Origins of Techno

[qUE]

Right before you all shoot me down in flames ;)

I know this subject is pedantic and really who does really give a shit where Techno comes from, it's here and it's been here for a very long time and probably will be when this forum is long gone and we're all long gone.

I've heard soo many arguments about this and really as far as I've done a little bit of research into this I hope my opinions are of some value, probably not, but then again, like it really matters, I'm drunk, I spout bullshit, I admit that, please bare with me :)

Now I'm not going to steal the crown from the Americans because the earlier you go with this genre, the cagier it gets when who did what and when.

I personally think that at the end of the day it depends on what context as always.

Right anyway (I wish I had a spell check, I'm pissed, you know the score :)
Plus I'm having to write this on my coffee table (Yes it's a PC, I'm sad, etc.)

I've "borrowed" some MP3 albums of some really seriously old recordings of stuff and it's hard to define whether I'm just being really far fetched with a genre.

Aparently one of Aphex Twin's favourite albums (from what I've been told) maybe a contender;

Raymond Scott's: Manhatten Research

The tune which goes 1...2...3 (You'll know what I mean) is a pretty mad rythmic track, very very musically similar to "Techno" in my eyes, and it could possibly be before the 50s considering that album was tracks selected between the 193xs and 195xs. It was with pretty much what is a primitive sequencer, a spinning rod connecting a voltage supply to each "sound" generator. Which tbh is a very clever and simple solution to an era with out computer sequnencers.



In terms of coining the term Techno, when common media acceptance is of Juan Atkins, Derek May and Juan Atkins coining it (tbh, they really wouldn't care if I dashed this, they've probably made a huge amout of money from it already).

Yellow Magic Orchestra released an album called Technodelic in 1981, unless they coined the term in 1980 or before, I would assume the term was used far before then.


So at the moment in my eyes, Raymond Scott is the creator and Yellow Magic Orchestra is possibly the coiner.


Okay, so it's probably quite a good cop out to say humans were beating things since when they existed. But they certainly wern't banging it out on electrical gadgets :)


If you can go any further back I'd be corrected.
I'd bow to your posted thoughts as always.

qUE

P.S. Ah I forgot to say, score timing is a bitch, afaik it can be streched to any timing so 4/4 is not really a genre defining system much the same as key/scale as I later found out from a dear friend of mine ;)

[G-BO]

the term was also coined in alvin toffler's the third wave, as he talks about the techno-sphere, where this theory of rise of the machines and creating an industrial graveyard was prominent in detroit with and had an affect on the people and the music that came from it, in hi tech soul jaun atkins mentions alvin toffler's work and states thats were the word came from

[drift9]

[TechMouse]

Okay, so it's probably quite a good cop out to say humans were beating things since when they existed. But they certainly wern't banging it out on electrical gadgets :)

Is the sound source that important though?

I mean, in the latter half of the last century I think it was. Electronic music and recording technology was developing at astonishing rates and the sounds were very new. The characteristic noise of an electric guitar, a drum machine or an analogue synth was such a breath of fresh air that whole subcultures built around them.

Then sampling came along and pushed us back towards exploiting old sounds and that became the fresh sound.

These days I think the playing field is much more level. Who cares where the sounds come from so long as they're inventive, different and (most importantly) sound good.

If someone can throw together a fierce tune using sticks, tin cans and something to record it on then kudos to them.