Break even on selling records? What a weird concept! I have to say that if a situation comes about where the techno audience grows, leading to a) a downside where there's a perhaps rather more naive bunch of people into techno than there used to be, and b) an upside whereby a lot of techno labels and nights actually start making money, the upside would more than compensate for the downside as far as I'm concerned.
When the disco craze came to an end, the culture basically died - but the music didn't, and it wasn't long before it morphed into house and changed the world. This, as Fred Heutte pointed out in his very perceptive mail on Saturday, is a similar stage of the cultural cycle, except that at the moment the "culture" that's dying is the club culture of the 1990s. Techno music was around before that culture, and will be around afterwards - hence the reason why Tong et al seem to be making that move back towards the underground. The danger for techno, though, is that association with these icons of the monolithic club scene will cause it to suffer more from the collapse of that culture than it necessarily should. I mean, do "the kids" *really* listen to Pete Tong any more anyway? Don't they see him as moribund and old hat? Will it really benefit techno to be involved with that clique of DJs; or will it make "the kids" associate it with these dinosaurs of clubland, and see it as just another dying dance genre? By the time disco music re-emerged in the mid-1980s (as house) it had a very different sound (superficially, at least), a different set of production ethics, a different name, a different type of associated lifestyle, everything. Sometimes I wonder if techno might need to go through a similar cocoon phase before re-emerging as something that, to the uninitiated, seems hugely different from its original incarnation? If that's the case, then Tongy & co aren't the answer, and techno needs to "go underground" for another few years so we can all get our heads together in darkened basements and come up with something new to hit the world with. If that's *not* the case, and there's further for the techno scene to go in its current form, then Tongy and the like getting interested can only be good news. But it's a complex issue, and no-one can really predict how it's going to turn out... Brendan > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 20 October 2003 15:47 > To: 313@hyperreal.org > Subject: RE: (313) Pete Tong > > > > >I don't. It'll only get diluted and homogenised if it > becomes any more > popular. > > Well, yeah, agreed. But we can still pick and choose what we > want though? I > guess..... > > >Nobody likes an overcrowded beach. > > true! I guess I'm not bothered though too much. if a load of > t**ts want to > buy the same records as me, then fine, don't really feel that > it affects me > in anyway. > > the reason I say it's positive, is mainly because maybe some > people could > start to break even on selling their records maybe? and the > people into > this music will more than likely put that to good use, and we > may get more > things to enjoy. > > maybe...? > _________________________________________________________________ > > --------------------- End of message text -------------------- > > This e-mail is sent by the above named in their > individual, non-business capacity and is not on > behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers. > > PricewaterhouseCoopers may monitor outgoing and incoming > e-mails and other telecommunications on its e-mail and > telecommunications systems. By replying to this e-mail you > give your consent to such monitoring > > > >
