Sorry I was having difficulty posting this in general music topic

Do American people appreciate how much black (and white) american music from from Chicago, Detroit and NY in the 80s influenced European music? I'm not sure they do properly, obviously many do, not sure that the real love is there for the legends like it is over here among the countless EDM raving cabbages nowadays 

I like the classics a lot: my favorite genre of music is Hip Hop and the 80s was a great decade for that genre in America. All of it is a little bit before my time, and I relied on so many autechre mixes, documentaries about early Hip Hop, and reading/watching interviews with the masters from the 80s, but it came to be my favorite decade and music and helps me appreciate the newer stuff that I like in Hip Hop. Can't say how influential it was, as my knowledge of the popular European music during and after the 80s is spotty, but I can imagine that it was very influential.

Ofc but I also believe that US also learned alot from European music scene, Maybe not so much in the 80's but definetly more in the 90s and later on. 

  On 1/5/2025 at 2:11 AM, Mattthegoone said:

Do American people appreciate how much black (and white) american music from from Chicago, Detroit and NY in the 80s influenced European music? I'm not sure they do properly, obviously many do, not sure that the real love is there for the legends like it is over here among the countless EDM raving cabbages nowadays 

American people in general? Certainly not. Most Americans don't really know what techno is, let alone how it differs from electro or house music. Is Frankie Knuckles a household name in Dublin?

There is a bigger audience for non-shite electronic music in Europe, at least in live/club situations. The great producers from the 80s (and even now) are more widely appreciated in Berlin or London than in Chicago or Detroit. (In Chicago there's (AFAIK) exactly one decent club—compared to how many dozens in Berlin? I'm not sure about the situation in Detroit or NYC.) But I think this is all well known.

Some of my friends expressed disappointment when DJ Stingray moved to Berlin from Detroit; but I hardly see how to reasonably blame him. 

DJ Stingray 030

Yes I appreciate it but we gave u britpop !!!!

  On 1/5/2025 at 6:20 AM, joseph said:

American people in general? Certainly not. Most Americans don't really know what techno is, let alone how it differs from electro or house music. Is Frankie Knuckles a household name in Dublin?

There is a bigger audience for non-shite electronic music in Europe, at least in live/club situations. The great producers from the 80s (and even now) are more widely appreciated in Berlin or London than in Chicago or Detroit. (In Chicago there's (AFAIK) exactly one decent club—compared to how many dozens in Berlin? I'm not sure about the situation in Detroit or NYC.) But I think this is all well known.

Some of my friends expressed disappointment when DJ Stingray moved to Berlin from Detroit; but I hardly see how to reasonably blame him. 

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No he definitely isn't, doubt he is in many places, we have fuck all good clubs here now too, our government seem hell bent on killing our old decent nightlife scene, I'm probably a bit too old to give any sort of decent commentary on club life here but it seems to be shite now

Some of my era liked him

Detroit techno was huge here among a limited age bracket,  we had nightclubs playing techno all week out the yingyang, and the DEAF fest, I feel lucky enough to have witnessed that, I think Eamon from D1 was probably trying his best to get the likes of Drexciya over but it wasn't their buzz

We're small fish with our own subset, close enough to the UK to keep abreast of what's going on but they don't give a fuck about what we do generally and they don't need to

  On 1/5/2025 at 11:47 AM, Crazing said:

Yes I appreciate it but we gave u britpop !!!!

 

You still owe us an apology. 

After the "death of disco" in the US, in Europe electronic and dance music still remained more or less mainstream with genres like Italo disco and synthpop, which evolved into EBM, Belgian New Beat and other more underground genres. So when acid house arrived from the US to Europe the general population was more willing to accept it and it quickly merged with the local European genres. Meanwhile the majority of people in the US were still hung up on guitar rock and it took much longer for electronic music to take hold.

You can still see it with the older IDM fans who got into Aphex via NIN in the US, while a lot of Europeans got into Aphex via the electronic music scene and TV and radio programs.

Was thinking about this thread today. Even though the American music coming out of NYC, Chicago, and Detroit in the 80s had a massive influence on the music in other countries, it may be true that Europe, Germany specifically, was the real source. Thinking about Kraftwerk in particular. Kraftwerk may have made all of this great American 80s music possible. Interestingly they were influenced by James Brown, who I think arguments can be made is the most influential musician of the modern era, James Brown and his band, and how he managed his band, the music they ended up making.

was cool to see Autechre give James Brown props in that interview that @droid did with them. I also heard that Aphex was asked in SoundCloud comments which musician he would want to have the master recordings of if he could choose anyone, and he said James Brown. I have not seen that comment myself so do not know if it true. Anyway long live the funk master Mr. Brown, from Barnwell, South Carolina  

D.A.F. (Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft) idea was once a thing in early techno scene, I remember.

Also don't forget that Kraftwerk were Trans Europe Express-ing from Paris to Düsseldorf to meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie back in '76

First time I heard that track I thought they were saying ‘trance Europe express’

Ol' RDJ definitely has a soft spot for funk

  On 1/9/2025 at 7:37 PM, zkom said:

Ol' RDJ definitely has a soft spot for funk

Who doesn't!!!

The Jamaican influence on electronic music goes a bit underappreciated. It's not a coincidence that d'n'b, jungle, breakbeat hardcore, trip hop etc all originate from the UK which has a large Jamaican diaspora.

  On 1/5/2025 at 2:11 AM, Mattthegoone said:

Do American people appreciate how much black (and white) american music from from Chicago, Detroit and NY in the 80s influenced European music? I'm not sure they do properly, obviously many do, not sure that the real love is there for the legends like it is over here among the countless EDM raving cabbages nowadays 

Unlikely, but even in the heyday of house music in Chicago in the 80's your average suburban middle class white person would have had no idea who Frankie Knuckles or Ron Hardy were, and the kind of music they were playing was not heard on mainstream radio. The black/hispanic and gay roots of house and techno have been so stripped out of so much modern club music that I'm doubtful that many producers and dj's have much awareness of where it came from, not to mention the club goers.

  On 1/9/2025 at 5:34 PM, zkom said:

After the "death of disco" in the US, in Europe electronic and dance music still remained more or less mainstream with genres like Italo disco and synthpop, which evolved into EBM, Belgian New Beat and other more underground genres. So when acid house arrived from the US to Europe the general population was more willing to accept it and it quickly merged with the local European genres. Meanwhile the majority of people in the US were still hung up on guitar rock and it took much longer for electronic music to take hold.

You can still see it with the older IDM fans who got into Aphex via NIN in the US, while a lot of Europeans got into Aphex via the electronic music scene and TV and radio programs.

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That's a great point. I remember that from the old Hyperreal IDM list, which was mostly full of Americans. Seemed like many of them discovered Warp because some of the early releases were licensed in the US by TVT Wax Trax in the early 90's. On the other hand I got to know a lot about industrial music which was completely outside my wheelhouse, coming from a European techno/house/drugs background. 

  On 1/9/2025 at 6:29 PM, decibal cooper said:

Interestingly they were influenced by James Brown, who I think arguments can be made is the most influential musician of the modern era, James Brown and his band, and how he managed his band, the music they ended up making.

100% 

It's actually hard to get your head around how big of an influence he was on music. Funk is just a given in everything now. 

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:05 PM, Enthusiast said:

That's a great point. I remember that from the old Hyperreal IDM list, which was mostly full of Americans. Seemed like many of them discovered Warp because some of the early releases were licensed in the US by TVT Wax Trax in the early 90's. On the other hand I got to know a lot about industrial music which was completely outside my wheelhouse, coming from a European techno/house/drugs background. 

For whatever the reason the CD for the KLF's Chill Out I bought from Finland was the TVT Wax Trax version. I have no idea why they were importing from the US. But Finland also was really the backwoods of electronic music in the early 90s, unless you're talking about eurodance which was playing everywhere, every fucking where.

  On 1/11/2025 at 4:02 PM, zkom said:

For whatever the reason the CD for the KLF's Chill Out I bought from Finland was the TVT Wax Trax version. I have no idea why they were importing from the US. But Finland also was really the backwoods of electronic music in the early 90s, unless you're talking about eurodance which was playing everywhere, every fucking where.

The stuff coming out on Sähkö back then sounded like it was from another planet. Still does. Was there much awareness of what they were doing in Finland at the time?

  On 1/12/2025 at 12:07 AM, Enthusiast said:

The stuff coming out on Sähkö back then sounded like it was from another planet. Still does. Was there much awareness of what they were doing in Finland at the time?

I think around the time Pan Sonic (then Panasonic) started to become internationally famous the music press started to pay attention, and this was 1995 and after. But I think they had to become well known outside Finland before they were acknowledged in Finland. After that the press started to follow other artists like Jimi Tenor who later got signed to Warp.

Sähkö was a bit weird in that it was between the underground dance music scene and the art world. There was all kind of weird electronic stuff, musique concrète, etc since the 1960s like Erkki Kurenniemi and Sähkökvartetti, but they were more like academic artsy thing. And Sähkö Records, Mika Vainio, Pan Sonic and so on were sort of combining that with the underground techno and house scene.

To my understanding there had been underground acid house parties and warehouse raves at least in Helsinki and Turku since the late 80s, but that stuff was completely unheard of in the periphery where I was living. It was far from any mainstream. I remember Jori Hulkkonen, who is a relatively well known Finnish house producer, saying that he was mainly influenced by Swedish radio he could listen in Finland living close to the border.

I have this on a VHS tape from Blast First, a Mute subsidiary. It was shot and edited by Jimi Tenor on 16mm film. It's still fucking amazing.

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:05 PM, Enthusiast said:

That's a great point. I remember that from the old Hyperreal IDM list, which was mostly full of Americans.

I was there. A Finn. Not from the beginning, but real close. Over 30 years ago. I was pretentious AF, but I think I might've grown past that in recent years. Growing old is definitely not for sissies.

https://www.discogs.com/master/99703-3MB-Featuring-Magic-Juan-Atkins-3MB-Feat-Magic-Juan-Atkins

Essential listening for lovers of this mystical topic!

Pan Sonic CDs weren't actually easy to come by even in Finland, but for whatever the reason was, maybe they were thought of as culturally significant enough, the local library had some. So I loaned some and ripped to mp3s

  On 1/12/2025 at 1:10 AM, dcom said:

I have this on a VHS tape from Blast First, a Mute subsidiary. It was shot and edited by Jimi Tenor on 16mm film. It's still fucking amazing.

 

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Oh man this was a real treat! I have been in Finland once and I can truly imagine the cold winters mid 90's there with Industrial, small factories, landscapes and dockyards. 
Time is just seems to be still and the only thing you got is this room of gear to go into your own creative zone with! 

The saxophone solo at 28.44 min in. Do you might know where it comes from? I think I heard that melody before.