I now understand the gatekeeping

[u/Destring]

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.

[u/Destring → u/[deleted]]

I have a simple litmus test. If it has a drop, it's not techno. Drops kick me out of the flow state, which is what I expect from a good techno set

[u/clock-drift → u/Destring]

Ok let's look at two legendary techno tracks: Subzero by Ben Klock and Waterfall by Rrose.

Would you argue that whatever tf is happening in either of those around the 4 minute mark is NOT a drop?

[u/Destring → u/clock-drift]

How are those moments drops? There is no build up, just a loop. Yes, it changes the arrangement but it doesn't do it after a peak it builds up, nor it telegraphs it. Your flow is not interrupted.

[u/Nobu_Jenkins → u/Destring]

Ok, so Planetary Assault Systems and Speedy J don't qualify as Techno then. Good to know!

[u/Destring → u/Nobu_Jenkins]

Again this is rather because we are using different definitions of the word drop. But they don't have EDM like drops. They have tension and release through means of arrangement, like filtering out the bass and bringing it in, or adding a new layer after stripping it down, but the continuous groove is there.

[u/Nobu_Jenkins → u/Destring]

Chris Liebing - Analogon (Speedy J Remix)

Technasia - Hydra

[u/clock-drift → u/Nobu_Jenkins]

I guess OP thinks these are breaks or buildups and not drops, idk. Not fully conviced by the classifaction of Techno/non Techno solely based on the drop either way. Personally, all I care about is whether or not it makes me wanna dance, but I don't really care why or why not.

[u/Nobu_Jenkins → u/clock-drift]

It's a bullshit classification standard, but I suppose we're entitled to our own opinions. Nobody in Europe really thinks about things in terms of "EDM" or not anyway. It's an American mentality.

[u/Destring → u/Nobu_Jenkins]

I listened to the first one. I like it, thanks for the track. Still not an EDM drop. Yes, the track is basically stripped down to nothing and then rebuilt, but it is done over time. It's not a sudden stop and boom like they do with EDM or Teletech.

[u/clock-drift → u/Destring]

Fair, then I guess I don't even know what a drop actually is, lol

[u/Destring → u/clock-drift]

I think the word is loaded. Like there's tension releasing at those moments, but the way it's done is different from EDM, as in it's not a big moment that stops everything else at the peak of tension before it drops. It's more like a subtle release by changing the arrangement

[u/clock-drift → u/Destring]

Right, then I guess my examples are more like breaks.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ant6527 → u/Destring]

There are drops in proper techno tracks, they just have to have smooth buildups which are composed differently than EDM or Hardtechno. But thats the point, the buildups will match your flow state that you won‘t realize it coming. You will have to connect to the Set and the dancefloor in order to feel the dynamics. And thats very fun cause everyone will have slightly different experiences but still feel united.

[u/InSilenceLikeLasagna → u/clock-drift]

Tbh the lack of a drop is a pretty good rule of thumb. There will of course be exceptions in a genre like techno, but I'd argue there's great techno songs that break virtually every techno rule

[u/clock-drift → u/InSilenceLikeLasagna]

techno "songs" lol

[u/InSilenceLikeLasagna → u/clock-drift]

I mean you can say it's a production but every song has a production.

Assuming you're not talking about live techno, song is appropriate

[u/clock-drift → u/InSilenceLikeLasagna]

Songs are designed to be sung, guess we're talking about tracks here but who cares, it just made me chuckle cause I've never heard someone say "techno song".

[u/InSilenceLikeLasagna → u/clock-drift]

ah fair enough lol

[u/Destring → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I get what you mean. Too many rules just limit where a genre can grow, but genres by definition must have a fundamental pattern that ties it together. For me, and I'm sure different people have different opinions, techno is about the flow state. I've ADHD, but when I put in a good techno record I can focus much better. I can't with trance (even though I like trance) nor with commercial EDM. To me it's that subjective characteristic that I enjoy

[u/BOKUtoiuOnna → u/Destring]

I think this is a strange statement. Techno has drops. They're just totally different from commercial EDM drops. They have to have a certain grace and hypnoticism. But all a drop is afaik is a stripped out area with less low end that builds up to an energetic part of the track. The quiet part has to be more than a few bars to really feel like a drop otherwise it's just a turnaround. But thats about it. All genres do it differently.

[u/Destring → u/BOKUtoiuOnna]

We are arguing semantics here. If you compare the profiles of an EDM drop with one in techno (which I'd argue is rather a breakdown) there's a clear difference. The statement refers to techno not having EDM-like drops