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I'm not questioning the experience of North American music lovers and club-goers like yourself, I'm sure you could get your hands on that stuff. But take a loo

I'm not questioning the experience of North American music lovers and club-goers like yourself, I'm sure you could get your hands on that stuff. But take a look at the Wikipedia pages for the tracks and artists you mentioned, and see how high they went in the US vs European charts (to be fair, I was surprised that the Prodigy did so well in the US) My claim is that the degree to which a genre becomes mainstream in a location is a good reflection of this place being "ground zero" for it.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago
Yeah I'm just saying it was far more mainstream than is intimated. "Charts" have always been a marketing tool, it's questionable to me from the 80s on how much they reflect what people were actually listening to. The point is that mass consumption of dance music was a huge thing in North America. I mean it's funny. In the early 90s I went to visit my extended family in Germany. At that point I was already a major techno fan, but the funny thing is that when I went to Europe all my cousins, the music they listened to was mostly American R&B and hip-hop. Watching overdubbed episodes of Family Matters. Huge consumers of a side of North American culture that I did not. So to me the demographic situation is more complicated. I think many Europeans on this thread might have a biased perception of what music consumption in the 90s in North America looked like based more on North American exports than on what was actually happening here. That and most people here are quite young.
- anthk 5y ago
  >I think many Europeans on this thread might have a biased perception of what music consumption in the 90s in North America looked like based more on North American exports than on what was actually happening here Kinda like the American perception on European's techno culture. Hint: when the clubs released their yearly compilation based on 3 or 4 CD's, you had one disc per genre: Techno, trance, house and progressive/sung. So in the end we listened to all of the EDM offer inbetween depending on the mood. Also, as I said, dance megamix CD's in Spain could be found as early as late 80's. Ok, more like vinyls, but the concept stays.
- tailspin2019 5y ago
  renaudg and cmrdporcupine I don't have much to add to this apart from to say I think you're both right to varying degrees. But more importantly I'm enjoying this passionate discourse on HN about a genre of music that I care deeply about. I think it's fair to say that dance music today wouldn't exist without the breadth of innovation that happened on both sides of "the pond" in recent decades - and to not be too European/US centric - elsewhere around the world too.
  - Jesus_piece 5y ago
    Agree with this 100%

cmrdporcupine 5y ago

Yeah I'm just saying it was far more mainstream than is intimated. "Charts" have always been a marketing tool, it's questionable to me from the 80s on how much they reflect what people were actually listening to. The point is that mass consumption of dance music was a huge thing in North America. I mean it's funny. In the early 90s I went to visit my extended family in Germany. At that point I was already a major techno fan, but the funny thing is that when I went to Europe all my cousins, the music they listened to was mostly American R&B and hip-hop. Watching overdubbed episodes of Family Matters. Huge consumers of a side of North American culture that I did not. So to me the demographic situation is more complicated. I think many Europeans on this thread might have a biased perception of what music consumption in the 90s in North America looked like based more on North American exports than on what was actually happening here. That and most people here are quite young.

anthk 5y ago
>I think many Europeans on this thread might have a biased perception of what music consumption in the 90s in North America looked like based more on North American exports than on what was actually happening here Kinda like the American perception on European's techno culture. Hint: when the clubs released their yearly compilation based on 3 or 4 CD's, you had one disc per genre: Techno, trance, house and progressive/sung. So in the end we listened to all of the EDM offer inbetween depending on the mood. Also, as I said, dance megamix CD's in Spain could be found as early as late 80's. Ok, more like vinyls, but the concept stays.
tailspin2019 5y ago
renaudg and cmrdporcupine I don't have much to add to this apart from to say I think you're both right to varying degrees. But more importantly I'm enjoying this passionate discourse on HN about a genre of music that I care deeply about. I think it's fair to say that dance music today wouldn't exist without the breadth of innovation that happened on both sides of "the pond" in recent decades - and to not be too European/US centric - elsewhere around the world too.
- Jesus_piece 5y ago
  Agree with this 100%