[quote="Sam"] At one point I had to sell my decks to survive, and I still remember going to
Cafe Sounds in Montclair New Jersey, Sonic Groove, Satellite in New York, NO DECKS. For the love of the genre.
Somewhere that love has disappeared.

Since I missed this the first time around, I'll comment now. I too used to hit up those stores. I stopped going to those stores long before I ever picked up a copy of Napster and, later, Kazaa. The main reason was because, rather than having a diverse range of music, they attempted to fit in to what they thought was a market. After all, they're record shops. And, in every case, the choices of people running the shops resulted in poor merchandise. It was around this time that I began having to listen to people bitch about how there was just too much shit music coming out and that is why the stores stocked so much shit. But, this was also a bogus claim. Since a friend worked at one of the larger vinyl distro houses in NYC, I'd get to go over there and score new music that was still quite good which, for some strange reason, wasn't being stocked by the best known stores for techno. So, did the music truly start to suck while everyone began downloading instead of purchasing? Or did the stores begin to
suck because the people running them got tunnel vision? The only thing that ever led me to go the MP3 route was because it allowed me to find whatever I want. The price was inconsequential since, before I was hitting the distro house, records would cost me anywhere from $8-$15 a piece. I could afford to buy the music as could any other DJ. The problem isn't downloading. The problem is that the dominant forces in the market got boring.

Quote Originally Posted by Amok
Maybe it's just the general economic situation. Everyone fighting for themselves. dunno
Techno is no 'movement' anymore
I've never known it to be a true movement where it wasn't everyone fighting for themselves. It's partially why I don't fight within it anymore. I got tired of it. Even at free parties, you get people stabbing each other in the backs if they think it will get them a booking or time slot they prefer. Crews themselves are very catty and cliquey. The pseudo-movement behind it (at least where I am) doesn't strike me as being any different than what goes down in any other for-profit music scene. In a way, it's almost kinda worse. I expected to get ****ed when playing in bands for money. Never expected it in a scene where the money adds up to much more than a case of beer and some food. I guess that's why I've always stayed nomadic. While it would be great to meet up with some people on the same path, they seem to be scattered globally rather than centralized locally. Techno is a "movement" where I am if you consider the desire to hold on to the limelight for as long as you possibly can, and do whatever
it takes to achieve that, a movement. And despite how people look back with nostalgia to it being different, I never personally witnessed that in a decade.