"But my question is where can techno go from here without becoming purely experimental or instantly segmented?"
This could be seen very similarly to the crisis in art that precipitated post-modernism. The constant drive for something "new" meant that ground was broken and quickly disregarded in an attempt to find something new yet again. Pretty quickly, all the ground was used up with no where new to dig. At that point, out of pure frustration with being painted into a corner, artists began to look back at the areas that had been discovered only to be abandoned with the breakneck demand for "new". They began to mine niches that they felt hadn't been fully explored in an attempt to not necessarily create something entirely new, but perhaps skew the way it was looked at and recontextualize it. Another possible correlation would be between "high art" and "craft." If you take techno as "tomorrow" music, is pretty much assumes that it has to be "new" and that path is remarkably difficult to break. I'm not cynical enough to say everything has been done but I will say that as time progresses it is increasingly difficult to do something "new." Anyway, once the art world got into this corner, there was a massive resurgence in "craft" IE pottery, textiles, and other "functional" mediums. You can sort view "craft" in line with the straight ahead dance floor stuff that is pretty much functional...designed with the goal to make the crowd move. Meanwhile, the abstraction and exploration of the "new" continues in another area and often, filters over to the "craft" level. On a totally different tangent but somewhat related (at least in my feeble mind), I saw the documentary film "Dogtown and Z-Boys" and not only was it visually really enjoyable, but I was really struck by the parallels that could potentially be drawn between Detroit and Santa Monica California where these skaters/surfers lived in. What was amazing to me is that the filmmaker could point to specific days when the sport of skating changed forever with an individual's daily effort. They specifically mentioned the day that a skater (Tony Alva if I recall correctly) went over the lip of a pool and move skating into the realm of vertical tricks. This handful of skaters pretty much singularly redefined what skateboarding is. They did this in an urban environment that was in shambles, and they infused their output with significant influences around them (Latin low-rider culture, gang related graffiti imagery, Hawaiian surf culture, etc) and in the process, created something never seen before. Sound familiar? Sure sounds a bit like the early roots of our music of choice on this list. Anyway, I highly recommend the movie...it left me feeling really good and bubbling with excitement for possibilities. Interesting questions Tristan, I doubt there are concrete answers for them, but they are fun to speculate with. Forgive me for wandering around a bit, if you made it this far, perhaps some of Tristan's questions were touched on and gives you more ideas to consider. Leslie Rollins --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
