On Thu, 7 Oct 2004, Tosh Cooey wrote: > All the North Americans I know who have been over to Europe in the last year > keep saying the same thing over and over, that electronic music culture in > America is dying. > > No clubs, all the smaller cities are non-existent for a DJ/live performance, > etc. how true is this?
Hm. I don't think this is exactly right. It depends how you measure it. People now have more access to create electronic music spaces than they EVER had even five yeears ago. What? Garage band and a hip-hop jam pack for only 150.00? Traktor's DJ Suite running only a few hundred bucks? Access to literally hundreds of hours of helluva DJ sets over the net? But there is growing reason to suspect that this doesn't translate into strong LOCAL cultures. > I have seen some evidence via some of the labels I work with having trouble > setting up tours that get outside of New York, Chicago, San Fran/LA. > > Is it really that bad? What would some of the reasons be? How would this be > connected to the previous discussion about techno not selling? I missed that discussion--popping in and out you know. But i think that in order to really deal with this in some depth we have to understand the movement of capital and people across time and space and how that impacts listening preferences, purchasing preferences, and local club dynamics. and on top of that we have to grapple with the fundamental fact that we are growing older. when i first got on this list i was in my mid twenties with the world in front of me. now i'm in my mid thirties with a growing family that keeps on growing. much harder to go clubbing. as far as moving capital and people, here's one way to think about it. i'm a house/techno head. i'm in saint louis. i've got an opportunity to go to the dc area because i have skills (not in house/techno, but in some other area). do i stay in saint louis? or do i go to dc? if most heads have these types of options...if most djs have these types of options...then over time what will happen is that there will be a few STRONG areas (detroit, chicago, etc.), and other much weaker areas. and as the people with the skills are able to travel farther and farther (and the comparison is now between london and dc rather than between saint louis and dc), the number of cities grows smaller, and the local culture becomes more and more intimate. lks
