WTF happened to the term "techno"?

[IncarnateX]

HEEEEEEEEEEELP!

I usually claim that I am into techno as a genre not referring particulary to Detroit techno, which I always has conceived more like a subdivision of "house". However when searching techno on Youtube I end up with videos like this:





WTF? If this is techno can anyone of plz tell me where I go wrong when associating the term with this:



or this:



And if it is vocalized at all it would be something like this:



If I have been wrong all those years plz give me the appropriate term for this kind of music and I promise not to take the word techno into my mouth again.

Thanks so very bloody much in advance

[Acid Mitch]

The term Techno has always been misused.
For most of the '90s lots of people would call any electronic dance music techno.

Heck , even the origins of it. The guys in Detroit didn't want to call it House as Chicago had already started that and they wanted to seem like it was there own thing.

You can find quotes from Marshall Jefferson saying he was arguing with Derrick May about it, as he thought having 2 names for the same thing would just be confusing.

[Jbravo]

The term Techno has always been misused.
For most of the '90s lots of people would call any electronic dance music techno.

mostly americans. Not so much in Europe though

[Acid Mitch]

mostly americans. Not so much in Europe though

It seemed quite a popular term in Scotland .

[ZenPunkHippy]

The term Techno was abused all through the 90's here in Australia until dance music started to reach a wider audience (or the classic pub rock crowd became less relevant).

As for the track, labelling that style of music "techno" has been happening for years. Bonus points for adding "underground". It makes finding the good stuff on Youtube quite tricky

Peace,
Andy.

[ZenPunkHippy]

So what would you call the first linked video?

Euro-dance?

Euro-trash?

Something else?

Peace,
Andy.

[sqigls]

when i started listening to Goa trance in the early 90's, EVERYTHING was techno. And who gives a f**k? only purists. and now Beatport DJs..?
Either THAT or it's 'electronica'… egads.
GENRE IS BALLS. Call yourself whatever you like, Best do it before someone ELSE labels you Melbourne Bounce or some other disgusting fad name.

[Vovique]

I've always considered classic techno as the type of music in which the "techno" sound itself was placed upfront as the main core feature in a track, with little or no vocals supporting the melody line (as in "James Brown is Dead" by LA Style). Plus, melodic structure was often atonal - to reflect the industrial electronic nature of sound's origin. That was all pure early 90's. Later, as I see it, despite maintaining the squelchy sounds, it all shifted towards more common conventional pop song structure with simple chords and vocal lines, breaking into House in US and trashy euro-dance in Europe. so I think it's rather the latter.

[sqigls]

…by the way, the link you posted was very scary. I'd call it - 'shite music'.

[tetsuneko]

Well, for me, none of the music you linked to is techno.

1st link to me, screams "EDM" or "electro" (not specific genre terms in this context)

2nd link - Orbital? I'd classify this as "Electronica" (a bit vague term I know but still)

3rd link - Breakbeat?

4th link - I'd again list this as "Electronica" or even "Pop"


In my fennocentric world, "techno" would be something like:




(this is going into 4WD territory, but I guess could still be classified as "techno"?)

Just to list a few examples.. these are older tracks tho, but IMO the definition of "techno" has been set in stone for quite a while - that industrial warehouse feeling, the nihilism, the repetitiveness <3

[sqigls]

yes, what you said tetsuneko

short loops.
industrial feel.
not cheezy ass ooh ooh vocals

[Shabdahbriah]

yes, what you said tetsuneko

short loops.
industrial feel.
not cheezy ass ooh ooh vocals

+1!!!

Thanks for the links.

[IncarnateX]

Thanks all for your answers -and sympathy- so far. In my lifetime the term has been associated with a lot of different genres. However the best of these soon got other and more sticky names. In the late 80s and beginning of the 90s we would label artists like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242 and Frontline assembly "techno" but that was soon to be known as EBM (Electronic Body Music) or Industrial and as @sqigls pointed out Goa techno became "Goa trance". That left fewer artists for me to be labelled "techno" if the term still should have any artistic meaning. However, to me, my links share "something" undefinable that still wants me to label them under one genre and not more. Of course it is still just names, but when you need to tell about your musical tastes in one appropriate term, it matters.

@tetsunko. I am not competent enough within genres to disagree with you, but the guiding 4 to the floor in your Jeff Mills video makes me associate this kind of music with "house" and in this case maybe "progressive house", but that just my egocentric and probably, incompetent, view of it.

The rest I can somehow associate with the term "techno" as well without violating my own intuitions.

[zlatan]

@tetsunko. I am not competent enough within genres to disagree with you, but the guiding 4 to the floor in your Jeff Mills video makes me associate this kind of music with "house" and in this case maybe "progressive house", but that just my egocentric and probably, incompetent, view of it.

Jeff Mills = One of the absolute Techno gods !
NEVER call him house !! Let alone progressive

[IncarnateX]

@tetsunko. I am not competent enough within genres to disagree with you, but the guiding 4 to the floor in your Jeff Mills video makes me associate this kind of music with "house" and in this case maybe "progressive house", but that just my egocentric and probably, incompetent, view of it.

Jeff Mills = One of the absolute Techno gods !
NEVER call him house !! Let alone progressive

Sorry Mate. It is just that 4 to the floor thingy, which prominence I can not help associating with the rise of house music in all it's flavors.

Edit: Oh..and "pop" that would be Lady Gaga, Britney and Madonna in my narrow world view and wouldn't apply to Leftfield. Need a better term.