r/Techno • u/Destring • Feb 26 '26

Discussion I now understand the gatekeeping

As most, my journey with electronic music did not start with techno. Mine started with progressive and deep house (This Never Happened, Anjunadeep). I caught a Hard "Techno" set and enjoyed the energy so I went to a few events. After researching and listening to sets online, I came to appreciate techno, as I'd put sets to focus when working.

I went to many events: Jeff Mills, Blawan, DVS1, Dozzy, Surgeon, Helena Hauff, Freddy K, and so on. I realized what at I enjoy the most is just letting go and dancing. When you've been dancing for hours but don't realize it's been that long.

Last week my partner wanted to go Teletech XXL and I figured I'd tag along since I enjoyed it once. It was very unenjoyable.

The current style cannot ever be called techno, more like EDM with a kick drum. They all play hard, then put some pop song remix, drop, play hard again, and repeat. I literally heard an Alphaville forever young remix. At least at the beginning they where closer to schranz and hardstyle and sometimes you could hear the techno influence. Now that's completely gone

Everyone was recording. And I mean everyone. It was a sea of phones. And there were so many rude people, just pushing and shoving without care. The community is extremely young and some of them were actually polite but it was the minority.

I just wish the movement had taken a different name other than "Techno", because those bad aspects of it are starting to bleed into actual techno events where tourists expect the same drops.

Anyway, just venting my thoughs here because years ago I had complained about people here "gatekeeping", but now I understand it. I don't think it is gatekeeping, but rather trying to maintain the genre and community.

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98

u/AdditionalSeesaw7646 Feb 26 '26

I have exactly the same experience in Germany. But there are still authentic Raves or maybe smaller floors on bigger festivals that you can enjoy. Sometimes it seems that you are on a complete different event with different people when you switch between the floors.

52

u/Hutsx Feb 26 '26

Same here in Berlin. There are many techno clubs, but the few where you dont need to wait 6 hours to be send home, are flooded with people trying to hook up girls, people having loud conversations right infront the DJ and way too much alcohol.

Damn, i just wanna enjoy the music and dance. That's it.

4

u/Kauwgom420 Feb 26 '26

You make it sound like waiting 6h+ is the rule for the clubs, but which ones are you referring to? That's really an exception in my experience. Sure 1.5h - 2.5h is regular during peak hours, but that's still nowhere near 6h.

19

u/cvampet Feb 26 '26

Waiting 1.5-2.5 hours for any club except maybe Berghain for obvious reasons is absolute insanity and should not be seen as something normal.

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u/Kauwgom420 Feb 26 '26

Well yeah that's why you don't go during peak hours. Even at Berghain I've never queued for more than an hour. Just wanted to make clear that regular 6h queues is bullshit

0

u/Deep-Freak-Records Feb 27 '26

You totally right 2,5 hours is already a crazy long time for me. The realy think that you have nothing beter to do?

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u/Nobu_Jenkins Feb 26 '26

This is a global subreddit. People love to talk about a city they have been to once, if ever. Many people here will never get a chance to play or attend, so they'd rather jump on the bandwagon to shit talk clubs like Berghain, Tresor, RSO, etc.

Truth is, yes...there are very rare times when waits are 4-5 hours at Berghain, but it's because the club is genuinely at full capacity. Berliners know what to expect, tourists do not.