h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Music Genres: Techno - A2238437
Author: Lightspeed Carpet Fudge - U230265

I hope this meets all the criteria needed for this forum...

Hi Lightspeed and welcome to Peer Review.

I've never really thought too much about different genres of techno music, but this helped me see that there is a difference in styles (which goes a long way towards explaining why, before now, I had techno sorted into two groups: techno I liked and techno I didn't like )

That said, I do have a few suggestions for you.

"The techno genre houses many of the subgenres of mainstream dance music, including rave and trance. Techno is also a subgenre itself in this category."
How can techno be a subgenre of techno?

I'm not sure that 'vocals' needs an explanation in a footnote, it's a pretty basic musical concept.

In the Techno section you use an example then say it's not a good example, instead why not use a better example? Someone a bit more widely known? Wouldn't most of the Matrix soundtracks fall under techno? Or maybe Nine Inch Nails?

About your description of Trance music, I would have expected trance to be not quite as melodic as you say, and quite a bit more repetitive - hence the 'trance' aspect.

And toward the end of the entry you should spell out synthesiser (check spelling first) and eliminate the footnote. Do they still use synthesisers, or is everything computer generated these days?


A nice first effort . Peer Review will help you whip it into shape and get it into the edited guide

Ok, thanks for the comments on my article, I will take these into account when updating my article. By the way, do you have to re-submit the article if it is changed?

Your entry remains in Peer Review while you are making changes and updates during the review process unless you remove it. So you don't have to re-submit, but you can let us know here in this conversation when you've made updates.

Hi Lightspeed Carpet Fudge..

So this is your first entry to Peer Review. All I can say is it's very good! I don't know a thing about techno music, being a drastically unhip 22 year old...

Yes Milso is right, your entry will remain in Peer Review whilst you change it, just post to this thread to let us know when it's updated, then we can pop back and comment on it.

I do have a few small nits I could pick, *gets out fine tooth come*

But really this is excellent work, especially for a first time writer.. and it certainly looks like the sort of thing that will get into the Edited Guide when a few small changes have been made...

Z

Lightspeed, I think this entry has potential. Are you still around to polish it up a bit?

Yeah, I'm still around. I'll get to work at polishing this article as soon as I can. Probably.

Hi there!

It's a nice start you have there - a good overview of the music styles within the 'techno' genre.

A few comments, if I may:

> Concluding statement - as it stands now, it ends a little abruptly - perhaps a few words on places to go etc?

> Where would the music of the Propellerheads and Fat Boy Slim fit in (this one's for my own curiousity...)

> And a personal thing-thing - DJ Sammy as trance? Sasha and Digweed are far, far superior

Looking forward to reading more

Stay ,
WD

Nice.

I just miss some historic perspective...

When did the term 'techno' come up? Is Kraftwerk proto-techno, and what about Jean Michel Jarre and all those sythesizer heroes. Using electronic/technical gizmos to produce music is a quite old idea, I think Orff used some. I also think that techno music has parallels with the development of sythesizers. Would the Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and Pink Floyd's 'On the Run' be some early stage in techno-music? Didn't techno evolve from/with house, acid house and stuff lke that.... Y'know, this might be stuff for an Entry in itself. A paragraph or so would be nice to plece the Entry in time.

Just my 2p

HELL

That's a good idea, I was thinking about inserting some techno history myself.

The only real electronic music lot I know are the chemical brothers (I like the weird videos) where do they fit in?

Researcher PSG

I think it's either 'Acid House' or 'Big Beat'. I don't know, I heard that somewhere...

How's this coming along?

Um... I haven't been doing a lot on H2G2 recently, but hopefully I should get some work done on this article soonish.

Hi, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but this article seems a bit confused and misled.

You use the term techno as an umbrella, so as to encompass all forms of electronic dance music. This is a common mistake, but also a serious one. The term Techno does not mean simply dance music, otherwise the Spice Girls would have been techno pioneers!!

I nearly choked when I saw you catalogue Chicane as techno. It is a perfect example of commercial trance. As for Dane Bowers, I don't even understand where you got that idea from! What part of his record even sounds remotely like techno?? When you say that trance isn't so different to techno, again this is competely wrong. Though they are both forms of electronic music, trance is built around harmonies and melodies, using catchy riffs and uplifting tunes, often with female vocals. Techno is very much built around percussion, and often has no recognisable melody or harmony, instead opting to create a bass driven percussive sound. As for vocals in techno, they are generally seen as unecessary and not included. As a general rule of thumb, techno is a much more mechanical, harder, rougher sound than trance. Trance is not itself a form of techno. It is a type of electronic dance music yes, but definitely not techno.

You seemed to have got the idea with Drum & Bass, with it being underground, and having very little commercial value until you mentioned a couple of artists. Kosheen I will grant you. They do fall under the category of D&B. However, Mr Reds and Stanton Warriors are not D&B. They are breakbeat (often shortened to "breaks") They produce the same sounds as peope like Freq Nasty and Koma and Bones, who are breaks artists. Hence why they have mixed albums such as "Y4K - Next level breaks" Breaks is a similar rhythm pattern to D&B, but slower, and chunkier, and often without the heavy rolling basslines of D&B.

If you disagree with these definitions, then please pick up a copy of any "dance" music magazine. You will find the record reviews are split up into techno, trance, house, D&B, breaks etc. Take a look at the artists in each section. You won't find the Stantons on the D&B page!

I'm not attacking you, nor trying to cause trouble. I just think you have misunderstood the situation. The general media classify anything electronic as techno, so I think a lot of people think that if a track has a 4/4 beat that means it is techno. This is really not the case, more just what people read in ill-informed publications like The Sun, usually in articles about how it is the Devil's music, and every single person in the club is out of their minds on drugs etc etc etc. Misled, misinformed, and simply wrong. But unfortunately, a lot of people don't realise they are being fed wrong information, and so the confusion arises.

I definitely agree with one thing you said though. Techno is a very fragmented music, and it seems that every year there is another style emerging. With a range of styles including glitch, minimal, schranz, acid and wonky techno it can be pretty hard to keep track of it all!!

I think you need to look into it a bit more, and research a bit wider, to make sure your info is accurate. But I definitely appreciate that you decided to write something about techno music, and try to educate people about it.

Keep it up!!

Rich.

He's right about techno vs trance. Techno can include vocals, however mostly they are used as FX (i.e. sped up a lot or repeating the first 1/16th rapidly a lot to sound different) if they are used. Techno's almost a hybrid of Trance and Rave (probably closer to rave)

Oh and while we're at it, could someone define the following:

Trance

Hard Trance

Euro Dance

Trance House

Goa-Psy Trance

Sphere Trance

Classic Trance

Vocal Trance

Hard House

Deep House.

Guess which one was made up?

There was that episode of 'Dancing in the Streets,' the BBC's musical history from a few years ago, that talked a lot about how techno grew up from early hip-hop and a wee bit about the original Detroit pioneers. Can't remember much more about it than that, sorry.

The thing that struck me about this entry is that it just wasn't nearly 'fannish' enough. To write about any sort of music (particularly more underground music) you really need to be a bit of a geek about the scene. If you aren't, you get pulled up pretty smartly (cf post 16). Maybe a bit of historical research and the aforementioned dance magazines might be useful.

Unfortunately, I'm not your man for techno... just don't start me talking about indie rock

Matt

Indie rock?! Not my style, but it's good to see something fires you up!

I think the main problem is that techno is completely misunderstood by the media, so most things you see on TV or read in the paper about the music are incorrect. I am personally a little shaky on the whole history of the genre (Detroit/Belgium/Germany etc) but as a genuine techno fan I know what does and what doesn't fall into the category. Believe me, Dane Bowers doesn't even come close!

But then you get artists like Scooter, or even 2 unlimited quoting themselves as techno, seeing it as a buzz word, and so trying to cash in on it. Again, this just confuses the general public.

It probably sounds really arrogant/pompous to say it (and I apologise in advance) but to understand the scene you have to be part of it. If you're trying to categorise it simply from what you've seen, read, been told by your mate then you're going to get a wrong impression. I really do feel that this article has some serious errors, and needs work.

As for the geek/fan thing, you got me there...