On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 8:04 PM, Diego Simak <[email protected]> wrote: > My question is: how a city and all the environment that surrounds it can > influence the creation of art and more specific, the music creation? > Please correct me, but from all that I had read seems that Detroit City had > a primary influence in the techno style creation.
Detroit Techno grew out of a particular and peculiar musical and cultural environment as it existed in the 1980s. Since then, it has influenced musicians all over the world, and in turn the musicians of Detroit have absorbed influences from all over the world. I have a great affection for the city itself as I have visited and made friends there, and it is lovely and terrible and unique as all American cities are. As no doubt Montevideo is. > More important to this question is how a person that lives outside this city > can correctly understand this style. I don't think there's any barrier to entry. As (mostly) instrumental music it is purely abstract. Having eaten at a Coney Island or shopped at Submerge, or danced at The Works really doesn't inform the music per se. It isn't like trying to appreciate Pygmy chants where you don't know the language or culture that made it -- the cultural context at this point is global. > Is this possible? Is possible for me, and for others that live outside > Detroit "understand" techno as it was in that city? Sure. Why not? You might not know all the records or the background of the producers, but in the end it isn't so much what you understand about it but how it makes you feel. > A very friend of mine that is musician told me that we can reach some of the > aspects of this music, in a asymptotically way, but never understanding the > real origin of this style and therefore have an incomplete picture of > techno, since we live outside the city that was created. That's too deep for me. That's like the joke where when someone asks you a question about X, you say "but how can you ever really know about X?" We're at the mercy of our senses and our brains' ability to interpret it. You can't share anyone else's context 100% but that doesn't you can't reach a useful understanding of them. > I don't know if you understand what I'm saying. Si comprende! > > What do you guys think about this? > Is possible for a person that had born outside Detroit and US, correctly > understand the real meaning of Detroit Techno? > It means it's good music. I think if you have the chance you should visit, and there are people on this list who will make you feel welcome and show you a good time. But don't worry about it. Enjoy!
