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I always figure what makes house and techno different from earlier electronic music and contemporaneous synthpop is more contextual than musical. House and tech

I always figure what makes house and techno different from earlier electronic music and contemporaneous synthpop is more contextual than musical. House and techno tended to be made by individuals, not by bands. It was put together by people who started with synthesizers, and then stopped with synthesizers. There was no attempt to even fake that there was some live drummer or live keyboard player as part of the "performance". In the case of house (perhaps less so with techno), the goal was to get your tracks played by DJs who were mixing them up with other tracks played at local nightclubs, it was not to end up on Top of the Pops. I think this difference in motivation matters, because it explains better how house and techno evolved into what they are today. Of course, all genres are arbitrary and there continues to be lots of cross-pollination between electronic music that is mainstream/popular and the stuff people are just throwing together in their bedrooms for their mates online or for the local party scene.

whstl 3y ago
If we go by this, then part of Detroit Techno is also out. Or at least Juan Atkins, one of the Belleville three: Cybotron was a rock band with guitars. They only started doing electronic-only music later.
- rumori 3y ago
  There are two Cybotrons. One is an Australian rock band from the 70s and the other is Juan Atkins and Richard Davis from Detroit. While the latter had some rock influence as well, they predominantly did “Detroit electro” driven by drum machines like the 808, prime example being Clear.
  - whstl 3y ago
    Nope. I’m talking about the same Cybotron. Jon-5 was an early member and he was a guitar player. Eventually he quit since the direction changed. But there's still some guitars in some tracks in the Enter album. And Juan Atkins later left because Richard Davis wanted to focus on rock again.
- projectazorian 3y ago
  Atkins’ contributions to techno go well beyond Cybotron. When Atkins left the group, he started recording solo under the aliases Model 500 and (later) Infiniti. The early Model 500 releases like “No UFOs”, in addition to being absolute classics, demonstrate the progression from electro to what we would now call Detroit techno. He also collaborated with many of the Berlin techno pioneers in the 90s, forming a key link between the two cities. Not to mention that Atkins mentored May, Saunderson, and many of the other techno originators. (ps. Cybotron is not really techno, IMO. It is better categorized as electro with a few prog-rock and post-punk flourishes, a sort of proto-techno. But pointing this out makes you kind of a pedantic bore, so most are happy to go along with calling Cybotron techno.)

whstl 3y ago

If we go by this, then part of Detroit Techno is also out. Or at least Juan Atkins, one of the Belleville three: Cybotron was a rock band with guitars. They only started doing electronic-only music later.

rumori 3y ago
There are two Cybotrons. One is an Australian rock band from the 70s and the other is Juan Atkins and Richard Davis from Detroit. While the latter had some rock influence as well, they predominantly did “Detroit electro” driven by drum machines like the 808, prime example being Clear.
- whstl 3y ago
  Nope. I’m talking about the same Cybotron. Jon-5 was an early member and he was a guitar player. Eventually he quit since the direction changed. But there's still some guitars in some tracks in the Enter album. And Juan Atkins later left because Richard Davis wanted to focus on rock again.
projectazorian 3y ago
Atkins’ contributions to techno go well beyond Cybotron. When Atkins left the group, he started recording solo under the aliases Model 500 and (later) Infiniti. The early Model 500 releases like “No UFOs”, in addition to being absolute classics, demonstrate the progression from electro to what we would now call Detroit techno. He also collaborated with many of the Berlin techno pioneers in the 90s, forming a key link between the two cities. Not to mention that Atkins mentored May, Saunderson, and many of the other techno originators. (ps. Cybotron is not really techno, IMO. It is better categorized as electro with a few prog-rock and post-punk flourishes, a sort of proto-techno. But pointing this out makes you kind of a pedantic bore, so most are happy to go along with calling Cybotron techno.)