Detroit - the myth

B

bassnation

the abyss
mms said:
you don't need to as no detroit dj has ever done that.
also you're really stereotyping a small part of detroit techno in a way - from a long time ago - it's a much broader church than that, - there aren't even that many detroit tracks with emotive strings - - it's the electronic funk that 's the coining element of the detroit sound
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and i tell you what i'm also finding a bit boring, which was fresh initially is all the myriad basic channel copyists. for a genre thats supposed to be so left field theres a huge amount of generic grainy scratchy dub-by-numbers techno workouts. however, moaning about the ratio of quality is an issue with any music as we know. i'd still rather listen to it than babyshambles, for sure, but its kind of irritating when even left field out there stuff becomes mapped out and predictable. i'm thinking mike huckabee, echospace even. i've got a hard disk full of the stuff, some of it is great but over an hour of it is an underwhelming deja-vu prone experience.
 
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john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
luka said:
how come london doesn't have a myth like detroit techno and new york hiphop? thats my favourite city for music over the last almost 20 years by a long way. i think london kills it.
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it's being worked on...

;)

Perhaps London falls down by having produced so much awesome stuff.

Berlin has a myth attached to it purely because of basic channel, pole et al - presumably because it is all in the same ballpark.

For London "The 'nuum" (TM) has to battle it out with punk, post-punk, brit pop, the Beatles, etc in a way other places don't.

Tho I guess you can argue that Detroit also had Motown to contend with tho...
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"For London "The 'nuum" (TM) has to battle it out with punk, post-punk, brit pop, the Beatles, etc in a way other places don't."
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Why do you say the Beatles for London - do you think that's how the rest of the world sees them or that they were adopted by London or what?

"Tho I guess you can argue that Detroit also had Motown to contend with tho..."
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And the Stooges, MC5, Funkadelic, Eminem etc
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
phew john. . as well as motown,

people like iggy pop and other non dance artists, non of which i can think of at the moment. duh !
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Except, I think that across the pond, which is where Detroit techno first made it's mark, most of those artists, even Motown, were not so closely associated with the word 'Detroit' by the casual observer, that was still up for grabs you know.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Except, I think that across the pond, which is where Detroit techno first made it's mark, most of those artists, even Motown, were not so closely associated with the word 'Detroit' by the casual observer, that was still up for grabs you know."
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I reckon Motown (and the Motor City 5) were surely associated with Detroit by most - and even if not by the casual observer it probably isn't the casual observers who create and worship the myths.
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
It's about the word association. Motown is Motown Records, not Detroit Records. So you can still claim the Detroit.com domain so to speak. That's what I think anyway.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
IdleRich said:
Why do you say the Beatles for London - do you think that's how the rest of the world sees them or that they were adopted by London or what?

And the Stooges, MC5, Funkadelic, Eminem etc
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Well the Beatles were based in London at the peak of their international success, but I used them mainly as shorthand for beatles/stones/swinging sixties stuff really.

I can see Detroit had similar individual bands/artists over the same time period but not movements - which I think is what you need before a myth can be created.
 
M

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
That's not correct Jon, they did have a movement and a party scene, all of Detroit listening to The Wizard or Mojo, all the prep party action, the MI, the Scene TV program etc etc - they just don't report the same as the UK press - it was a proper outsider movement if you ask me.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"That's not correct Jon, they did have a movement and a party scene, all of Detroit listening to The Wizard or Mojo, all the prep party action, the MI, the Scene TV program etc etc - they just don't report the same as the UK press - it was a proper outsider movement if you ask me."
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I think he's saying that other detroit music apart from techno didn't have a scene in the same way as techno. I reckon though that you might make a case for The Stooges and MC5 growing out of some kind of garage scene involving ? and They Mysterians and, er, others.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
IdleRich said:
I think he's saying that other detroit music apart from techno didn't have a scene in the same way as techno. .
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Yeah sorry if that wasn't clear.

IdleRich said:
I reckon though that you might make a case for The Stooges and MC5 growing out of some kind of garage scene involving ? and They Mysterians and, er, others.
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I think you could make that case but it hasn't be done yet...

What I am getting it is:

Myth = location + musical movement + media reportage
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I think you could make that case but it hasn't be done yet..."
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Well, just to be argumentative, I stuck "garage scene detroit" into google and it came up with this on wikipedia

"Detroit was a center of the 1960s garage rock scene, with such legendary bands as The Amboy Dukes (featuring guitarist Ted Nugent), The Bob Seger, Question Mark and the Mysterians, the MC5, and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. In the 1970s, Seger, Nugent, Alice Cooper, and Grand Funk Railroad (from Flint, Michigan) were popular rock stars."
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But I accept it hasn't been eulogised in the same way.
 
M

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
IdleRich said:
I think he's saying that other detroit music apart from techno didn't have a scene in the same way as techno. I reckon though that you might make a case for The Stooges and MC5 growing out of some kind of garage scene involving ? and They Mysterians and, er, others.
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Google Jit, it just doesn't get reported but that doesn't mean there's no scene - ask anyone from Detroit about when the Wizard was on the radio, the whole city just about stood still.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Pestario said:
Can't grime fit into that model?
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well I hope so but it's let down by the lack of media coverage, which is the final stage in the mythologisation.

You can see the beginnings of it though with papers like the Telegraph and all sorts reviewing the "an england story" compilation. But basically grime doesn't really appeal to the people in the media who make the myths as yet.
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
i think the media has already made a myth in that grime = violence, it will no doubt take a while for it to loose that stereotype despite plenty of anti violence sentiments in grime.

or the artschool crowd start influencing the media in some way. dunno really.
 
H

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
Bang Diddley said:
http://metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=12036

82 "Strings of Life" Rhythim is Rhythim (Transmat) 1985

This most famous of all Derrick May productions was made with processed piano, layered beats and other effects. Though it seems rather tame today, 20 years ago it was considered the zenith of the electronic dance avant-garde. May clearly took inspiration from Chicago house, gaining cred when DJ Frankie Knuckles apparently played it seven times in a row at the famed Power Plant. But the track really exploded as a staple on outdoor festival sound systems in the UK and in the evolving dance club scene all over Europe. (WW)
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Wow, that's actually a pretty accurate and level headed description of this track, quite a surprise. Don't know how big it was in europe outside of the UK, though, personally I've never heard it played anywhere. It might have been played before I got into techno around '91/'92, but in that case nobody seemed to remember it by then.
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
yeah it was nude photo and the dance that were played late 80's. i think strings came more popular with all the piano house coming in the early 90's. i think strings is over rated tbh.
 
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