I gotta disagree with all the hatin' goin on about this book. To immediately address Mr. Knight's concerns, I blieve the book was first published around 97-98, which is when big beat was a new and exciting sound. And judging from where electronic music went after big beat in terms of mass appeal, seems as though Mr. Reynolds wasn;t that far off.
Granted- Big Beat now seems trivial, but you can't deny the importance of the Chemical Brothers and Norman Cook in bringing electronic music to a higher level of awareness to the public. A level that hasn't been topped since. Now about the book itself. For my money, its still the most compelling read I've encountered about the 90's rave culture. Maybe not about dance music or electronic music in general, but if you want to read about the ecstacy culture of the 90's- which was the main engine in propelling this music for the past ten years, its still the most well written and compelling book I;ve found. I will take for example the Tommie Sunshine/Frankie Bones segment, which is actually part of a broader piece about Milwaukee's Dropbass Network and the midwest rave scene in general. (if haven't read this, you can find it here: http://dropbass.net) AS anyone who even attended an MW event will confirm, that segment perfectly captures the experience of Dropbass. And for those who haven't been, its an honest look inside one (of many) significant tributaries that lead into the overall EDM culture. And Reynolds continually does that for every sub-section he chooses to cover. Helps put you there and hopefully help you understand how all of these interconnected elements make up the broader picture of 90's rave culture. Ironically- while I am a confirmed raver at heart, whose personality and lifestyle was infinately influenced by those experiences, I found myself disagreeing with most of Reynold's conclusions (tracks better than songs or albums, hardcore better than IDM...), but that certainly doesn't mean that I will dismiss his opinion. Its as though we both travelled the same path, but then came to wholly different conclusions about those experiences (and that's what makes life interesting and people different) If you're searching for a book about "techno" or "dance music history" or whatever, than Generation Ecstacy is hardly definative. But as a book written about the rave generation (hence the title) than it is second to none, given the time frame during which it was produced. On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > Isn't this the same book that at the end Simon Reynolds claims that Big > Beat is going to be the lifesaver of dance music? > > MEK > > > > "robin" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "'Redmond, > Ja'Maul'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <313@hyperreal.org> > ctric.com> cc: > Subject: RE: (313) Book: > Generation Ecstasy : Into the World of Techno and Rave > 12/05/03 10:50 AM Culture > > > > > > > > > -> He kept making a point of saying that EDM music and drugs > -> "GO" together > -> and any attempt to separate the two is not successful. i.e. concept > -> albums have no place in edm ,,,tracks are being better than songs??? > -> There's way too many reference to Ecstacy as been "GOOD" for EDM and > -> even a whole Chapter on the positive use of E. > -> > -> All of this is fine but I think he purposefully hid this agenda in a > -> book that was marketed as "General" book about EDM. > > well i guess he called the book "Generation Ecstasy" for a reason :) > > robin... > > > > >
