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.

Rock and Roll

Let me get this out of the way in the beginning. I am a huge fan of rock and roll, and as such am usually not accepting of other types of musical genres. So even though I have a sort of built-in bias against the travesty that is the state of modern pop music, I think almost everyone can agree that things have fallen off a bit from the glory days. But it is not all doom and gloom in the musical realm! There are still some acts out there today that are holding it down for those of us with a bit of taste. One of my favorite acts of the last couple of years has been Muse, who I started following back when they were small in the United States around 2004.

My friend Ben introduced me to them, and we were able to catch a show for really cheap in Greensboro owing to their relative obscurity. It was love at first sight when they took the stage. They put on one of the most energetic shows I have ever seen, only to be matched by Daft Punk and another of their own shows 2 years later at Lollapalooza. Their guitar work is one of my favorite aspects of their music, though they also bring in lots of electronic manipulation and keyboards like Radiohead (another one of my favorites!). Muse puts out really innovative music that does not conform to the cookie-cutter models a lot of pop music adheres to, and I respect them for that. I know I sound cranky and out of sorts over this whole thing, but when I see the commercial success of the music put out by the likes of Nickelback I start to see red. No one should be subjected to that swill, it is like aural torture.

I am happy to report that Muse is hard at work on a new album, and it should be out within the next year or so. There may be hope for pop music yet, if acts like Radiohead and Muse can still succeed in this mess. I am not sure if we will ever see something like the glory days of classic rock, where a steady stream of innovative and topical music came about, but at least some bands are pushing the envelope. I am also keeping my eye on some smaller acts that are coming up right now, and hopefully they will be able to step their game up to the point that they compare favorably with Muse or Radiohead. A guy can dream can he not?

I actually tried to learn guitar not too far back, and failed miserably. I did not have aspirations of being a rock star or anything, but I would have liked to chill out and play acoustic once in a while. I think I am going to give it another try soon, if pop music does not make the cut I will have to make my own.