Talk:Techno

Discussion archives

 * February 2002 – January 2009 – Topics: Terminology · Trance vs Techno · Jazz in Techno / IDM · Beginnings and House Influences · Links and Misc · Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass · Technopunk · Moby et al as techno "pioneers" · Detroits Role · Hardcore genres · Points of Contention - Styles · Somewhat confoozled · Redirection proposal · Genre Classification · Americans · History and artists · Loveparade · Nonsense · Krasimir loves Techno · Techno-holic concerns · POV statement · Really needed? · Influenced by progressive rock? · Bruce Haack · Journalistic hype based terminology verses genuine musicology · America-centered · Hardcore techno · Once again on the "origins"... · Japanese invented Country-Music · Techno is characterized... · Mainstream popularity · Sorry But... · Redefinition of past artists · Definition · Rename / Focus · Move some content · My two cents · A less notable Derrick May quote · Composition · More research needed on related genres


 * January 2009 – March 2012 – Topics: Nominate example tracks · Description of the genre? · Post-disco · Footers · EDM · techno or edm? · Complete re-write required. 'The Techno Twins' coined the phrase 'Techno' in 1977 · Techno a non-representational or abstract music / art? · Origins · Disputed origins again · Bud Powell · MCing · YMO and "foreign" influences · Synthpop? Electropop? · extremely us-biased perspective · What about Steve Rachmad? · Techno · FIRST TECHNO RECORD


 * July 2012 – October 2014 – Topics: Allmusic unreliable · Lots of Confusion about Techno in North America · America/ Detroit? The birth place of techno?? / The discussion is not over · Wrong Album · Pre-1988 techno- prefixes · The article describes two different genres · Acid/Acid House =(equals) American Techno · Introduction of the word "Techno" in reference to a specific genre of music?

Drum patterns
It said on the page that the drum pattern was essentially a disco drum pattern, but that statement isn't quite reliable. The truth is that the drum pattern (known as a 4 on the floor pattern) existed in garage rock which dated back to the 1960's, but became popular and during disco (which took place in the 1970's) and modern electronic dance music (which's still used to this day). Technically, it's a beat used in classic rock as well as disco and EDM, though the 4 on the floor beat did have influences from jazz music. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/four-on-the-floor-rhythm-explained#a-brief-history-of-fouronthefloor

Techno vs. EDM
Dear recently you replaced the term electronic dance music throughout the article with EDM. I see the use of the acronym EDM in the techno article as problematic:

Especially in the European techno and electronic dance music culture, the acronym EDM has negative connotations: although techno itself formally counts as electronic dance music, the acronym EDM is understood to refer to a commercialized variant of electronic dance music developed especially since the early 2010s for the mass audience in the U.S., as represented by live acts such as David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Bob Sinclar, deadmau5, Skrillex or Avicii.

For example, British magazine Mixmag writes: ''“First of all, let's define 'EDM'. The Mixmag definition doesn't cover all 'electronic dance music'. It means the drop-heavy, stadium-filling, fist-pumping, chart-topping, massively commercial main stage sound that conquered America. It means dayglo vests, EDC, Ultra, Vegas pool parties and flying cakes. It's possibly somewhere between electro and progressive house ...”''

But also in the U.S. this distinction is known, for example media network NPR writes: ''“So when did EDM — the U.S. record-biz term for electronic dance music's early-2010s commercial surge through Avicii, Deadmau5, Skrillex and a number of new festivals — "die," anyway?'”

Also, in 2017, the world's largest technoparade Street Parade completely banned EDM artists from their stages and floats (see here or here), proving that the techno scene strongly distances itself from EDM.

A popular video on this topic is also this one: Techno vs. EDM

So this distinction between techno and EDM (as an acronym) might confuse many readers. To take a random example from the article: “Talla's club spot had historical merit in being the first club in Germany to play almost exclusively EDM.” Writing it this way, some readers would take it as if Talla's club was the first to host electro house acts of the 2010s commercial EDM wave like David Guetta, Skrillex or Steve Aoki.

For these reasons, I would suggest going back to using "electronic dance music" instead of the abbreviation EDM in the techno article. Rio65trio (talk) 22:30, 9 August 2022 (UTC)


 * this has been discussed many times at this point, please see above, or in the archives. Note also, this abbreviation was in use in the article years before there was a recognizable "EDM" scene in the US (labeled as such by the industry there). It's a standard academic abbreviation for "electronic dance music", that's all there is to it. That music snobbery exists in the "pure techno" scene, or whatever, or that the so-called "underground" got precious about commercialism, is not our concern, it has nothing to do with musicology, it's in-scene drama (and hypocritical considering alcohol companies have been sponsoring "the underground" for decades at this point). Acousmana 14:50, 10 August 2022 (UTC)


 * It may be that the acronym EDM also appeared in old versions of this article. Until your recent change, however, the term "electronic dance music" dominated the article: it appeared 10 times in the text, EDM only once in brackets.


 * But while past versions of the article are certainly not relevant, Wikipedia should be guided by the contemporary use of technical terms in published media, even if they change over time. If the term EDM is nowadays used in music magazines like Mixmag, DJ Mag or Fazemag (which neither represent the "pure techno scene" nor the techno scene at all) or even in general news media like Vice or NPR (see the examples I gave) in such a way that it is specifically used to refer to the commercial electro house scene aka Guetta/Skrillex/Avicii, Wikipedia should take that into account, right? Rio65trio (talk) 23:34, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree with Rio65trio. The article isn't for musicologists and the most common understandings of terminology should prevail. Having followed the press since the mid-80s, I did not hear the term until the early 2010's, in the context of the US adoption/mutation of dubstep. The abbreviation is recent (in context), loaded, and should be treated as such. Ceoil (talk) 23:46, 10 August 2022 (UTC)
 * nonsense, it's properly sourced, standard terminology, this is a case of WP:IDONTLIKEIT, nothing more. Techno is electronic dance music, the standard abbreviation, across relevant scholarship (i.e. the best available sources) for electronic dance music is EDM. We have used this in the article since 2008, 14 years now, without issue. Readers are perfectly capable of establishing the facts on the matter, and editors insinuating they will be "confused" is quite patronizing really. Ac<b style="color:#804fb3">ou</b><b style="color:#9969c7">s</b><b style="color:#b589d6">m</b><b style="color:#9969c7">a</b><b style="color:#804fb3">n</b><b style="color:#6a359c">a</b> 08:05, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree with this, never read or heard this term before the EDM boom of the 2010s either. Or as Billboard would put it: “Ah, the 2010s. It was the decade that gave birth to EDM. Before 2011, no one ever said that acronym..”
 * I study the electronic dance music literature almost daily, and in the majority of sources EDM is not used as an abbreviation for electronic dance music, but just as a term for the commercial electro house and so on scene. And here we should stick to the published sources and not according to how a term might have been used incorrectly in old article versions. Rio65trio (talk) 14:07, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * "I study the electronic dance music literature": ok, that's odd, because scholarship on the topic uses the term abundantly. I'm familiar with the abbreviation since the mid to late 00s, but that's not an argument for inclusion. There's editorial POV, and there is proper sourcing, sticking to the latter is what we do here. If you want to add more cites, we can do that, not a problem. <b style="color:#552586">Ac</b><b style="color:#804fb3">ou</b><b style="color:#9969c7">s</b><b style="color:#b589d6">m</b><b style="color:#9969c7">a</b><b style="color:#804fb3">n</b><b style="color:#6a359c">a</b> 15:50, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Just a search result list in which the terms "electronic dance music" and "EDM" appear together does not prove anything. You have to read what is actually written in the single texts and what the context is, e.g. if American authors decribe the local EDM scene when they write about drug abuse on festivals. In quite a few search results, if you look closely, its about EDC Las Vegas, breakdowns, build-ups and drops (characteristics of electro house), or also statements like "one cannot find references to EDM in early academic texts."
 * Would you at least agree that the use of the acronym EDM is controversial, while the spelled out 'electronic dance music' causes no comprehension problems at all in this Wikipedia article, and thus would be the better choice? Rio65trio (talk) 16:43, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * "Just a search result list...": it's a routine Google Scholar search that returns a plethora of results featuring "electronic dance music (EDM)": thus confirming that scholarly sources use EDM as an abbreviation/initialism for electronic dance music - generally considered. This is only "controversial" for techno scenesters desperate to present techno as highbrow dance music relative to unabashedly commercial forms. This has happened with the growing/renewed interest in all things techno over the last 5-10 years (and in particular styles that rehash a sound that was genuinely underground 25 years ago). From what I can see, the folk who thought 'EDM' (US music industry label) was something new 10 years ago, or that it was a genre unto itself, have since woken up to the fact that all electronic dance music is EDM! This distinction you are trying to push is simply fan discourse music snobbery, nothing more, it's sub-cultural elitism. If you want me to throw up more cites, fine, but why labor this? <b style="color:#552586">Ac</b><b style="color:#804fb3">ou</b><b style="color:#9969c7">s</b><b style="color:#b589d6">m</b><b style="color:#9969c7">a</b><b style="color:#804fb3">n</b><b style="color:#6a359c">a</b> 19:32, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * "This distinction you are trying to push is simply fan discourse music snobbery" Why are you insinuating that this is just my personal distinction? Above I brought some definitions and classifications to the acronym EDM made by journalists of reputable music magazines like Mixmag, Billboard and others. All just "elitist techno scenesters" and "fans who practice music snobbery"? Rio65trio (talk) 20:15, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * "definitions and classifications to the acronym EDM made by journalists of reputable music magazines like Mixmag, Billboard and others." you seem to think we should lend more credence to Music PR and advertising revenue driven trade mags/popular music press than independent peer reviewed research on the topic? Why are you so eager to discount valid scholarship? It's rather odd. We have decades of academic research on electronic dance music at this point, I suggest we prioritize that over opinion pieces. <b style="color:#552586">Ac</b><b style="color:#804fb3">ou</b><b style="color:#9969c7">s</b><b style="color:#b589d6">m</b><b style="color:#9969c7">a</b><b style="color:#804fb3">n</b><b style="color:#6a359c">a</b> 21:41, 11 August 2022 (UTC)
 * The term "Dance Music" was used to refer to synth-dance or electronic disco in the period between Disco and House (circa 1980-1985). I have radio-recorded evidences of this (I'm old). Certainly a term that was NEVER used was "post-disco", but the description for that fit what Dance Music was about. So even though the term EDM is much more recent, I have little problems with it because Dance Music is too vague, and people who didn't live in those times seem to think everybody used terms like Italo Disco which wasn't the case at all (maybe right at the turn before 1980 but Disco was soon perceived as a dated word not fit for DIY synthdance). Because there is "dance" music that is non-electronic, I am ok with retroactively attributing to Moroder as being the father of EDM rather than the father of Dance (he is certainly not the father of Disco). TheLionOfKyba (talk) 13:20, 29 March 2023 (UTC)
 * This said I explained elsewhere why I do not believe that Techno was invented in Detroit. To me Detroit Techno is the EBM Of Detroit, a sound that evolved from the Industrial Dance genre (only called EBM in a few specific areas and by a selected group of artists). TheLionOfKyba (talk) 13:23, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

This article is BS
This article is BS (sorry). What people call EBM was not used in the 1980s except by a number of dutch and german electronic acts. Other people refer to their music as industrial dance, techno dance, or techno pop, etc.. Kraftwerk coined both terms Techno Pop and EBM (debatable because of YMO “Technopolis”, but Kraftwerk were specifically talking about music genres, and planned an album called Techno Pop (though most of it ended sounding more electro pop except a couple pieces)). I believe, I mean.. I testify that the more club oriented music of the industrial movement is where the sound of techno emerged (later romanticized into techno pop by bands like Depeche Mode (only by their third album, as before that they were synthpop)). Throbbing Gristle had scratched the term “Techno Primitiv” on their Discipline single released in 1980, a term reused as an album title by Chris & Cosey before Detroit Techno was even heard of. This article is 2/3 about Detroit because of naive uninformed people who don’t know enough to hear that in the Detroit Techno sound, somewhere what you actually hear is simply the "EBM of Detroit", which is to say, we should remind ourselves how very few acts actually tagged themselves as “EBM” while much more knew and used the word “techno” (in varied ways, often with other terms) circa or before Juan Atkins. That Detroit Techno is sonically informed by House is correct, but it is also influenced by poppier acts that were themselves influenced by earlier harder-sounding acts like Cabaret Voltaire. Bands that weren't doing "synthpop" at all. Denying a link between industrial dance and techno is lamentable. Listen to Mohnomishe 6 by Zoviet:France: it is experimental techno in 1983. You would call that EBM? No it’s rather the Techno Primitiv sound that Throbbing Gristle hinted at. I wish the people who write about Detroit Techno would give up and accept that there was a lot of the Detroit sound in what many now refer to as “EBM” (a stupid term, sorry Front 242). The sound link is more obvious than with Moroder-ish EDM or synthpop, but that is thanks to bands like Depeche Mode who developed an updated sound that went beyond synthpop, influenced by what this article think is "EBM" (industrial dance) and which was called techno pop in places. I don’t think the band Severed Heads were calling their 1983 single Dead Eyes Opened either synthpop or EBM. It sounds early techno to my ears. They would say that Cabaret Voltaire was what they wanted to sound like originally. That band (Cabaret Voltaire) started in 1978 using harder electronic in a danceable but not quite structured way. They are the originator of the stupid EBM sound (the genre is cool, the term is stupid) that people are talking about (maybe along Suicide's synthpunk). I don’t think we would have techno without them. Kraftwerk were idealists. Cabaret Voltaire emerged in the "industrial movement" and sonically expressed a cold environment of manufactures, as Detroit Techno claim to have done first. Please correct history. TheLionOfKyba (talk) 12:56, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Techno did not come from the US
The first techno track was already made in 1970 by Kraftwerk. A video can be seen on YT from a concert called "carrusel of the youth". Why do people give America credit for electronic music when they barely can get 50 people to a rave party whereas in Europe it was not unusual to see over 4 million dancing people at the love parade event DanishGuru (talk) 01:05, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

"melodies are uncommon". Since when? This is the modern 'minimal' techno that I have no time for. Plenty of techno has melody.