Familiarity Breeds Contempt ? Is Techno Losing Its Edge ?

[DannyBlack]

Techno to me has lost it's shine, it's balls and overall, it's appeal. Well for me that is.

It just doesn't excite me as much as it used to. Can I blame that on the extreme amount of mass-produced Ueberschall pack-esque tracks? Yes, somewhat.

Also I put it down to my taste evolving past that. I recently gave up making Techno. I had a whole load of tracks either finished or nearly, but what the ****- where's it going to get me? Nowhere.

I still love Techno (pre-2007) and will continue to buy it and play it but as it goes- it's time to part ways.

[teknorich]

Techno is definitely more accessible than ever before, with tools for music production / digital mixing software available to everyone now, and with every mp3 store from itunes to Tesco selling Techno tracks, but yeah, somehow it can sometimes seem less exciting, less interesting nowadays...

Maybe you are right; that familiarity breeds contempt, and because it is so easy now, a lot of people who in the past would only have made up the audience of the club are now trying to be producers and DJs. We are now able to be much more part of the scene, not just the audience, so maybe we demand more, or refuse to settle for less like we might have in the past? Also, like anything, when it is fresh and new, it is much more exciting. How do you keep it so exciting 10, even 20 years later? Have we got a bit too "used " to it now?

The sound of "Techno" has changed a lot in recent years though, and tbh I'd find it hard to find a Techno night to go to in my home city (what I think of as Techno anyways; late 90's early 00's more pounding style). There is a plethora of new Techno nights, but they are based around the new Techno scene - the slower, more minimal sounding techno. I don't know of any clubs playing harder Techno, except for the occasional one-off night. Perhaps that is why some people feel jaded with the Techno scene; they fell in love with the older Techno sound (faster, harder etc) and just can't feel the same rush from this newer, slower Techno?

That begs the question though, are such people just old moaners; stuck in the past and going on about the "good old days", or has Techno changed too much now from it's original, more underground roots? When Ibiza clubs are packed with thousands of kids wearing neon t-shirts and shades indoors dancing to "Techno" can it really be considered as underground as it was? Techno as a genre is more popular now than it has been for years, but is that still Techno, or has it sold out, and changed too much from the feeling, vibe and attitude of Techno in the past?

But what caused Techno to have to change anyway? Was it the fact that for years producers just knocked out the same tired old loops and tribal drums, to the point that people got bored of it? I know I got a bit sick of hearing the same old stuff, and drifted away a bit a few years ago (ironic that I now yearn for the good old Techno of days gone by, huh?). I did get quite into Minimal at one point and maybe that was in itself a reaction to lazy Techno producers just churning out the same old sounds we'd heard a million times before. I dunno...