop
shoreditch retro rock
gangster rap
the list goes on......

stick a 4/4 909'esq kick behind a Chopin loop etc......

[Patrick DSP]

IMO, Techno is music made wrong. ie, tossing out owners manuals and preconceptions of how to make music and just having fun.

no egos,
no who's on top,
no who's buying what,
no who's charting who that's really warped a lot of people's ideologies.

Just experimentation with sounds, it's limitations, seeing beyond that and having fun with it. Or maybe I'm just an old fart that remembers when 808 state and 2 bad mice were considered as techno along with Blackdog and AFX.

[BRADLEE]

For me, techno is a emotional release, a piece of my soul painted in sound, and a confession of imperfections in my heart and mind. Or maybe that's just how I use techno within my life. The sound itself is the sound of freedom....like the first time you heard it on a loud sound system, the way it made you feel. The night that something inside of you changed.....Your way of thinking, your way of listening, and your way of not passing judgement on what conventional radios told you to listen to.

[The_Laughing_Man]

stick a 4/4 909'esq kick behind a Chopin loop etc......

then it isn`t classical music anymore though is it.
A, because you have looped a piece of chopin, and classical music rarely loops, unless it is modern minimal compositions such as Glass, and B, Because you have stuck a 909 behind it, which for most classical music that moves through time sgnatures, would be impossible.

and with a 909 behind it I wouldn`t say it is techno either.
All 909s should all be destroyed.

[judas_beast]

My point, if there was one, is that Techno (to me at least) embraces a bit of everything.

I'll shut up now though.

[force]

and with a 909 behind it I wouldn`t say it is techno either.
All 909s should all be destroyed.

*note to self*

Never let Steve ANYWHERE near my 909's....!!!!!

[DarkYoung]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvjpXDSVc5A

[Smear]

Anything metronomic that is less, in terms of structure and flow, than house.

[curly]

Due to it's constantly evolving nature there can't be a definition. If you give Techno a definition it becomes confined and then it would no longer be techno.

[Technologic]

Techno is the future. Always was, always will be.

I reckon anyway.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Techno is the future. Always was, always will be.

I reckon anyway.

It`s refreshing to see that being said.
It would be nice if the music being made today reflected this.
Sadly there is too much emulation and not enough innovation.

I think the majority of stuff people would buy as Techno these days, is what techno was and has been for quite some time.
The new music that still does embrace the future, holding the techno ethic, is called something else now, as in terms of genre boxes, there are defined and accepted parameters for what techno is, if that makes sense.
So the music that has kept up and embraced new ideas is something else, even though personally I consider it techno.

Did that make sense?

[SlavikSvensk]

yeah we`ve had this question many times.
It`s sooo subjective.

never a bad one to bring up for discussion, though.

...and the subjectivity is what makes the answers interesting...