Software vs. Analog in 2025 – Has the Balance Shifted?

[grandmasterbird]

110 pages in, casually lurking and taking interest in the discussion, and I'm still eagerly waiting for BONES to appear. He would have laid waste to this thread long ago!

[pdxindy]

Has anyone in this thread had a hit... ever?

Of course not... this is a software forum. Gearspace on the other hand...

[vurt]

Glad I could help. Shortest vid I´ve ever seen

I reckon if you cut out the silence this would be even shorter (and its a full song)

ive been waiting for napalm death to show up in this thread!

[Scotty]

110 pages in, casually lurking and taking interest in the discussion, and I'm still eagerly waiting for BONES to appear. He would have laid waste to this thread long ago!

Bone’s singular and uniquely personal perspective would only serve confirmation bias. It might be entertaining though.

[Bunny_boy]

Glad I could help. Shortest vid I´ve ever seen

I reckon if you cut out the silence this would be even shorter (and its a full song)

ive been waiting for napalm death to show up in this thread!

Not as good as the hour-long version

[slackhead]

ive been waiting for napalm death to show up in this thread!

It's the muso version of Godwin's law:
"As an online discussion of analog gear grows longer, the probability of Napalm Death making an appearance approaches one."

[vurt]

ive been waiting for napalm death to show up in this thread!

It's the muso version of Godwin's law:
"As an online discussion of analog gear grows longer, the probability of a Napalm Death making an appearance approaches one."

if only this was true

still have all my old earache vinyl. sat here next to me

[slackhead]

Not as good as the hour-long version

That's even better if you set Youtube to play at 0.2x speed

[IvyBirds]

But he calls it EDM, but now you have done it, you have said what we think of as EDM/Techno today is not what he was writing about

Now you will get a LOL and a lecture and a Chat GPT cut and paste telling you how you never read it.

EDM was common as a term through the 90s - it's electronic music you dance to. It is why the term IDM exists, for all the bleepy stuff you can't dance to.

The fact the original term got repurposed has very little to do with the contents of the book.

But it has everything to do with the context of the book in 2025

It's an old outdated book that uses outdated terminology, but it's being held out as the proof text for what Techno was on Zerocrossing's cell phone streamed on his car

And if you challenge the idea of relevance for modern music production and/or distribution you get a lecture and a cut and paste from chat GPY

[Bunny_boy]

But he calls it EDM, but now you have done it, you have said what we think of as EDM/Techno today is not what he was writing about

Now you will get a LOL and a lecture and a Chat GPT cut and paste telling you how you never read it.

EDM was common as a term through the 90s - it's electronic music you dance to. It is why the term IDM exists, for all the bleepy stuff you can't dance to.

The fact the original term got repurposed has very little to do with the contents of the book.

I'd never heard the term EDM until the advent of all that Skrillex jock music. IDM was originally the name of Drew Matmos' (he of Hit 'Em fame) mailing list, and was a reaction against kiddie rave and corporate trance.
Maybe EDM was more of an American term? Having said that, I didn't really read the dance music press back in the '90s

[whassup]

110 pages in, casually lurking and taking interest in the discussion, and I'm still eagerly waiting for BONES to appear. He would have laid waste to this thread long ago!

I hope he is well.
Maybe on vacation or such...
Last active: Wed Jun 11, 2025 12:58 pm

[Ah_Dziz]

EDM has never been a good descriptor of any genre in particular. It's exactly what it says , "electronic dance music". Even for music critics, it was an extremely lazy term, but it was commonly used starting in the 90s around the same time that the same people started calling most club music "techno" if they weren't trying to get into a historical description of all the music scenes that had emerged around the world as people incorporated new technology into their music. As with most musical genres, there are nearly infinite subgenres and definitions one can throw on all this stuff. I always found "EDM" was mostly a catch-all that folks who don't want to wang through all the minutae use when they refer to any "club" music.

[ghettosynth]

The examples in Butler's book are pretty much all techno – Detroit tracks like Jerical – aside from the proto-techno stuff like Sharevari. It's pretty clear he's not writing about what people now think of as EDM or indeed the trance-with-drops EDM that was springing up around that time.

But he calls it EDM, but now you have done it, you have said what we think of as EDM/Techno today is not what he was writing about

Now you will get a LOL and a lecture and a Chat GPT cut and paste telling you how you never read it.

Gamma-UT knows what he's talking about, you don't. If you did, you would be aware of the use of EDM in the 90s and how the usage of the word has shifted.

[ghettosynth]

Are there any characters with magical powers in the book? If you want my daughter to read it, there has to be some magic. Talking cats are a bonus.

I imagine that she's probably not quite ready to tackle it, the comment was meant for you.

I offered up Techno as an another example of music that doesn't really work when you take it out of a dance club, and we went through a bunch of different dance genres that would work great in a dance club, but not great outside of one.

Sure, but, that's not what you said. That comment with respect to techno sounding like someone left the drum machine running is a common critique from people uneducated in the genre. Whether you like techno or not, it's not a reasonable criticism and it comes across as ignorant.

I offered the book as one of the few academically oriented texts on the music of the genre. Enjoy, or not, the information is there.

[IvyBirds]

The examples in Butler's book are pretty much all techno – Detroit tracks like Jerical – aside from the proto-techno stuff like Sharevari. It's pretty clear he's not writing about what people now think of as EDM or indeed the trance-with-drops EDM that was springing up around that time.

But he calls it EDM, but now you have done it, you have said what we think of as EDM/Techno today is not what he was writing about

Now you will get a LOL and a lecture and a Chat GPT cut and paste telling you how you never read it.

Gamma-UT knows what he's talking about, you don't. If you did, you would be aware of the use of EDM in the 90s and how the usage of the word has shifted.

I am very well aware of the term in the 1990s. But remember you criticized me for talking about how the distribution of music has changed and that would include defining genres for marketing purposes for things like playlists on streaming services which wasn't a thing when the book was written

So which is it? Can we admit the book is outdated and the way we produce and distribute has changed? Or is that verboten? Because you can't criticize someone for staying the obvious that the way we produce and distribute music has changed, and then lecture someone about how an antiquated term was used decades ago

It's amazing the mental and logical gymnastics you are engaging in to try to do anything and everything you can to pretend a 20 year old book is still relevant

Again I read the book years ago, I said it was a good read, but it's outdated and uses antiquated terminology as you are now correctly pointing out, despite earlier criticism of me for pointing that exact thing out