AnalogKid wrote:I have never heard any music historians who don't point to Kraftwerk as being the founders of the music genre that would later be called techno.
Oh, really? And where exactly have you come across "music historians" talking about techno?
Techno, while awesome, was a derivation. It's electronic dance music without the pop melody, etc. It has validity because it was "let's shear away all of the pop communication and get straight to the dance." However, it is not new, unique, or relevant in regard to actual electronic music. And if that statement shocks you and pisses you off, then you know NOTHING about what happened from 1900-1970. "Electronic Music" was very specifically about a desire to be able to create new timbres using technology, and generating a means for composers to author music that was not entrenched in Western tradition or traditional instrumentation. It had not one f**k jot to do with looking cool, making people dance, or embracing a pseudo-futuristic aesthetic. By the the goddamned time Kraftwerk came along, electronic music was very goddamned old... and if you don't know it, it just means you've been researching history from internet fanboys instead of understanding actual music history.
AnalogKid wrote: Of course there was electroncic music before Kraftwerk came on the scene. Walter Carlos created Switched on Bach in 1968 and later did the electronic music soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange. There were a number of other electronic musicians as well. However, before Kraftwerk came along, electronic music didn't sound like what we would think of us synth pop/techno.
Oh, really? You plainly know absolutely nothing. Have you ever listened to Wendy's [stop referencing "Walter." She was only "Walter" because the goddamned record companies forced her to adopt that name due to their inability to cope with the shocking situation of her alternative viewpoint. She was "Wendy" decades before you were born] music. You mention Clockwork Orange... have you actually LISTENED to "Timesteps?" Plainly not. There are some hardcore electronic aspects of that that musicians didn't embrace for another 15 years after it was released. You plainly haven't listened to a lot of Mort Garson or Delia Derbyshire, either. Don't just f**k make blind statements based upon what you've read on the internet. LISTEN TO THE MUSIC that isn't ignorantly lauded by people who have no understanding of the actual history of electronic music.
AnalogKid wrote:Here's a Kraftwerk song from 1975. The elements of techno are already here. All synths (no guitars) with synth bass and electronic drums (electronic drums that Kraftwerk invented/built themselves). Show me anything before Kraftwerk that sounds like synth pop/techno and I will no longer believe, along with many music historians, that Kraftwerk was seminal.
Why don't you do some f**k research that isn't based on what you love and wish? It's my job to prove s**t to you. I am an archivist at the Bob Moog Foundation who also has a degree in composition with an electronic music emphasis. Instead of requiring me to contest what you've plainly only f**k read on the internet, why don't you do some form and analysis, music history, and electronic music history research on your own? 1975 is LONG AFTER music had already been written with a dance beat and completely electronic sound sources. FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF.
