I agree with Hawkins. Also, I hate to tell you guys, but according to their agents and the fees we sometimes fork out...the likes of Ben Sims, Adam Beyer, Richie Hawtin, etc. get paid EXTREMELY well. The prices some of these techno DJs get paid reaffirms there is still strong enough demand for techno. You will see these kind of DJs on the best festival line-ups regardless of DJ mag. I honestly feel getting on these lists is just another reason to charge more money. Seeing these people on the lists won't make record sales better for anybody except for their own. Who cares if all techno DJs take the top 10 spots? All that will happen is the genre will become bastardized into a trend people follow because they're told it's cool, fresh, and exciting. OH wait. That happened, and it was called minimal. The mysterious trend with music that wasn't even that.

While there is nothing wrong with supporting your favorite DJs in this poll, you shouldn't view it as a do-or-die, let's-save-techno ordeal. The only reason you should vote in this poll is because you sincerely feel they're the best DJs all of electronic music has to offer.