From Lester Kenyatta Spence Sent Wed, Mar 22nd 2000, 18:32
From Lester Kenyatta Spence Sent Wed, Mar 22nd 2000, 18:32
On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Joseph Ross Lynn IV wrote: > I gotta take a chance to defend Richie Hawtin here. > First, maybe he was not as much of an originator or "innovator" as some other > maybe less mentioned detroiters, but he brought the sound to a new audience. > He was, for many, a doorway into the world of eletronic dance music. How many > ppl do you know that have a plastikman cd and not much else? How many of you > were the same way? I was. And I couldn't ask for a better > introduction/indoctrination/whatever, and along every step of the way, richie > hawtin has been there, unlike some other "innovators" And its not like he's > appealing to the commercial masses. I won't even go there. A caveat. I haven't listened to Hawtin....know who he is, but wouldn't know his music at all if I heard it. I can understand why you would want to defend him. From what I've heard of him, he isn't bad. However, it's important that you don't go too far with this. You argue above that Hawtin "has been there every step of the way." Given that Detroit techno starts with Cosmic Cars back in '82....and Hawtin doesn't appear on the scene until the early nineties....I don't know how this can be the case. The other argument above is "he brought techno to a new audience." I'm not sure I buy this....for reasons I state below....but let's say that it is true. That Hawtin got people to listen to the music that wouldn't have listened to it otherwise. So what? This makes him an excellent publicist perhaps....but not necessarily a good artist. Or rather, not necessarily good enough to take the space of a pioneer. > So, regardless of the effects on the scene today (which are VERY debateable) > richie brough techno to a new and very widespread (ummm, WHITE, maybe?) > audience in a very big way. If it wasn't for Richie Hawtin, I might have never > heard Red Planet, Minimal Nation, or Strings of Life. So are you saying that Hawtin has no effect on today's music scene? Now to the new, widespread, and white audience. The reason I'm not sure that I buy this is because techno had already made the leap to Europe before Hawtin blew up....and when it made its way back in the form of rave music, it seems to me that Hawtin got caught up IN that scene....but wasn't necessarily RESPONSIBLE for it. He may have been the surfer at the crest of the wave, but he didn't bring the wave IN did he? And of course there is the sticky question....why is it important that a new, widespread, white, audience gets introduced to the music in the first place? > Yeah, theres plenty of others who deserve credit, but richie is such a good > primer to deep minimal detroit(ish?) techno, and his music has the staying > power of few other producers period. He deserves all the credit he has > recieved. He definitely deserves credit for something. He isn't booty from what I hear....but the nature of that credit is up for question. peace lks