Quote Originally Posted by machina
I think it's because a lot of people seem to be jumping ship for the sake of it - not because of a genuine interest or love of the music, but because it's what's everyone is doing and they want to still be seen as 'cool' or 'cutting edge'. Often, and i think this is the case with a lot of hard tek dj's getting into minimal, they clearly sound like they don't know what they are doing - playing what people tell them is cool and not really adding any personality to the sound because they don't really get it. Compare the sets that some of the bandwagon jumpers have done to the people who have really been doing it for years like steve bug or brinkmann or whoever and they really do sound completely second rate.

machina
To be honest, I think a lot of the DJs coming from a hard techno background are making and playing better records than most of the new minimal kids. I think its also pretty ignorant to say most hard techno heads are jumping ship simply to survive. I'd say that statement is around 50% accurate.

People like Marco Carola for instance, a lot of people give the guy shit but realistically some of his earliest works were minimal. I have plenty of sets from 99-2003 that had a lot of minimal tracks in them. He's always been a fan of it, but now that its popular there's no doubt he's going to take advantage of something he couldn't get away with before.

Take Beyer for instance. Sure, to be honest I was pretty surprised to see Mr. Drumcode chill out a bit. But his Mad Eye label and the Plus 8 release prove that he has something different to offer instead of adding to the clutter. His minimalish DJ sets are also more intricate, skilled, and more of a party-vibe than most of your new school minimal DJs.

Now for other harder techno producers. There are some on I have booked (even members of this forum) who I know for a fact have simply jumped ship to survive. I brought a DJ here who wanted nothing to do with the minimal stuff we had to offer throughout the night aside from said DJ. Shortly after I see the DJ has now begun producing minimal records. The distributor went on to tell me the DJs sales had suffered tremendously so they began a minimal project to gain better sales. This is pretty lame, but that's the way the world works. Bad shit happens.

Now for the in-between producers. I think a lot of techno producers heard about the minimal craze and were bored in their studio so they decided to give it a shot. It's amazing how slowing your BPMs down by 10 beats and being forced to use something besides conga loops can change your studio experience. 5+ years of the same process over and over can get really boring in the studio. So changing it up a bit has been a lot of fun for some producers. Now...you can take that statement and it should tell you something about hard techno. You can't rely on forumlas to push things forward.

@SummerofSam: Why do you suggest there may be a blacklash to preference for house music? As far as I'm concerned, it's always been a major backbone for techno music. Nothing to be ashamed about. Now if you're into sissy vocally watered down house I'd kick your ass (but I wouldn't be able to because I'm like half your size). :)