From AndrewC. Sent Fri, Apr 9th 1999, 04:22
>The obsessive geekism of >the DIY electronica community is what spawned (for better or worse) such >acts as Prodigy and Fatboy Slim. The scene evolved for years before such >commercial appeal developed. Bzzz. Sorry. Acid and techno records were going straight into the UK charts from the begining. The Prodigy had number one hits with their third (? something like that anyway) single. I think a lot of the problems you guys have with reynolds' view point comes down to the trans atlantic divide. In America electronic music has always been underground and obscure, and a lot of you guys like it that way. I'm not saying thats a bad thing, I like searching out the latest one sided 10" as much as anyone, but in England electronic music was/is huge. I mean HUGE! Like I said in my previous post tens of thousands of people where at the big orbital raves around London every weekend. Hard acid house was in at number one in charts (yes folks, thats instrumental music in the charts) When I was at college everyone I knew was into electronic music. I'm not sure what my point is here now, but it just seems to me that a big part of Reynolds' viewpoint is to do with the popular status that seriously avant garde and just plain fucked up music reached in England during the first flush of dance music. Whatever. I think this is a big part of the complete lack of common ground between IDM and reynolds. Cheerio andrewC.