History of Rave Culture
The idea that "techno usually has NO message, no image etc. it is faceless" is certainly not one that is embraced by enough of a majority for it to be considered an intrinsic property of techno itself, but rather an indication of what Mr./Mrs./Ms. ALLES NAAR DE KLOTE is getting out of it. This is an important distinction that needs to be made, I think, when discussing exactly what the nature of the state of the "techno" art is.
I doubt that Mr./Mrs./Ms. ALLES NAAR DE KLOTE can concoct an example of any kind of music that is utterly devoid of either "message" or "image" without invoking a generalized (i.e. weak), Cageian definition of music; even then, an argument that anything perceived as "music" could also be perceived as having a
"message" or "image" practically by definition could be made, for example, by appealing to the analogy of humankind's search for the "meaning of life" or something like Iannis Xenakis' remarks in _Formalized_Music_ about the tendency of humans to impose a notion of order on random sequences.
The fact that a lingua franca has emerged in techno (for example, the popularity of the TR-909, 303 bassline, the Juno-106) is ample evidence that not only do techno songs have messages, but that these messages are strong enough to have produced a set of musical styles. Techno is an effective form of musical communication -- it has managed to get pretty far considering that it can't easily be promoted on television (since it provides no MTV-suitable visuals and half the fun comes from the fact that the DJ is an active performer). As an aside, it might be my imagination, but it seems that techno music is much more easily exchanged among different countries than is the case with other popular styles, presumably because there isn't as much of a language barrier as there is with more lyrically-based music (such as rap).
One of the triumphs of techno is a more thorough assimilation of
electronic
I doubt that Mr./Mrs./Ms. ALLES NAAR DE KLOTE can concoct an example of any kind of music that is utterly devoid of either "message" or "image" without invoking a generalized (i.e. weak), Cageian definition of music; even then, an argument that anything perceived as "music" could also be perceived as having a
"message" or "image" practically by definition could be made, for example, by appealing to the analogy of humankind's search for the "meaning of life" or something like Iannis Xenakis' remarks in _Formalized_Music_ about the tendency of humans to impose a notion of order on random sequences.
The fact that a lingua franca has emerged in techno (for example, the popularity of the TR-909, 303 bassline, the Juno-106) is ample evidence that not only do techno songs have messages, but that these messages are strong enough to have produced a set of musical styles. Techno is an effective form of musical communication -- it has managed to get pretty far considering that it can't easily be promoted on television (since it provides no MTV-suitable visuals and half the fun comes from the fact that the DJ is an active performer). As an aside, it might be my imagination, but it seems that techno music is much more easily exchanged among different countries than is the case with other popular styles, presumably because there isn't as much of a language barrier as there is with more lyrically-based music (such as rap).
One of the triumphs of techno is a more thorough assimilation of
electronic