How to save techno

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/142152-the-month-in-techno

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ffs who the hell gives a shit whether simon reynolds "believes in beats" any more? HIS PROBLEM NOT OURS.

It's a good column as per all of P Sherburne's stuff but I have more of a problem with the endemic griping than with any of the music itself, I don't know why introspective hand-wringing seems to go hand in hand with niche club scenes, and why the nature of the hand-wringing seems to correlate so strongly with criticisms of dubstep or techno or grime from the outside. I really hate all those rules and manifestos at the end, completely pointless.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a good column because - though maybe I'm over-crediting it - it diagnoses the griping, then says "OK you do better" and gives everyone enough rope to hang themselves. I thought the manifestos were fascinating mostly, not bcz they're right but because it's interesting that "how to improve things" has such a generic aspect: if I was to do a survey of whingers in the market research biz, or the comics industry or the toilet roll manufacturer industry for that matter I think there'd be the same broad breakdown - rediscover craft, respect, don't pander, innovate etc etc.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think what the column doesn't do enough of is separate the griping about how the music is made and where the scene is going (tiresome bullshit which shouldn't be given the time of day), and the real and new economic difficulties which the scene is running into (which have even more of an impact on niche genres like techno than on the industry as a whole). Though it's not as if I have any ideas on the latter anyway, dance has done such a stellar job of adapting to the internet that if it's still suffering, I'm not sure how it can reverse that.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

why introspective hand-wringing seems to go hand in hand with niche club scenes

Because scenes attract wankers and when they're not wanking they need something else to do with their hands?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I've just read through them all now (didn't bother before commenting above!) and you're right. I assume the non-respondants were actually busy trying to make good music instead of providing a set of rules for getting everyone else to be just like them.