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Hi Andy_X_Summer_of_69 and other 'techno' fans, Sorry - I meant to clarify this earlier, but Oriental mysteries have
distracted me from other duties. (Not to mention getting sidetracked onto
that married chicks thing ..) I chose the term 'techno', because it's the classification I use for 'that
whole bunch of stuff'. There are two things which make music 'techno' according to my (naive)
classification scheme, and both of them are (funnily enough) technological in
nature. One is the new drugs they have, which they didn't have when I was
younger, more gullible and more stupid. The other is the way the music is
made. Modern music is made in a fundamentally different way to old(er) music.
Older music was either 1) by a single person at a guitar or piano, or 2) by a
bunch of (probably stoned) people in a 'jam session'. Modern music is made on a computer. With samples and backwards running
sounds and stuff. And the computer can do things which couldn't be done
earlier. Sure we have examples like Pink Floyd with their ticking clocks, and
alien ducks in tunnels and things, but they are the exception because most of
us couldn't afford to spend weeks doing weird stuff in a 24-track studio under
the influence of LSD. At the risk of oversimplifying:
- The 1960s brought the distorted guitar. [Rock].
- The 1970s brought the electronic synthesizer. [Disco].
- The 1980s brought the sampler. [Electro-pop].
- The 1990s brought the computer. [Techno].
Techno is a bit like disco in that it is repetitive, but it relies on sounds
and effects that just couldn't be done in the early '80s. And for some reason,
exploratory musicians love to play with metallic sounds, which are even
more excruciating on a computer than on a Marshal stack. It was quite an eye opener for me to realize that guitar is now recorded
'flat', and the effects (including the distortion) are added during
mix-down. Indeed the final effect may be nothing like the guitarist intended (or
wanted, but who cares - lead guitarists are not known for their good taste
anyway). Anyway enough warbling. Andy - I'll take your advice and listen to some of
that stuff when I can make it to J&Bs. Specifically what would you recommend for
someone who deep-down actually likes 'accessible music', and still regularly
listens to INXS and U2?
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