Genres of electronic music...

[the ar]

its all fucking stupid i think. its basically another marketing ploy.

Word.
It's soooo fucking annoying.

'I'm gigging tonight, come and check my shit out at xxx club'
'Hmmm, what do you spin?'
'Actually I play my own original material streaming it as converted digital data from my pc. Come and see for yourself'
And I do catch folks curiosity (most of the time).

[mcconaghy]

I have now declared my music Trance-Techno--Ultra-Deep-Berlin-House-IDM-Drum'n'Bass-Funky-Breaks-CORE!

Gotta have the word CORE in your self-proclaimed genre these days, tells the punters just how deep you are!

[hoffman2k]

do genres help or not? , well i think it depends where you are in the world and who you are talking to.

Now lets say i go to Belgium. even in smaller towns like Hasselt, if i say i make Techno - they know what i mean. They associate the term techno with what they hear at the "Zoo" club in Hasselt. That is the Hasselt layman's source for the definition of Techno. and generally that broad range of underground music fits into what i do.

I guess the problem with genres is Americans associate a genre with what Corporate Media tells them the definitions of that genre are. Rather than associating the genre with their own personal experiences. So if they have no personal experience with non mass-marketed ready-for-consumption Techno music, then all they know is what they hear on the Matrix soundtrack or an Xbox video game.

We are getting the load of subgenres around here too. As you said, speak to somebody about techno around here and they know what you mean.
Tonight we're having an indoor festival called "I love techno".
This used to define what techno was, but the american marketing machine called clearchannel bought the whole deal.
What do we have now as headliner? the prodigy.

In the old days we wouldnt even be talking about a headliner. We just had the worlds most awesome dj's playing here.
Now they just take big names. sell tickets till they are sold out. sell a couple thousands more at the door.
And treat you like cattle.

Subgenres suck. But it's not right to label every 4 on the floor track as techno.

[AdamJay]

you wouldn't beleive how many american techno heads don't know that clear channel has been running I Love Techno.
when i tell them, they think i am fucking with them. All they know about clear channel is how they fucked Howard Stern. The american machine knows no boundaries.

[mcconaghy]

you wouldn't beleive how many american techno heads don't know that clear channel has been running I Love Techno.
when i tell them, they think i am fucking with them. All they know about clear channel is how they fucked Howard Stern. The american machine knows no boundaries.

With everything that Clearchannel has been ruining (I don't care much for Stern, but is there anywhere Clearchannel doesn't have their grubby hands in these days?), us independent artists should band together, combine out talents and efforts and create our own festivals, our own Live365 radio channels, webcasts, and all that. It's about time we stopped talking about taking back our scenes, let's actually step into action.
It's one thing to talk about the american machine, but there are still openings to use that machine for our own good. The best way to beat the system is from within.

[hoffman2k]

people who want to hear "i love techno" visit www.stubru.be and select "luister". then you select the stream. it's on right now.
it's 21,00 h in belgium now so the broadcast will last for an hour or 8 i think.

enjoy. it's better on the radio then actually being one of those 35 000 poor souls. advised capacity is 25 000

[dirtystudios]

...my favorite "electronic" (i hate that fucking term) group...

i actually like that term a lot. i tend to write a fair amount of different sounding stuff, but it's always electronic, and just calling it that prevents certain preconceptions. for example, if i told someone that i write glitch (long live glitch btw), and then wrote a house track ('cause it's hella fun...that's right, i said hella) then they might become confused and start walking into walls or something, or worse dismiss me as some house-tard.

wtf am i talking about...sheesh.

k

[Moonburnt]

then they might become confused and start walking into walls or something, or worse dismiss me as some house-tard.

wtf am i talking about...sheesh.

k

he he. not quite sure, but i learnt a new word, house-tard

[spiderprod]

i think there is only 2 kind of music : the good & the bad .

[epilacs]

no

no

no

country & western

[epilacs]

but really, a guitar is technically an electronic instrument

[noisetonepause]

but really, a guitar is technically an electronic instrument

No - the sound is not generated electronically. It's an amplified acoustic instrument.

-Paws

[chrysalis33rpm]

Interesting thread. Definitely an important topic of discussion for the people actually into making and playing the sounds/music, that would be us.

My 2 cents: I try and keep it simple in talking about genres- just enough to get me to the right record bin at the store: I hear hip hop, house, breaks, drum'n'bass, downtempo...and 'electronica'.

I tell people I spin downtempo and funky breaks, because it's a short answer, and its more true than not true.

The term 'electronica' is problematic, but it's also useful because, to those in the know, it doesn't force too much specificity on a given song structure...we all know that a hip hop beat can happily morph into a d+b beat and back, same for house and breaks.

I don't get it, people who specialize so intently on one sub-genre of house or trance, give me a break. Formulaic music is dumb whether it is made in Hollywood or by an indie label.

'Electronic' music is accurate but also unspecific...one of the bigger problem's with the public's conception of 'electronic' music is that they expect computer generated bleeps and squeaks. As we know, electronic music may sample live instruments and be very warm, lush and rounded...or not...

I think electronic music invites, encourages, and needs to be thought of as a field, a field with no boundaries, but instead different textures, areas, and patterns of intensity which all bleed into and reverberate off of one another. I think many people in this thread are reacting against the tendency to divide this field, to wall it off from other parts of itself. Because we know that this, the field of electronic music, feeds on and is stimulated by all music and all sound ever emitted, ever perceived, ever recorded.

That's what I think.

[hugolp]

Tech-prog-funk-pumped-latin-electro-disco-tribal-sexy-soulful-percusive HOUSE!!!! Its all about house music baby!!!

Hugo

[Moonburnt]

It's funny how most terms sound quite complimentary, like "deep", "progressive", "intelligent". I think it would be fun to use a bunch of really negative terms, so if anyone's feeling particularly sarcastic next time someone asks about your style, try something like this:

"So what do you play?"

"Oh I've moved on from IDM, lately I've been getting really into derivative house and formulaic cheese-core, a bit of generica here and there. I guess if i had to sum up my music in one word it would be Bland".

"Wow, sounds great, you must be really up with popular trends to know all those fancy terms"