Rise of Techno in America

I am not sure exactly why…but lately I have really, really gotten into techno music. Growing up, I didn’t really even know what techno music was. Sure, I knew a couple songs by Fatboy Slim, but in general I was totally in the dark. I was a total preppy board sport kid throughout my youth so I mostly stuck to punk rock and occasionally ventured into the hip hop waters as well. The first time I really listened to techno was when I went on a snowboarding trip to Durango Colorado my sophomore year in college. I rode in a small Tacoma truck with a good friend of mine and his younger brother. Funny enough it was his younger brother who started banging out Basshunter on his I-pod. At first I thought it was dumb Euro-trash (I am proud to be an American). But after I heard DOTA for the first time I was hooked. Then I went to San Francisco for an internship for six months, so naturally, I was exposed to a high level of techno emanating from the Castro district. I am not exactly sure what it is with Gay people and Techno music, but they certainly do enjoy it quite a bit. Seriously, every gay friend I have ever had has a huge section in their music library devoted to techno remixes to any song you can think of. Basshunter remains my favorite techno artist to this day, but I also enjoy Benny Benassi, Tiesto, Cosmic Gate, and a whole slew of others.