Quote Originally Posted by Jay Pace View Post
Why do you assume they did it just because of the sales figures?

Adam Beyer was one of my heroes, and was one of the people who got me hooked on techno. But after a while he was churning out endless chuggy monotonous loopfests. The Mr Sliff records were a definite move away from that, and he's made IMO some of the best "minimal" out there, production that blows you away with a hard edged funk to it.

People progress, move on. Can't expect beyer to want to keep producing chug fests for ever. Same goes for Carola, Klein et all, I can really see an evolution in their output. People's tastes and creative ideas develop and evolve. I don't think they're producing stuff they hate just to make money, I think they like majority of the scene just moved on in terms of what they produced.

If everyone was still making loopy pounders I don't think I'd be that bothered about techno. It would be just another short lived genre that people eventually grew out of. Like happy hardcore.

The main clash I see is between hard techno culture and minimal culture which are at pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum. Musically though I don't think there's all that much in it, despite people's objections. Put through a decent rig, there are "minimal" tracks that sound just as brutal, dark, brooding and electrifying as the best hard techno - the same effect is just produced a different way.

The main "problem" I see is that the crowds, atmosphere, clubs and ages of punters is changing, and the old guard, the shaven haired techno army reject the younger "trendified" entrants into their camp, and feel somehow betrayed that the former leaders of the shaven haired army are now performing for a different crowd.

Much as people bitch and moan about the minimal "scene" and culture, most of the bitching is just recogntion that the new "scene" looks and feels different to the old scene. But I don't think blaming the music for the scene is fair. Or particularly productive. If everyone went back to producing loopy pounders tomorrow you wouldn't see a resurgence of 90s techno culture.
ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT response imho. I was going to the say the same thing about dj's 'selling out'. It's not selling out, it's deeper than that eh. I really do think 90% of the time it's having to 'adapt', feeling you need to do it, even though you're kinda worried about it, then realising a few years later that it was the best thing you ever did and you're 10 times more excited about the music.

The way I feel about it all is once you've been playing to good crowd at the top of your game, really feeling that power of new and exciting music, the last thing you want to be doing is playing to six old-age'd ravers in an empty club. Fine, if you're at home with ya mates, and for the odd old school set here and there, but not really what you want to be doing once you've got the bug. It's a sad fact of music, but you really have to let go once the scene moves on. It's either that or get left behind.

As someone who (very luckily) gets to play in alot of diverse and different clubs here in the UK and abroad, I've seen so many scene's evolve and change over the years, whether it's techno, trance, house, acid, drum n bass, gabba, experimental, electro, happy hardcore (oh that was one point i didnt quite agree with ya jay - have you seen how big the happy hardcore scene is here in the UK, even today???????? it shits all over techno mate, probably most other styles for the 18-21 age range). They change cause they have to. They change cause new younger DJ's come in, with new ideas. They change cause new younger crowds come in with different clothes, a different atmosphere. They change cause new producers are influenced by that. And so it goes on....

It's sooooo obvious this change is all down to generation change. Generations affect the way music is. And you simply can't stop it. It's what keeps the wheel moving and the putters guessing. Embrace it. Force yourself to get into it. It might feel awkward at first, even criminal that you would dare to do such a thing, but you will NOT regret it. Mark my words.

Well it's either that or spending the later half of your life being annoyed with everything and everybody. God, I hope I don't come across someone like this in the OAP home :)

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