Music 2.0: Don't Call It Techno

The human and the machine: never the twain shall meet?

In the '90s and early '00s, Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim (and this @ :42), Underworld, and The Chemical Brothers (amongst others) led the charge of electronically produced music into the worldwide music consciousness. ,Many (luddites) dubbed this emerging genre as "Techno" as it soon took over many the underground dance hall and concert venue across Europe, North America, and Great Britain (and its former colonies). A lot has changed in the 20+ years since the proverbial rise of the robots.

Guetta Monster

Electronica has since beaten the shores of the music scene with a series of varied waves, as Tiesto and Trance carved out a unique festival flair, the rave culture grew with the return of Acid House ("mass organized zombiedom"), Dubstep laid siege to the scene, the world fell in love with progressive House, and electronica permeated into Top 40 charts. Pop stars now depend on electronic producers to create dance sounds accepted and embraced by the masses, while the Top 40 charts welcome more and more EDM (electronic dance music) artists into its fold every week.

            That electronica has risen to the forefront of the music scene over the past 20 years doesn’t mean that the general public has embraced or understood it. If an EDM crown sits on the top of music’s figurehead, it does so with unease, both from its standard-bearers' unwillingness to be considered "Pop" (see Deadmau5 vs the world) and from its electors’ (general public/iTunes purchasers') disinterested attitude toward the electronic culture. Having DJ’ed hundreds of parties, radio shows, and nights at bars and clubs over the last 5 or more years, I have certainly encountered many different perspectives.

NO REQUESTS! (Get away from my tiny speakers!)

Inspirations: Barbie Girl by Aqua

            At the Top 40 establishments, as I pound remixed electronic beats over standard pop songs, invariably someone will come up and ask, “Um, I can’t really dance to Techno, do you have anything with more bass?” (Seriously, you can’t hear the bass pounding right now!?) Or: “Do you have anything less ‘techo-y’?” The comments reveal a growing divide in popular dance music: the sharpening fault line between EDM and hip-hop, a treacherous divide not easily bridged –despite both genres’ ubiquity in pop culture. Please don’t make me discuss trap music, or for that matter Lil’ Jon.

            Of course, when I play remixed Top 40, progressive house favorites, subtle bass music (not too "Dub-steppy"), or the arsenal of sounds fused by omnivorous, sub-genre defying EDM (e.g. Spectrum), I am not playing “Techno”. Techno was a type of electronic music, perhaps called so in the same way Columbus called the people of modern day America "Indians". It existed in the public realm but as such fell on the sword when some of its contributors made pleas to became popular (I swear I am not a hipster), see Basshunter, as understood culturally by "Jock Jams" and "A Night of the Roxbury". To link modern electronic music with the genre traditionally or popularly referred to as “Techno” is nothing short of hearing the sound of nails on the chalkboard played loudly over the speakers in the middle of your favorite song.

And so today's electronica is not "Techno" per se; instead it is simply today’s pop dance music exposed outside of the familiar veil of a Britney Spears, Rihanna, [insert pop name here], or Lady Gaga. That the public accepts one and not fully the other does not invite rebuke in and of itself, but does belie pop music’s reluctance to embrace it. The producers make the infectious dance beats of the tracks these pop divas sing, while the divas (or male counterparts) bring the name, the voice, and the face to the product. In a mirror of irony, it is the same for popular EDM tracks; DJs, the name and face of EDM, serve to market the product as many popular EDM tracks gave (or still give) little credit to the singer. As today’s producer DJs have become more and more a known commodity, credit has begun to be shared amongst producers and singers, particularly when both can effectively sell the product.

Exhibit A (and tag right)

Irony = unintentional parody.

            On the other side of the dance music fault line lies the hip-hop empire, grown rich on larger than life personas and a culture celebrating life’s excesses while reflecting inner city lifestyles unfamiliar to many of its consumers. American suburbia seems to love "trying on" the hip-hop swagger and lifestyle just as party-goers enjoy theme parties –they may not be Roman but they sure like wearing the togas. The very distance between the world of hip-hop’s roots and the world of many of its consumers may in fact help explain one’s interest in the other. Partiers asking me to play less "Techno" invariably want to hear more hip-hop, and since today’s pop culture supports both hip-hop and electronic pop music, both must be played.

            EDM’s roots grew largely out of a homogonous European culture, far different than hip-hop’s roots, and has ever expanded through the leadership of unassuming teenage producers, happy to spend long hours of the night in their room, crouched at a desk with a six-pack of red bull and their laptop, playing with midi-controllers and sound software, delving into the intricacies of sonic envelopes, filters, compressors, side-chaining, and the latest sound gadgets. Taking nothing away from their ability to party, many of today’s EDM heroes would likely be just as excited on the set of Star Wars as they are presiding over thousands of adoring fans. For many reasons, both first-world suburbia and wealthy electronically driven urbanites can claim EDM as their own. Yet EDM remains un-embraced as a cultural identity, even though it has many of its own zealous followers.

Mat Zo-B-Wan Kenobe

          

I AM A GOLDEN GOD!

           If there is anyone who feels like they were left off today’s music party guest list (and is bitter for being on the outside of the party), it is Rock and Roll.  The Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl took it upon himself to assail the EDM world with verbal stones at the 2012 Grammy Awards, addressing the crowd after receiving “Best Rock Album”, saying “It’s not about what goes on in a computer”, and likening singing and “playing your instrument” as the true art because it best reflects heartfelt music and can have imperfections. Grohl undoubtedly felt that the recent recognition bestowed upon EDM artists, in conjunction with the rise in popularity of EDM festivals and concerts, was wholly undeserving of a genre he believed devoid of soul and humanity.

Grohl is not alone in criticizing the popularity of EDM and its DJs. “Just Press Play” has become a popular dig at today’s EDM DJ’s/Producers. EDM festival goers have been maligned for loving the music played by EDM DJs at the events, primarily because the DJ’s “don’t do that much” and much of the show is orchestrated. But to judge concert-goers for loving the experience is to miss the point altogether. The collective IQ of throngs of people, specifically showing up for a giant party, many under heavy influences, is not exactly off the charts in the first place. Are the EDM crowds much different than the raging pits at rock shows, excited to have a place to enjoy the music they love, at volumes unheard of, in one giant party? If EDM festival attendees expected more from their heroes, then we might expect jeers, boos, and public shaming similar to that directed at singers in infamous lip syncing incidents.

Left-right, left-right, A-B, A-B, select-select?

But the crowds love their DJ heroes all the same: your favorite beats played by the producer himself/herself. The EDM DJ is not a DJ born from the turntable era of DJ’ing, rooted in hip-hop and its performance based intrigue. Today’s EDM DJs are successful because of their mastery of sound technology, modern wizards of the Oz that is Ultra, Ibiza, EDC, Tomorrowland, and countless other venues and events. To succeed as an EDM DJ today, one needs to produce and create successful music. This requires a sophisticated level of production skill, an understanding of musical theory, an inordinate amount of patience in the studio, and the persistence of a perfectionist.

            The universal “DJ” sign, scratching a record with one hand while holding the headphones to the ear with the other, has become outdated, a relic of an era where electronic music was a fringe interest (“Techno”) and DJs carried crates of records to each gig. For Hardwell, Avicii, SHM, or other EDM DJ’s to “scratch” during their set would be like oil painting on the glass of a computer screen. Instead, EDM DJ’ing is well suited to seamless transitions over a never-ending beat and long build-ups leading to heavy electronic drops, techniques borne from the electronic medium.

HARDWELL

 But it is not DJ skill that the masses appreciate. The crowds love their DJs because of the power of the music.  Grohl is particularly critical **and entirely wrong** when he attempts to define music as something exclusive of electronica, something that cannot have technology. In truth, “Techno” properly reflects electronic music’s creative frontier because “Techno”, derived from the Ancient Greek “techne”, represents art, skill, cunning, or craft. Technology is the means used to achieve an end. And art is the end result –worthy of appreciation and reflection. Artists master the tools at their disposal to elevate basic elements into something unique and powerful: painters use color, authors use words, and musicians use sound.  

Just as young Hermes used a tortoise shell and the entrails of a cow to make the lyre, technology for musicians can be anything, even beyond the traditional instruments.  EDM artists explore the vast galaxies of sound afforded by computers and software, and in so doing have begun to create new musical genres. The best EDM artists compose modern symphonies, movements spanning the intricacies of rhythm and sound. Such symphonies provide primal beats, ephemeral art, industrial electro-power, and stunning shape-shifting instrumentalism. Writ large over giant sub-woofers and stadium speakers powered by mega-watt amplifires, these effects cloak the senses as if they were textured ghosts filling the air with an array of sonic layers and waves, a veritable barrage of three-dimensional sound precipitation.

Fad on fad on fad! Have you seen Molly!? #SELFIE

            The first time I tried to create electronic music on Ableton, I was struck by how tinny and manufactured the instruments sounded. Much like the voice of Siri, the soul and power of what I was accustomed to (good music) was lost in the electronic reproduction. As Dave Grohl would happily point out, there are many derivative, underwhelming, manufactured, or attention-seeking sounds (see inset >>>>>>) amongst the EDM producers. But when producers find a way to give texture and movement to the electronic sound, they begin to learn the skills of their craft, bringing the best of the electronic medium to the spectrum of sound.

And so EDM artists take advantage of their technology to produce inspired music, complementing their electronic instruments with vocals and sampled words, voices as notes to play on a keyboard, robots to sing along with, or powerful and longing lyrics that accompany the stadium sounds of progressive house. Today’s EDM artists are that, artists to be respected, artists to be given credit for expanding the public's enjoyment of sound. Musicians have always used technology to create their art. Simply because today’s EDM artists use electronic technology to do so does not mean their genre should have cornered the market on the term “Techno”. The term “great music” will do just fine.

Stay classy EDM.
Esso the Esquire (DJ Esso)
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