There's a million reasons where techno went wrong in the United States. Some of the obvious reasons have already been expressed (hip hop, bad reputation, etc.).

Realistically I'd say the number one most critical factor of the failure of techno in the U.S. is geography. The United States has a lot of land to cover and everything is far too spread out. For two or three techno crews to congregate in the U.S. is quite a task involving long car rides or expensive flights. The Detroit festival is a great example that techno could exist in the U.S. if everything was much closer together. Also, add to the fact that gas has reached $3US/gallon (go ahead EU, laugh...it still hurts us)...the days where ravers would drive 12 hours for a single night's party are long gone. Without being able to band support together, all there really is now are pockets of resistance to mediocrity across the U.S.

From a political standpoint, things in the U.S. are ridiculously savage. Good gigs are few and far between so it's a bit more cut-throat or "what can you do for me" in the States. A lot of the U.S. boys rarely if ever, get a taste of a good European party so it shifts self-promotion into overdrive. Unfortunately it's usually not the good self-promotion and DJs still end up playing shit gigs at a local college bar somewhere here in the U.S.

Instead of focusing on getting gigs in Europe, South America and Asia...many DJs/producers settle for husting gigs in the states between techno hot spots. Many people around here play the circle jerk game of "you book me, I'll book you." What people don't realize is while it's a great trade off, the reason they always lose money is because the acts they're trading gigs with usually aren't going to pay the bills. Also, they may not be all that great of a performer either. Personally, I'm not oppossed to the trading gigs method if it is worth it for both parties. Ideally, I'd like to be booked because people genuinely want me to come play for them...not just because I can set them up a gig out of town.

Next, being so far from Europe...a lot of U.S. acts have a hard time networking across the pond. Obviously, the average starving dj/producer can't afford to spend a week or two in europe networking face to face. Another problem is most americans are not bilingual. This means unless you're in demand or have some friends...an only english-speaking american boy's chances of getting a rockin' gig in Spain/Czech/etc. are slim to shit.

Lastly, it's no secret that until recent years the newer generation of U.S. producers had a really hard time getting accepted by European labels for some reason. It seems there was a huge gap from legendary U.S. producers in the late 80s/early 90s to the new blood of the early 2000s. Promising names such as Andrei Morant and others kind of just faded away. Perhaps the decline of the U.S. rave scene is partially to blame. Currently, there's a hanful of producers here in the states who have begun to meet the quality of european producers/labels and are finally getting recognized for it. It's no longer uncommon to see new U.S. blood on some of Europe's biggest labels.

As much as I also hate to admit it, the minimal trend has opened the doors for a lot of fresh new U.S. acts to travel the international circuit such as Matthew Dear, Magda, Someone Else, etc. These days it seems the U.S. is slowly getting more respect as time progresses.