Techno History
  > Electronic Music History > Techno History
    ELECTRONIC MUSIC                
    > Late 19th cent. early 
    20th cent.
    > 1940s to 1950s
    > 1960s to late 1970s
    > Late 1970s to late
    1980s
    > 1980s to early 2000s
   
     
  Stylistically, techno features an abundance of percussive, synthetic sounds, studio effects used as principal instrumentation, and a fast, regular 4/4 beat in the 130-140 bpm range. It is very DJ-friendly, being mainly instrumental, relatively atonal (often without a discernible melody or bass line), and produced with the intention of being incorporated into continuous DJ sets wherein different compositions are played with very long, synchronized segues. Although several other dance music genres can be described in such terms, techno has a distinct sound that aficionados can pick out very easily.  
   
   
   
   
     
     
    There are many ways to make techno, but a typical techno production is created using a compositional technique that developed to suit the genre's sequencer-driven, electronic instrumentation. While this technique is rooted in a Western music framework (as far as scales, rhythm and meter, and the general role played by each type of instrument), it does not typically employ traditional approaches to composition such as reliance on the playing of notes, the use of overt tonality and melody, or the generation of accompaniment for vocals. Some of the most effective techno music consists of little more than cleverly programmed drum patterns that interplay with different types of reverb and frequency filtering, mixed in such a way that it's not clear where the instrument's timbres end and the effects begin.  
ELECTRONICA
   
    > Post-rave fusions
    > Growing commercial
    interest
   
   
     
     
AMBIENT
   
    > Styles of ambient :
    music
   * Organic ambient music
   * Nature inspired
     ambient music
   * Isolationist ambient
     music
   * Ambient electronic
     music
   * Ambient dub
   * Ambient groove
   
   
  Instead of employing traditional compositional techniques, the techno musician treats the electronic studio as one large, complex instrument: an interconnected orchestra of machines, each producing timbres that are at once familiar and alien. These machines are set in motion one by one, and are encouraged to generate the kind of repetitive patterns that are more 'natural' to them. Depending on how they are wired together, they sometimes influence each other's sounds as the producer builds up many layers of syncopated, rhythmic harmonies and mingles them together at the mixing console.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
    After an acceptable palette of compatible textures is collected in this manner, the producer begins again, this time focusing not on developing new textures but on imparting a more deliberate arrangement of the ones he or she already has. The producer "plays" the mixer and the sequencer, bringing layers of sound in and out, and tweaking the effects to create ever-more hypnotic, propulsive combinations. The result is a deconstructive manipulation of sound, owing as much to Debussy and the Futurist Luigi Russolo as it does to Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream.  
     
DRUM & BASS
   
    > History
    > Musicology
   
   
     
    The techno producer's studio can be anything from a single computer (increasingly common nowadays) to elaborate banks of synthesizers, samplers, effects processors, and mixing boards wired together. Most producers use a variety of equipment and strive to produce sounds and rhythms never heard before, yet stay fairly close to the stylistic boundaries set by their contemporaries.  
         HOUSE MUSIC    
    > Late 1960s to early
    1980s
    > Early 1980s-Late
    1980s : Chicago years
    > Late 1980s-Early
    1990s : British
    Connection
    > Social aspects of
    raves
    > Late 1980s to early
    1990s : United States
    > Early 1990s to mid
    1990s : " Summer Love"
    > Mid-1990s & beyond
    > The rise of the UK
    "superclub"
   
   
   
     
     
  < Previous page        
     
     
     
     
     
     
       
       
TECHNO
     
    > History
    > Musicology
     
     
       
         
         
  Terms & Conditions Copyright Privacy Policy Credits   < Back to Home