What makes techno techno?

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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Just wondering... Listening to a lot of 'new' music lately, but I find it hard to distinguish some of the styles. So... what makes techno techno?

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lol. I know.

But my recent attempt at making something techno'ish was classified as 90's Euro-house... And I really need to learn techno, to become a state-of-the-art electronic musician :D.

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Well if you're about to take myopic genre definitions seriously, you need to put Ishkur's guide to electronic music in your bookmarks and spend at least an hour a day there. :D

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lol. I have that one, even stored it here... but listening to all the fragments and then listening to the music classified as techno at soundclick (e.g. ATS ranks high there), and listening to some other stuff... Makes me think that if I just use metalshop sounds for percussion, Firebird for leads, and pads with filter sweeps that last for at least 4 measures, it's techno :). (I don't mean ATS's song, which is wonderful, but a lot of other songs seem to fit).

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thats because theres two "definitions" for techno:

(1) the wrong definition: anything dance. so that means trance, techno, house, hardcore ... i sent my mom Pendulum - Hold your Colour once and she thought that was techno too :roll:. I blame that stupid DANCE MIX bullshit which is just trancey covers of 80s songs but calls itself techno :roll:.

(2) the right one: machiney music, focused on the drums - the drums provide the main melody, the synths, if present at all, are there for backup.

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Muzak on meth.

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VladimirDimitrievich wrote:thats because theres two "definitions" for techno:
(1) Crap

(2) Crap

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VladimirDimitrievich wrote:thats because theres two "definitions" for techno
thanks
i sent my mom Pendulum - Hold your Colour once and she thought that was techno too :roll:.
Your mom is my age... keep that in mind when you try to explain things to me ;).

So... when I see a list of techno in iDJ magazine, like Mr Magma, Mijk van Dijk, Radioslave, ACR, Trentemoller, is that techno in the second definition? The 'right' techno?

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John Vulich wrote: (1) Crap

(2) Crap
The answers? or the music?

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Music.

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John Vulich wrote:Music.
I've heard some non-crap techno. If it is techno. I'm not sure. I think it is but I usually divide music in two:

1) Shite
2) Other

...and some music in the 'other' category has been described to me as techno. Underworld, for instance.

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so... I shouldn't try to make techno? What other contemporary style will make me instantaneously rich and famous? Or should I not yet give up my job?

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Well, I think the only genres that are gonna make you "rich and famous" are all crap! :shrug:

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If you want to be big in America right now I think it's a good idea to make songs that sound exactly like Nickelback.

Why don't you just sign up for the next season of Idol?

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