drift9 and i were spoiled learning to love techno in detroit, where 10 years ago it was still alive and well, and attracting a lot of younger listeners. hell, a typical night was all techno and maybe one dj from chicago spinning quality house. from what i hear, there is little else than trance and "funky" breaks there now, which seems to reflect a certain fact:

younger people usually gravitate towards simpler, less challenging music.

as long as techno keeps getting enough of these kids when they mature and branch out into deeper music, then everything is okay.

what bothers me is that a lot of people seem to have no idea that there were great records coming out before 1996, or even if they know this in the abstract, they have no appreciation for the old school stuff.