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Ok, time to actually post something in my LJ.
I am seriously into music. Specifically electronic and/or dance-oriented music. This is my passion, this is what I want to do for a living, this is what makes me happy. It is not a joke, neither is it a niche or gimmick. Dance music is a multi-million dollar industry and an art form which is almost half a century old. If you make fun of it, you are making fun of me because it is pretty much my entire life right now. I understand if it's not your thing, if you don't like listening to it, aren't a big fan, whatever. I don't expect everyone to love it. Everyone has their tastes. However, just because it doesn't appeal to you doesn't mean that it isn't something that many--including myself--take seriously.
Alright, now that we've established that, let's take a look at a few important facts:
#1 - Dance music has subgenres. They may not be very well defined but they exist. I personally don't even really agree with the way most people split it up, but there are different kinds of dance music and having terms to distinguish them is a useful thing. I understand if you don't know the difference between them or disagree with them, but that's fine as long as you acknowledge that not all dance music sounds the same.
#2 - The word "Techno" already means something. Now, it's kind of fuzzy: there's a lot of dance music out there that could be techno but people disagree on whether it is or isn't. However, there are many examples of things which definitely are or definitely are not techno.
Definitely Techno:
Maybe Techno:
Definitely NOT Techno:
As shitty of a definition this may be, it exists, and there isn't any other accepted word for this subgenre of dance music. Given that, I'm sorry, but unless we want to be confusing, we need to stop using "Techno" as an umbrella term for electronic dance music. It's a cool-sounding word, has a nice ring to it, and I agree it makes perfect sense as a term to describe all EDM, but it already has an accepted definition, so I'm sorry but it's out.
As an analogy, in case you're not a dance music fan--it's just as bad as calling all of today's popular rock music "punk" or "alternative".
What else should you call it? How about EDM, when typing, or "dance music" when speaking. EDM has fewer letters and "dance music" only has one more syllable! People who shy away from using "Techno" often, however, slip into another trap:
#3 - "Electronica" is a term that was made up by the media, and it doesn't mean what you think it means. Specifically, in its original sense, it denotes electronic music not specifically made for dancing. The term was originally applied to ambient/experimental electronic music, IDM, and other forms of electronic music that broke the mold of EDM. However, the original definition barely got off the ground before people started to misuse it as a word for electronic music in general. Because no one really knows what the word means at this point, it's best just to avoid it.
In any case, lumping all electronic music together is even worse than lumping all dance music together. The use of computers and related technology is so prevalent in modern musical performance that "electronic" isn't really a useful way of describing the style of a particular artist or song. Electronic rock is still rock, electronic pop is still pop, electronic dance music is still dance music.
If you disagree with me or don't know what I'm talking about just drop me a line
<3
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