David Smith wrote:
How long will it take movement/demf (memorial day weekend electronic festival) to have the integrity of the labor day jazz festival? Will techno have to gain the respect that jazz has--like if it gets its own section in public libraries as jazz does before techno is considered something for intellectuals?
I think this is an interesting subject. Techno is doing better than most dance music genres at driving itself into more stable ground than just raves & clubs. Everytime I suggest to people that Techno has or needs a life outside of its birthplace on the dance floor, I get strong resistance .. which is a good sign I suppose. Not that I think it should abandon the dancefloor .. like Jazz has never left the smoky club .. but it has traversed into much broader environments creating a longevity for the music form. NZ has two schools of Jazz. I would love to think that one day we would have a school of Techno ?! I think currently that it is a generational issue .. and in that respect we are fortunate that we have a direct connection to history .. but we are still living in the origins. However nearly all the originators of Techno have in some form or other carried their practice into different areas, which bodes well for the future. If you look at the history of Jazz, it is entering its second & third generation of innovators and players. This progression and subsequent pickup by a new generations is what makes the music vital. It's really a question of weather young people are going to take Techno Music as a form and continue it .. in what ever dimension. I think we are on the cusp as the moment. As the older members of the Techno community try to quantify and establish their understanding of the form .. and the younger members tell to them to shut up and dance. This means we have life at both ends of the spectrum. I find some resistance to the intellectualisms of Techno, but to me its the ideas that are expressed through the music that binds the form. If we deny the fact that some of us think about the music, then we might as well just stick to raving till dawn as the only way to preserve the culture. While raving has primal qualities that are timeless. I think the practice of dancing all night in ecstasy's are fairly well established in human culture, and does not need a lot of energy to maintain. Just bang the rocks together! However using music as a form to explore and express ideas through specific modes of thinking is a practice of higher culture that needs a little more involvement to maintain. Techno ' is based on technology .. and this is the start point for the discourse that will enable Techno as a music form long into the future. I think Techno against all other forms of "dance music" explores the human relationship with machines. The tension between design vs application. Do the machines control us ' or do we control the machines. etc etc. It is difficult to find this discussion in a more fluent form than Techno .. and the bonus is you can dance all night like a lunatic while having the discussion. If you haven't already . . check this movie about the 303 http://ia300107.us.archive.org/1/items/NateHarrisonBasslineBaseline/BB_web.mov .. But yea ' how long .. ? Another 15 years .. which is the cycle of another Generation. .simon ------------------------------- www.obscure.co.nz & www.psurkit.net ------------------------------ m. +64 275 606012
