Re:
Yes, I agree that the most influential techno (and house) has come from
black artists, but who gives a fuck?
Well, I'd say Black Nation records (Kalamazoo, Michigan) do...with track
titles like
Interstellar Slavery
Fear Of My Own Brother
Fuck The Police
I Dont Hate You
Racial Lines
Black Power (which is a slamming tune by the way)
and album/singles called
Race Riot
White Flight
Birth of a Nation Part II
Now I realize that there are other recordings on this label which don't
appear to have anything to do with race other than getting Everybody to
dance (which is the bottom line to all this music) but it is important to
recognize where this music came from (the history IS important to Detroit
music), especially if you refer back the original topic of British artists
staking their ground in America like they are Christopher Columbus
"discovering" Haiti all over again.
Yeah, I don't care how much melanin an artist has in their skin either,
however, if you look at the history of black music in America and how each
genre whether it's soul music, rock, techno, blues or jazz (hip-hop is the
only exception to this) became popular you'd see that these music styles,
BECAUSE they are black art forms had to be imported BACK to us from overseas
BECAUSE the US is still struggling with the ghosts from our past (ie slavery
and harsh discriminatory social practices) and the recognition of
influential black people. We have to have a Black History Month for
chris'sakes! Why? Because most kids in America don't know who people like
Frederick Douglass, the Tuskegee Airmen, Huey P. Newton, or Harriet Tubman
are.
Take this into account:
From the Sacramento Bee Newspaper
SACBEE - Sunday 21 Feb 1999
FORUM LOOKS AT BLACKS' PRISON STATISTICS
By Stephen Magagnini
"...one-third of African American men between the ages of 20 and 29 are
locked up, on probation or on parole, up from one in four in 1990.
- African American women are the fastest growing population in the criminal
justice system, increasing by 78 percent from 1989-1994.
- Over 80 percent of the 1.2 million annual drug arrests are of African
American males. Crack cocaine users, who tend to be black, face sentences
five times harsher than powder cocaine users, who tend to be white.
- In California, African American males account for one-third of the state's
prison population but just 3.7 percent of the overall population.
- In Sacramento County, African Americans - who represent 9 percent of the
population - account for 50 percent of those arrested for resisting arrest.
- About 31 percent of African American youths and 13 percent of white youths
in California live in poverty - mirroring their percentages in the
California Youth Authority
This is just Sacramento. These problems exist in Detroit, New York, Chicago,
LA, Miami, etc. How do you think this influences the music?
But I digress...
What then occurs is that the American press feels more comfortable, or
doesn't know better, and puts Moby on the cover of every fucking magazine
calling him the techno wiz-kid. So all these kids (and older people who
don't know any better) think that a twat like Moby is responsible for all
this "electonica" stuff.
The original point I was trying to make was that fans of Detroit techno
should stand up and say...no, techno is an American black art form. Not
British, not German, not Dutch, not French. I mean no offense when I say
this, I love good techno wherever it comes from, who ever it comes from.
It's just I can see in our press here in America that the originators are
getting the short end of the stick (actually, they don't even get to hold
the stick). I'm proud of the musical hertiage in America, whether it's
blues, jazz, hip-hop, rock n'roll, house, or techno. I want to keep the
record straight.
I'm sure if the American press was saying that drum&bass was an American
invention half of the UK would be spitting nails.
If you want to know how dumb some people can be I used to work with a woman
who was a drummer in a band who thought that Led Zepplin started rock
n'roll! (No comments on her sex...it has nothing to do with it).
So, who gives a fuck?
I do and so should anybody who loves techno and Detroit techno who sees
anybody getting it wrong. Yeah, you may know better, I may know better, and
I'm sure that everyone on this list knows where and with whom techno
originated. It's all those others that we must educate.
So, who gives a fuck?
You should.
Fred
PS Also check out UR and it's similarities to Public Enemy, and take a tour
of 2030 and Area 1 at Submerge. Get some economic history of Detroit in ya
and then you'll understand where I'm coming from. And, since I see that you
are located in the UK I'm sure if you researched it you'd come up with
similarities in your own country. Do you_really_ think that this issue is on
the same level as "gabber vs. Detroit techno", or the usual "Trance sucks"
diatribe? If you do then you really need to WAKE UP!
From: "Niall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [313] 313 Madness!!
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 13:58:21 +0000
I'm sorry, I was going to keep quiet about this but I'm simply
flabbergasted!!
I've been away for the past week on a short holiday and, deliberately, not
been near a computer
to check my mailbox. I left the discussions with everyone raving about the
overall success of
the DEMF as well as offering constructive insights as to how improvements
could be made and how
certain performances were "better" than others in some very valid opinions.
Lots of excitement
and a general buzz around the D and where we're all heading with it. (Big
cheers to Bill
VanLoo for a particularly excellent report!)
I return today to a load of...shite (frankly) about racism, trance,
gabber/hardcore and the
"death of Detroit"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I have now been on this list for
quite a while, but
only speak up when I'm really moved to say something...this is now:
Racism - never heard such shite in my life. When I'm in a record shop I'm
focusing on the
sound of the record, the music, the funk. I often have no idea who has
made the record, where
they come from or what they look like - it makes absolutely no difference!
Yes, I agree that
the most influential techno (and house) has come from black artists, but
who gives a fuck?
Let's just remember a certain techno producer's definition of techno as
"like Kraftwerk and
George Clinton stuck in an elevator...", that says it all for
me...integration, acceptance,
innovation - NO BARRIERS.
Gabber/Hardcore - Detroit music is not just about clubland. Techno has
always had a wider
definition than other forms of "dance music" in my opinion. Yes, it has
its basis and general
market on the dancefloor, but one of the reasons I am so passionate about
techno is that it is
transcends that environment...think Galaxy to Galaxy, Icon, just about all
of Songs of Food and
Revolutionary Art. Unlike all this stupidly hard and fast hardcoresque
stuff, you don't need
to be pumped full of amphetamine (or worse) or any other drug to get it.
Music affects a
person on many levels and dancing is a spontaneous expression of all those
emotions. If the
"music" is only intended as a pulsating, hard as fuck, agressive kick-drum,
then that's all the
emotion you'll get. Mr Dance Extasy (ha ha), I really am not in the
business of dissing people
and consider myself open minded about ALL forms of music, but you are
simply a sad, drugged-up
little boy and have no place to comment on music as you evidently don't
understand it, any of
it.
Trance - seems that ship is now sinking anyway. Trance is just crap pop
music (in my opinion),
now in the hands of the corporates and trundled out to club ponses who go
to these
"super-clubs" to be seen and admired with the music as some insignificant
factor in the
precedings. No soul, no funk, just one blue print track that everyone
clones to their own
String-pad preset (no. 1 usually) on the latest Korg trance machine, as
they've only owned for
1 week, after seeing Paul Van Dyk miming with one on Top of the Pops.
Death of Detroit music - Stagnant for the past 9 years, I'm not even going
to merit that kind
of blanket ignorance with a response...you all know.
As for our friend that doesn't seem to know the difference between trance
and techno; stop
whinging, open your ears, shut your mouth and you might learn. The thing
that's so compelling
about real techno, I think, is that you can't define it. There are no
rules, just innovation
and a relentless, creative search for new ideas. It seems to me that
techno has taken
influences from all overthe world and styles right across the musical
spectrum, from jazz to
electro-acoustic to disco to classical/romantic to blues to funk and into
space. That's
progressive, not a so-called "narrow-mindedness" just because we won't
accept trance or
whatever other lifeless musical form back into the equation.
Here's hoping this is the end of the madness, alas I fear not.
Peace and total repect to those that know, don't give it up.
Niall.
))\ )) o ___ )) ))
(( \(( (( ((_(, (( ((...
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