7 ms·

Can you distinguish these two? In my head EDM & techno occupy the same space.

jahnu 3y ago
The exact meaning of EDM has shifted over the years but I would say that currently it means stuff like Skrillex and Hardwell whereas techno is more like Carl Craig or Inigo Kennedy or Charlotte de Witte
HKH2 3y ago
One clear difference is that EDM tends to have a lot of lyrics, whereas Techno tends not to.
- iamacyborg 3y ago
  Depends on the subgenre of Techno. A lot of hardcore and Tekno features a lot of movie samples.
  - HKH2 3y ago
    I meant words that are sung not spoken.
input_sh 3y ago
> In my head EDM & techno occupy the same space. That's the case for a lot of "normies", but it really feels insulting to the electronic music fans in general. Unlike say rock nobody's gonna ask you to know every band in existence and every album they put out decades ago, but you should be able to distinguish between major electronic music genres like house, techno, drum and bass, trance, hardstyle and what not. Sometimes the line gets really blurry, sure, but 90% of the time it's pretty easy to know what you're listening to. The vibe is different, the tempo is different, the people that go to those places are different, pretty much everyone develops some sort of a very specific preference, and European countries kinda "specialize" based off of that. If you want techno, you go to Berlin. If you want grime, you go to London. If you're into house, you go to a beach in Croatia. I'd say the Netherlands are a bit all over the place, but what really sets them apart is hardstyle, which is pretty much not a thing anywhere else. And so on, and so on. That's not to say you can't find other things in those places, but they're always gonna be a bit more niche and you kinda have to know what you're looking for to find them.
- randomopining 3y ago
  Netherlands is top in Europe overall. Most Berlin people are migrating to Amsterdam.
  - eythian 3y ago
    They must really love the music then, they sure as hell aren't moving for the better housing prices. I'm not at all in the Amsterdam EDM or hardstyle scene (just not my music), but I had indirectly got the feeling that it was slowly declining (ADE excepted), I could be quite wrong though, maybe they're just all in NDSM or something.
    - randomopining 3y ago
      ADE is wild. I don't think anything else compares.
  - omnimus 3y ago
    Hardly. Amsterdam is comparatively small city = much smaller audience. You can se the stability of the scene in how often clubs close down. Just recently De School closed (now it should be reopen again under different management/name). Some of the Berlin clubs have been open and solid for 20 years.
    - randomopining 3y ago
      Did De School close because lack of interest? From what I've experienced (during ADE) and also heard, Amsterdam is very popular for all the techno sub-genres.
- bnralt 3y ago
  > That's the case for a lot of "normies", but it really feels insulting to the electronic music fans in general. Unlike say rock nobody's gonna ask you to know every band in existence and every album they put out decades ago, but you should be able to distinguish between major electronic music genres like house, techno, drum and bass, trance, hardstyle and what not. Plenty of people are able to enjoy music without getting caught up in nomenclature. The idea that those people aren't real fans always feels very snobbish.
noelwelsh 3y ago
Compare: * Plastikman: Spastik: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TYsOMYaz6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TYsOMYaz6E (minimal techno) * Fred Again: Pull Me Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6Rz1Uvi2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6Rz1Uvi2M (house / "EDM") (EDM is more a US term than a European one, IME.) I think the differences in style are quite obvious.
- jahnu 3y ago
  Ahhh Ritchie Hawtin. Legend! A friend was playing this in a bar last night and it took me back. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOtCXu6dCE&pp=ygUTc3lzdGVtIDcgYWxwaGEgd2F2ZQ%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOtCXu6dCE&pp=ygUTc3lzdGVtIDc...
  - scns 3y ago
    Killer Acid tune.
- scns 3y ago
  Fred Again is pretty unique, would not classify him as EDM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-hvjV2A5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-hvjV2A5Y
empath-nirvana 3y ago
There's two definitions of EDM, the first is it's original intended definition, which was as a blanket classification for all electronic dance music -- techno, jungle, house, dubstep, whatever. Instead of calling it techno or electronica, or whatever, EDM was meant to encompass all of it. Almost immediately after the term started being used, though, it became strongly associated with a particular type of dance music -- namely the mainstream house music that got played at big "EDM" festivals -- think David Guetta and Afrojack and Avicii and Tiesto... They used a blanket term when putting the festival together because the festival booked all kinds of dance music, but the main stages were dominated by a particular kind of dance music, so for most people that went to those festivals, that was the kind of music they associated with EDM. "Techno" went through a similar evolution. It was originally a term for a particular subgenre of disco and kraftwerk influenced dance music coming out of detroit in the 1980s, around the same time that house music was starting up in Chicago and garage music started up in New York. It pushed further into pure electronic sounds than house and garage did (at first) and early techno compilations solidified in people's minds that electronic music was "techno", especially in america, so "techno" for a while became a catch-all term for all kinds of electronic music. That faded away when "electronica" and then "edm" sort of took on that role, and techno continued as a subgenre of music by itself. So, I think, properly, techno is a _sub genre_ of "electronic dance music" in the general sense, but is a different genre than what a lot of people think of as EDM (the kind of house music played at large festivals).
- ricksunny 3y ago
  Thanks, that helps. I would love to see a classifier try to cluster tracks across the different types of "not-necessarily-festival-EDM', and compare to see if it clusters as many fans also would.
  - NamTaf 3y ago
    It’s not anything to do with AI, but you might like this: https://music.ishkur.com/ https://music.ishkur.com/ Crazy to think it’s been a thing since the 90s when it was built in Flash!

The exact meaning of EDM has shifted over the years but I would say that currently it means stuff like Skrillex and Hardwell whereas techno is more like Carl Craig or Inigo Kennedy or Charlotte de Witte

HKH2 3y ago

One clear difference is that EDM tends to have a lot of lyrics, whereas Techno tends not to.

iamacyborg 3y ago
Depends on the subgenre of Techno. A lot of hardcore and Tekno features a lot of movie samples.
- HKH2 3y ago
  I meant words that are sung not spoken.

input_sh 3y ago

> In my head EDM & techno occupy the same space. That's the case for a lot of "normies", but it really feels insulting to the electronic music fans in general. Unlike say rock nobody's gonna ask you to know every band in existence and every album they put out decades ago, but you should be able to distinguish between major electronic music genres like house, techno, drum and bass, trance, hardstyle and what not. Sometimes the line gets really blurry, sure, but 90% of the time it's pretty easy to know what you're listening to. The vibe is different, the tempo is different, the people that go to those places are different, pretty much everyone develops some sort of a very specific preference, and European countries kinda "specialize" based off of that. If you want techno, you go to Berlin. If you want grime, you go to London. If you're into house, you go to a beach in Croatia. I'd say the Netherlands are a bit all over the place, but what really sets them apart is hardstyle, which is pretty much not a thing anywhere else. And so on, and so on. That's not to say you can't find other things in those places, but they're always gonna be a bit more niche and you kinda have to know what you're looking for to find them.

randomopining 3y ago
Netherlands is top in Europe overall. Most Berlin people are migrating to Amsterdam.
- eythian 3y ago
  They must really love the music then, they sure as hell aren't moving for the better housing prices. I'm not at all in the Amsterdam EDM or hardstyle scene (just not my music), but I had indirectly got the feeling that it was slowly declining (ADE excepted), I could be quite wrong though, maybe they're just all in NDSM or something.
  - randomopining 3y ago
    ADE is wild. I don't think anything else compares.
- omnimus 3y ago
  Hardly. Amsterdam is comparatively small city = much smaller audience. You can se the stability of the scene in how often clubs close down. Just recently De School closed (now it should be reopen again under different management/name). Some of the Berlin clubs have been open and solid for 20 years.
  - randomopining 3y ago
    Did De School close because lack of interest? From what I've experienced (during ADE) and also heard, Amsterdam is very popular for all the techno sub-genres.
bnralt 3y ago
> That's the case for a lot of "normies", but it really feels insulting to the electronic music fans in general. Unlike say rock nobody's gonna ask you to know every band in existence and every album they put out decades ago, but you should be able to distinguish between major electronic music genres like house, techno, drum and bass, trance, hardstyle and what not. Plenty of people are able to enjoy music without getting caught up in nomenclature. The idea that those people aren't real fans always feels very snobbish.

noelwelsh 3y ago

Compare: * Plastikman: Spastik: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TYsOMYaz6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TYsOMYaz6E (minimal techno) * Fred Again: Pull Me Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6Rz1Uvi2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6Rz1Uvi2M (house / "EDM") (EDM is more a US term than a European one, IME.) I think the differences in style are quite obvious.

jahnu 3y ago
Ahhh Ritchie Hawtin. Legend! A friend was playing this in a bar last night and it took me back. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOtCXu6dCE&pp=ygUTc3lzdGVtIDcgYWxwaGEgd2F2ZQ%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOtCXu6dCE&pp=ygUTc3lzdGVtIDc...
- scns 3y ago
  Killer Acid tune.
scns 3y ago
Fred Again is pretty unique, would not classify him as EDM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-hvjV2A5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-hvjV2A5Y

empath-nirvana 3y ago

There's two definitions of EDM, the first is it's original intended definition, which was as a blanket classification for all electronic dance music -- techno, jungle, house, dubstep, whatever. Instead of calling it techno or electronica, or whatever, EDM was meant to encompass all of it. Almost immediately after the term started being used, though, it became strongly associated with a particular type of dance music -- namely the mainstream house music that got played at big "EDM" festivals -- think David Guetta and Afrojack and Avicii and Tiesto... They used a blanket term when putting the festival together because the festival booked all kinds of dance music, but the main stages were dominated by a particular kind of dance music, so for most people that went to those festivals, that was the kind of music they associated with EDM. "Techno" went through a similar evolution. It was originally a term for a particular subgenre of disco and kraftwerk influenced dance music coming out of detroit in the 1980s, around the same time that house music was starting up in Chicago and garage music started up in New York. It pushed further into pure electronic sounds than house and garage did (at first) and early techno compilations solidified in people's minds that electronic music was "techno", especially in america, so "techno" for a while became a catch-all term for all kinds of electronic music. That faded away when "electronica" and then "edm" sort of took on that role, and techno continued as a subgenre of music by itself. So, I think, properly, techno is a _sub genre_ of "electronic dance music" in the general sense, but is a different genre than what a lot of people think of as EDM (the kind of house music played at large festivals).

ricksunny 3y ago
Thanks, that helps. I would love to see a classifier try to cluster tracks across the different types of "not-necessarily-festival-EDM', and compare to see if it clusters as many fans also would.
- NamTaf 3y ago
  It’s not anything to do with AI, but you might like this: https://music.ishkur.com/ https://music.ishkur.com/ Crazy to think it’s been a thing since the 90s when it was built in Flash!