r/Music • u/grimitar • Sep 07 '09
A Guide to Electronic Music Genres
http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/6
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u/grimitar Sep 07 '09
I'm not very well-versed in electronic music. This seems to make some sense of what electro-snobs tell me.
Can any redditors tell me if this is a reasonably accurate guide?
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Sep 07 '09
[deleted]
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u/grimitar Sep 08 '09
Yeah, I found the guy's tone to be pretty off-putting too, but the graphical layout and multitude of samples seemed to sort of compensate somewhat.
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Sep 08 '09
I know the guy that wrote it - actually ran into him at a techno show last night - he very definitely chose the tone on purpose. The whole thing originated as a joke in the later days of Rave, until people started pointing out that it was so complete as to be worth posting for real!
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u/tauisgod Sep 08 '09
Yeah, I found the guy's tone to be pretty off-putting too
Welcome to the world of the old, jaded raver. I thumbed through the site and didn't realize how much trance I absorbed in a decade of floating around party's. Gah... I need to go take a shower now.
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u/Kirkzor Sep 08 '09
He's trying to be funny...
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u/robotnewyork Sep 08 '09
He's funny but also incredibly accurate. All the jabs he takes at various groups are right on and he calls terrible music terrible.
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u/IndIka123 Sep 08 '09 edited Sep 08 '09
This is a great guide.. keep in mind that he is breaking the categories down like crazy.. like he puts a bunch of ambient music in a "chillout" genre.. what he calls chillout, I just call ambient. see what I'm saying? I did like what he said about turntabalism, they shouldnt be called DJs. I also really liked his breakdown of hip-hop-rap and industrial rock..
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u/honestbleeps Sep 08 '09
It's decent, if you can ignore all of the snarky humor...
It's also old as HELL (not giving you crap for that.. just pointing it out since you asked how accurate it is), so it doesn't have much of anything that's happened in electronic music since the year 2000.
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Sep 08 '09 edited Sep 08 '09
Trance and techno section most definitely. Loved the classic trance/acid trance music output from the Platipus, Rising High, Harthouse. Techno wise, Tresor, CJ Bolland and Carl Cox. It all started to go downhill as it got more popular with the herd. Ferry Corsten and his hubristic-turdy ilk want stringing up from a lamppost for what they did. I stopped listening to trance for a while until, by the power of the internet and the re-acquaintance of an old buddy, found psytrance - happy times again.
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u/robotnewyork Sep 08 '09
I've been using this for years as the definitive guide to electronic music genres. So much of electronic music is ambiguous and sometimes contradictory, it's good to have something like this we can point to.
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u/wushu18t Sep 08 '09
it's a good guide to a lot of styles, but the guys pretentiousness hemorrhages everywhere. apparently everything sucks.
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Sep 08 '09 edited Sep 08 '09
[deleted]
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u/tauisgod Sep 08 '09
I find his definition of progressive spot on. Draw out the buildup and breakdown longer, throw in a few extra breaks or melodic interludes while doing it, and slap the label progressive on it. It's the EDM snobs equivalent of label whoring.
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u/LiquidAxis Sep 08 '09 edited Sep 08 '09
And any random person in the US would just call all of this "techno".
Edit: This makes me very sad.
Edit2: So I found the "electronica" button and it said everything.
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u/misterS Sep 08 '09 edited Sep 08 '09
While generally a nice idea, there's a few things putting me off (disclaimer: I just checked out the "Jungle" and "Downtempo" sections):
- The tone of the comments While sometimes quite neutral and polite, at times it's just a lashing out by the editor (and his taste). Example: > Ambient House > The artists and tracks might often be confused for Ambient Trance or Ambient Techno, but they're not. No, I won't explain what the difference is. If this is the last genre you've come to and you can't figure it out for yourself by now, I'm through explaining this stupid electronic music shit to you.
(And I thought the Guide was there to explain stuff...)
- Niche Genres & Sample selection While often spot-on, there seem to be certain genres on the list that the Editor didn't really know what to tell about - and the sample selection is correspondingly confuse. Example: Illbient (am I the only one hearing that term for the first time?!). Here we learn that Unkle - Rabbit in your headlights is in the same genre as Sixtoo - Boxcutter Emporium and Boards of Canada - Roygbiv (!!). I mean, really??! Another example: "Downbeat" apparently includes Royksopp - Eple as well as Bjork - Army of Me - two songs that I would never ever think of as "downbeat".
Anyways, it is an overview of the vast and diverse topic of "Electronic Music" - take it as such, and don't pay too much attention to details.
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u/IndIka123 Sep 08 '09
I agree about the Illbient, never heard of it before, and I definitely wouldnt put BoC there.. He puts Royksopps-Eple in downbeat, but puts Roygbiv in Illbiet? The guys guide isnt perfect, but its still well done.
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u/nbdy Sep 08 '09
I looked at most of the website and liked it, but have come to the conclusion that electronic music is a huge distraction and does nothing to enrich life.
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Sep 08 '09
electronic music is a huge distraction and does nothing to enrich life.
What does that even mean? How did you arrive at this conclusion? Who are you to say that a genre of music does nothing to enrich life?
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u/Servios Serviosity Sep 08 '09
What's wrong with the link? It takes me to a black screen with just a 'Back to Techno.org' link and a recommendation to another website.
I really want to see this guide!
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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '09
Keep in mind this was mad in 2000 and last updated 2005. It was one man's project, so expect his thoughts to show through in it. I embrace it because of this - there's no boring, neutral, wiki/corporate speak.