(idm) techno

From Philip Sherburne
Sent Wed, May 12th 1999, 16:16

Oh, and Chester, I think the reason that people were a little offended at
your across-the-boards dismissal of what you call "techno" (crap commercial
music like Keoki and Moby, as I believe you put it) is simply that you got
it wrong.  Techno, in the strict sense, is a subgenre of electronic dance
music which is defined by certain formal characteristics (4/4 beat,
generally faster-than-house tempo, extreme repetition), and, often,
geographical roots (Detroit, Chicago, etc.).  Whatever your feelings for it,
it's a vital musical form with plenty of offshoots, and it keeps morphing
and creating new variations of itself.  If you're going to consider techno,
you really have to look at it for what it actually IS -- and not simply use
the term as an umbrella for all "crap commercial electronic music."  That's
just, well, ignorant.