Techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music[2] which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range of 120 to 150 beats per minute (BPM). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat.[3] Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.
Not to be confused with (free) tekno music.Techno
Mid-1980s, United States (Detroit), and West Germany (Frankfurt, Berlin)
Much of the instrumentation in techno is used to emphasize the role of rhythm over other musical aspects. Vocals and melodies are uncommon. The use of sound synthesis in developing distinctive timbres tends to feature more prominently. Typical harmonic practices found in other forms of music are often ignored in favor of repetitive sequences of notes. More generally the creation of techno is heavily dependent on music production technology.
Use of the term "techno" to refer to a type of electronic music originated in Germany in the early 1980s. In 1988, following the UK release of the compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit, the term came to be associated with a form of EDM produced in Detroit.[4][5] Detroit techno resulted from the melding of synth-pop by artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Yellow Magic Orchestra with African-American music such as house, electro, and funk.[6] Added to this is the influence of futuristic and science-fiction themes[7] relevant to life in contemporary American society, with Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave a notable point of reference.[8][9] The music produced in the mid-to-late 1980s by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson (collectively known as The Belleville Three), along with Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter, James Pennington and others is viewed as the first wave of techno from Detroit.[10]
After the success of house music in a number of European countries, techno grew in popularity in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Europe regional variants quickly evolved and by the early 1990s techno subgenres such as acid, hardcore, bleep, ambient, and dub techno had developed. Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use of the term, so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related but often qualitatively different styles, such as tech house and trance.[11][12][13][14]
Antecedents[edit]
Early use of the term 'Techno'[edit]
In 1977, Steve Fairnie and Bev Sage formed an electronica band called the Techno Twins in London, England. When Kraftwerk first toured Japan, their music was described as "technopop" by the Japanese press.[147] The Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra used the word 'techno' in a number of their works such as the song "Technopolis" (1979), the album Technodelic (1981), and a flexi disc EP, "The Spirit of Techno" (1983).[148] When Yellow Magic Orchestra toured the United States in 1980, they described their own music as technopop, and were written up in Rolling Stone Magazine.[149] Around 1980, the members of YMO added synthesizer backing tracks to idol songs such as Ikue Sakakibara's "Robot", and these songs were classified as 'techno kayou' or 'bubblegum techno.' In 1985, Billboard reviewed the Canadian band Skinny Puppy's album, and described the genre as techno dance.[150] Juan Atkins himself said "In fact, there were a lot of electronic musicians around when Cybotron started, and I think maybe half of them referred to their music as 'techno.' However, the public really wasn't ready for it until about '85 or '86. It just so happened that Detroit was there when people really got into it."[151]
Proto-techno[edit]
The popularity of Eurodisco and Italo disco—referred to as progressive in Detroit—and new romantic synth-pop in the Detroit high school party scene from which techno emerged[152] has prompted a number of commentators to try to redefine the origins of techno by incorporating musical precursors to the Detroit sound as part of a wider historical survey of the genre's development.[15][153][154] The search for a mythical "first techno record" leads such commentators to consider music from long before the 1988 naming of the genre. Aside from the artists whose music was popular in the Detroit high school scene ("progressive" disco acts such as Giorgio Moroder, Alexander Robotnick, and Claudio Simonetti synth-pop artists such as Visage, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Human League, and Heaven 17), they point to examples such as "Sharevari" (1981) by A Number of Names,[155] danceable selections from Kraftwerk (1977–83), the earliest compositions by Cybotron (1981), Moroder’s "From Here to Eternity" (1977), and Manuel Göttsching's "proto-techno masterpiece"[154] E2-E4 (1981). The Eurodisco song I Feel Love, produced by Giorgio Moroder for Donna Summer in 1976, has been described as a milestone and blueprint for EDM because it was the first to combine repetitive synthesizer loops with a continuous four-on-the-floor bass drum and an off-beat hi-hat, which would become a main feature of techno and house ten years later.[156][110][157] Another example is a record entitled Love in C minor, released in 1976 by Parisian Eurodisco producer Jean-Marc Cerrone; cited as the first so called "conceptual disco" production and the record from which house, techno, and other underground dance music styles flowed.[158] Yet another example is Yellow Magic Orchestra's work which has been described as "proto-techno"[159][160]
Around 1983, Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire began including funk and EDM elements into their sound, and in later years, would come to be described as techno. Nitzer Ebb was an Essex band formed in 1982, which also showed funk and EDM influence on their sound around this time. The Danish band Laid Back released "White Horse" in 1983 with a similar funky electronica sound.
Prehistory[edit]
Certain electro-disco and European synth-pop productions share with techno a dependence on machine-generated dance rhythms, but such comparisons are not without contention. Efforts to regress further into the past, in search of earlier antecedents, entails a further regression, to the sequenced electronic music of Raymond Scott, whose "The Rhythm Modulator," "The Bass-Line Generator," and "IBM Probe" are considered early examples of techno-like music. In a review of Scott's Manhattan Research Inc. compilation album the English newspaper The Independent suggested that "Scott's importance lies mainly in his realization of the rhythmic possibilities of electronic music, which laid the foundation for all electro-pop from disco to techno."[161] In 2008, a tape from the mid-to-late 1960s by the original composer of the Doctor Who theme Delia Derbyshire, was found to contain music that sounded remarkably like contemporary EDM. Commenting on the tape, Paul Hartnoll, of the dance group Orbital, described the example as "quite amazing," noting that it sounded not unlike something that "could be coming out next week on Warp Records."[162]
Music production practice[edit]
Stylistic considerations[edit]
In general, techno is very DJ-friendly, being mainly instrumental (commercial varieties being an exception) and is produced with the intention of its being heard in the context of a continuous DJ set, wherein the DJ progresses from one record to the next via a synchronized segue or "mix."[163] Much of the instrumentation in techno emphasizes the role of rhythm over other musical parameters, but the design of synthetic timbres, and the creative use of music production technology in general, are important aspects of the overall aesthetic practice.
Unlike other forms of EDM that tend to be produced with synthesizer keyboards, techno does not always strictly adhere to the harmonic practice of Western music and such strictures are often ignored in favor of timbral manipulation alone.[164] The use of motivic development (though relatively limited) and the employment of conventional musical frameworks is more widely found in commercial techno styles, for example euro-trance, where the template is often an AABA song structure.[165]
The main drum part is almost universally in common time (4/4); meaning 4 quarter note pulses per bar.[166] In its simplest form, time is marked with kicks (bass drum beats) on each quarter-note pulse, a snare or clap on the second and fourth pulse of the bar, with an open hi-hat sound every second eighth note. This is essentially a drum pattern popularized by disco (or even polka) and is common throughout house and trance music as well. The tempo tends to vary between approximately 120 bpm (quarter note equals 120 pulses per minute) and 150 bpm, depending on the style of techno.
Some of the drum programming employed in the original Detroit-based techno made use of syncopation and polyrhythm, yet in many cases the basic disco-type pattern was used as a foundation, with polyrhythmic elaborations added using other drum machine voices. This syncopated-feel (funkiness) distinguishes the Detroit strain of techno from other variants. It is a feature that many DJs and producers still use to differentiate their music from commercial forms of techno, the majority of which tend to be devoid of syncopation. Derrick May has summed up the sound as 'Hi-tech Tribalism': something "very spiritual, very bass oriented, and very drum oriented, very percussive. The original techno music was very hi-tech with a very percussive feel... it was extremely, extremely Tribal. It feels like you're in some sort of hi-tech village."[145]