darw_n wrote: > Techno doesn't have a *defined* message, something that most (if not all) > past "movements" had...
You did make the case for punk, but even so I can't really agree with this, although that may be because the terms message and movements are too vague in this context. For instance, is a movement a new musical genre or does it have to have a separate social scene that goes with it? Similarly, messages can range from very narrowly defined to very broadly defined, they can be implicitly defined, etc. etc. What would the message be for reggae, house, grunge, disco or classical music? > Instead, techno is a device for imagination Yes. > aimed towards escapism (both possitive and negative). But why escapism? Or rather, how is this different from other music (any music is a device for imagination)? Or even broader, doesn't imagination *imply* escapism? Because if you have to imagine it, by definition you have to escape from your own reality into your 'imagined reality'. > Techno, because it says nothing recognizable, is a > tool for individuals to use in whatever way they see fit. Only partly. There are also elements in techno that virtually impose a certain feeling on listeners: a big 909 kick for energy, strings for a number of emotions, a breakdown for that ecstatic feeling, etc. (archetypes of musical elements anyone?) And in this respect, how would techno (or house) differ from classical music or from a rock song sung in Sanskrit (like Kula Shaker did)? Neither of those say anything recognizable, yet they differ quite substantially in their respective audiences and scenes. > > Quite the contrary. > > Techno was born because there were people that were *not* apathic, > > because there were people that heard a certain sound and ran with it. > > Yes, but you have to admit that both techno and rave are on a totally > different platform than just parties with some experimental music, That *is* how it started though: great dance music, nothing more, nothing less. And only later did it evolve into something that gave people an opportunity to create and hence build and sustain the 'scene'. > there is > a reason why ravers are almost uniformly excapists, there is a reason why > techno people are so passionate about it, I am trying to figure out these > reasons... Because people so easily can create a (tiny) part of the techno scene (parties, records, DJ sets, magazines, reviews, etc etc), i.e. the blurring of producer/consumer, they feel more involved. > > It is what it is. > > See, I just can't let something be like that, I want, no need, to know what > that "is" is... So do I. But there is a limit as to how far reductionism will take you. Some things can only be understood as a 'whole' thing, they cannot be explained through understanding of the parts that make up the whole. Music is more than a sequence of notes. Otto
