The "techno" issue

[sine143]

Don't underestimate people... around here, people tend to use "techno" as the generic term for edm, not actual techno (as in minimal 808 derived groovy rhythms with 303s and other random groovy minimal shit), but they still know what dubstep or electro house are and can identify them.

yah, I know that's what they use the term for.... but my original question was, why? how did that start? who decided, we are just going to ignore the fact that this subgenre laid claim to the name, and pretty much start calling everything techno, even though... europop is like the antithesis of minimal.

[DvlsAdvct]

It's not different than my metal head friends getting pissed when I was some doom metal, or black metal, or death metal or thrash metal or whatever is just another metal band. And boy do they get pissed. I thought the goths were bad (and they are).

But that's the thing. Why is someone who spends their time listening to jazz really follow up on ALL the different subgenres of techno (and, to be fair, aren't they almost all subgenres of techno, or linked to techno in some way?)

Don't get mad, educate

[wrong chris]

i can see where people come from when they dont' get electronic dance music. it's a totally different beast than conventional radio-friendly music genres.

Conventional pop/rock music focuses on communicating storytelling to illustrate human experience and emotions, where as dance music focuses on communicating primal impulses like dancing and sexuality with intense rhythm as the focal point and usually little to no lyrics for storytelling.

So when people say "techno music" isn't "normal music" I wouldn't take offense to it, it really isn't normal music - it's quite different and serves an entirely different purpose because of what it's trying to communicate.

as far as the genre discrepancies are concerned, it's different all over the world and EDM has been called Techno music for as long as I can remember. It's been called a lot of things, from techno to electronica,dance,club,edm,rave etc. etc. - whatever you call it we always know what the person means so it's not a big deal. I personally prefer to call it all dance music, even if I'm not literally dancing everytime I listen to it!

[n2hf1st]

I used to get royally pissed about things like this, now, I just sorta deal with it. I use proper names for genres, but if I get a blank look I just say techno so they understand what I'm trying to get across.

Same thing goes with people calling a chopin nocturne "classical" music... people just aren't informed enough to know the difference between renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, etc. etc.

I've blown up a few times before and given a edm genres history lecture to people before, but you can't do that to the whole world.

[wrong chris]

I've blown up a few times before and given a edm genres history lecture to people before, but you can't do that to the whole world.

well you always can lecture the whole world, but unless people already have working knowledge of it or are asking you to break it down for them... it's kind of a waste of breath and usually just makes you look like a geek, a dick or a combination of the two. haha

it's good for djs and aficionados to know the genres because it helps in having organized collections, shopping, and talking shop with other djs... but outside of that world, being a stick in the mud about classifying every single sound with a label isn't very important or interesting to people who don't care enough to find out for themselves.

[RufusWhite]

Yeah, I experienced this a few years ago when I was playing in LA. Obviously in Ibiza, I've got used to the fact that for the most part, people who visit the island (or at least visit my bar) are there because they're into some form of EDM (I hate that term, I've never actually heard anyone call it that outside the states IRL), and therefore 80-90% of people I meet will be able to tell you the difference between a house track and a trance track.

When I was playing a few bars in LA, I'd get comments like what people have mentioned above, or "I quite like your music but I'm not really into Techno". I had to just learn to grit my teeth and deal with it. All you can do is hope that people enjoyed themselves and took something positive away from it, and that maybe one or two of them will go away and be inspired to listen to some more "Techno" with a slightly more open mind.

Fus

[sine143]

we need to get together and create a term for this wonderful corner of art. obviously, most of us dont like techno (amirite?) and it seems alot of people have a problem with EDM as well ( I mean, I sure as hell dont just listen to it for the dance vibe).

I'm feeling like, ultimate badass music? haha.

[Krilikz]

I feel the same way. Though I assume this goes for all of us, When we first got into electronic music it was very hard to classify (even now i still have problems!). Though i believe our peers are just use to the standard basshunter, sandstorm, radio remix stuff.

[rvltion909]

no no NO! You're all WRONG! If Im playing Ethereal-Illbient-Sound Collage then the people better DAMN well call it Ethereal-Illbient-Sound Collage!


Yea...I'll admit it...I used the infamous http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/ to make that genre up.