Acclaimed DJs Share How Techno And House Music Has Changed – Forbes
by May 29, 2024From left to right: Andrea Oliva (courtesy of Andrea Oliva), Ellen Allien (courtesy of Vitali… [+]
Electronic music has gone through a series of cycles over the decades, influencing genre sounds and what is considered popular at the time. “I would say a ton has changed in the house and techno scene since my career began,” renowned producer Lee Foss says. “I would say the biggest change was the more mainstream acceptance of EDM and trance in America, which has started to filter down as the younger audience’s tastes mature.”
Lee Foss. Courtesy of Lee Foss.
The Internet and social media revolutionized how music was shared, making music more reachable and helping underground genres skyrocket in popularity. “Artists and labels were able to take advantage of the digitalization of the music business,” acclaimed producer Alan Fitzpatrick says. “Social media, including platforms like YouTube, brought immediate and easy accessibility of music, artists and labels to fans. I believe this to be the main reason why we are now in a period where electronic music, and particularly house and techno, has become part of mainstream culture.”
Alan Fitzpatrick. Courtesy of Alan Fitzpatrick.
While some artists believe the changes techno and house music have seen are good, others believe there are negative consequences. Five renowned techno and house DJs share how they’ve seen the industry change over the course of their illustrious careers, how they view these changes, one piece of advice they would give their younger self and more.
Lisa Kocay: How long have you been making music?
Eats Everything: “I’ve been dabbling since 1999, but probably actually making it since 2001/2002. I’ve been DJing since I was 12 in like 1992. So a long time.”
Andrea Oliva: “DJing almost 24 years and producing like 12 [years].”
Ellen Allien: “I have been making electronic music since 1994, and before that I tried playing some instruments and had many jam sessions with friends playing with the guitar, drums, saxophone and all instruments. I tried playing with many instruments to enjoy time with my friends. As a kid, I had one organ playing the kid songs, and my child room was packed with singles. One of my family members filled the Jukebox with music in bars, and they gave me the old singles—fair enough. I had so much pop music in my room, which was perfect for putting fun clothes on and singing and dancing in front of the mirror to all these pop songs like Abba and Blondie—music became my channel to relax my soul, to dance and to dream about a more colorful world. And feeling stronger emotion with music or switching into these feelings that music notes gives me—could be very happy, sad or filling me up with more hope and power.”
Ellen Allien. Courtesy of Vitali Gelwich.
Guy Gerber: “Quite a long time, since high school, so probably 20 years. Or a little bit more, to be honest, like 22 years since I had the guitar.”
Stefano Noferini: “I started 30 years ago at a small radio station in Florence, but my passion for music really started when I was 10 years old. My father and I used to listen to classical music every Sunday morning for hours. It was then when I knew I could not live without music.”
Kocay: How have you seen techno and house music change over the course of your career?
Eats Everything: “Musically, now more so than ever, a lot of the music is definitely harping back to sort of the techno that I first got into during ‘92, ‘93, ‘94. It’s very rough and raw, and everything is getting a bit hard. For a long time everything was quite slow and BPMs were quite slow. Techno was different, but especially with house music everything was a bit slower for a long time. Now we’ve picked up the pace, which I enjoy because I prefer music to be a bit higher tempo….Music is very cyclical and you get kind of a 20 year cycle.
I think with parties, nowadays, I’m starting to see a bit more inclusion. Back when I started, especially at house nightclubs, it was a mixture of gay people, transexuals, transvestites, drag queens, guys that played rugby, ladies’ men, blacks, whites—everyone all in the club together just having an amazing time with no prejudice ever. Now, more so five to 10 years ago, everything started splitting up and separating. Gays didn’t want to come to straight-oriented clubs as much because the more mainstream it gets, the more popular it gets, the more mainstream the crowd becomes. I don’t really want to insult people, but a more mainstream, sort of uncultured attitude to homosexuallity and difference generally breeds within, a lack of acceptance within the party.
Now I feel like it’s getting more inclusive again. It was always about inclusion, it was always about everyone coming together, forgetting about whatever they did and whoever they were from Monday and Friday, and just going out. It’s the same nowadays, but there is a lack of inclusion and I do believe that it’s starting to become a bit more inclusive nowadays again, which is a great thing.”
Eats Everything. Courtesy of Jake Turney.
Andrea Oliva: “The good thing is that house and techno didn’t really change much. But because house and techno are the roots of everything, all the different genres we have now are all a new generation of house and techno. I think it changed in a way because in the music business, there’s a time circle. There are hypes and all of a sudden, techno becomes really popular. Then more and more and more people and artists are listening to a more techno kind of sound. Techno has always been here since day one. Right now, techno is very hyped and people are starting to dig deeper into techno and are very interested in this kind of music. For me, it has always been all about techno and house. Not really about the different hypes, like the new kind of deep house or the more melodic stuff.”
Ellen Allien: “Ups and downs here in Berlin, as the scene became big and small again. Now, it’s constantly good because many music lovers come here to dance or stay here for a while to enjoy the city and nightlife, even if the winter is what they’re calling ‘hard core.’
Now, I can enjoy the club scene much more because there are so many clubs and just more choices. The sound systems are amazing, too, and the club designs are much better.”
Guy Gerber: “In the past few years, I saw obviously a lot of EDM make electronic music more popular. And at one point, I would say house and techno became more popular, but from people who did not necessarily listen to that music before. I think today my genre, what people consider deep house, is not what original deep house was—it was a different thing. It’s not necessarily commercialized, but it definitely became more cool for normal people to say that they like house and techno.”
Stefano Noferini. Courtesy of Kerned Studio.
Stefano Noferini: “House music and techno music are the roots of the underground and pop world. It has changed over the years and they both have strongly influenced the birth of new sub-genres, like for example tech-house. This change has been affected also with the evolution of technology, which has made music reachable to many more people than a few years back. Now everyone can create music and play at the click of a button.”
Kocay: Do you think these changes are for the good or the bad?
Eats Everything: “I don’t think you can look at it like that. This is something I’ve always said. A lot of people say the music isn’t what it used to be and the clubs aren’t what they used to be. And I just believe that it’s different and change is change. Everything was different 20 years ago, everything was different 15 years ago, everything was different 10 years ago. Things are different, things change. Whether we can say a particular time period is better or not is completely subjective.”
Andrea Oliva: “There’s always two sides of the card. I think, for example, a lot of people were dissing EDM for being not really what electronic music is about. But personally, for me, EDM is, or was because I feel that EDM is not that big anymore, was a great door opener for a young generation.
You start discovering EDM because it’s very popular. Then, the more you grow into the scene the more you discover sub-genres like techno and house, so it’s a great thing.”
Ellen Allien: “Good. It’s best to embrace change for what it is.”
Guy Gerber: “Financially, definitely for the good. Artistically, music is a very trendy thing so the cycles keep on changing. And I think this is cool right now for say the mainstream, but not necessarily the best thing for the music. I think when a lot of artists don’t have to put too much effort in order to impress their audience, it’s because it’s very mainstream. But I think at one point this thing can change. Some people will start to like other things and artistically it’ll become more underground again. I think what’s funny today is that the word underground is like a style—it’s not it’s actually underground.”
Stefano Noferini: “I would say that changes have been good in some ways and bad in some others. It gave everyone the opportunity to create music in an easier, faster and cheaper ways, making their creative work known to the world. On the other hand, since creating music is now a very easy thing to do due to the current technology, the level of creativeness is sometimes not as high as it used to be, although there is still a lot of very good music out there.”
Kocay: Where do you see techno and house music going in the future?
Eats Everything: “That’s such a tough one because obviously you had EDM and EDM was absolutely huge. It was the thing and you had all these different DJs becoming global superstars right off the back of it, and I can kind of see it happening now with tech-house and even to a degree with techno. Techno is very much the flavor of the month and the biggest, most popular parties are techno parties. Like I said in the earlier answer, it’s cyclical.”
Andrea Oliva. Courtesy of Andrea Oliva.
Andrea Oliva: “The good with EDM is that proper EDM music is made for radio, so it can play really big and it became basically what we knew as pop back in the days. But I think techno and house will never make it that far, which is also good because it’s still kind of a subculture.
It’s never going to be something which is very popular for broader masses even though it’s bigger and bigger and bigger every year. But I don’t think it’s going to be something for radio or TV, which is really good. I think house and techno will be here forever.”
Ellen Allien: “I hope to see more projects with different artists collaborating together in the future. The music is always evolving, and creative minds coming together will take us to the future of music.”
Guy Gerber: “I think the foundation of it is also based on some kind of legendary places, whether it’s like Ibiza since they have some legendary clubs, there’s a famous place in Frankfurt, or Berlin. Personally, if I can be very very honest, I feel there was always a thin line between ‘am I here because of the music’ or ‘am I here because I want to party?’ I feel it’s mostly more about parties, image and marketing, and less about people that absolutely love this music and that’s what they love to create. At least, I don’t know about the future, but that’s what’s happening right now. Maybe at one point people will find another trend in something else they love and it will be less profitable for less people to be involved in it. And it will become real underground again with less attention from the world, and it’ll come back to its foundations.”
Stefano Noferini: “I do not think there will be a big change in the next few years—the music at this moment is quite interesting. It’s going back to the 80s and 90s with a lot of synthesizers and vocals. We are going back to the basics.”
Kocay: If you could go back in time to when you first started making music and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
Eats Everything: “Don’t put the records I put out to start, because they weren’t very good and they could have damaged me. Thankfully they didn’t. They definitely hindered my progress in the sense that I was so desperate to get records out there, that I put records out that I shouldn’t have. I put records out that weren’t good enough, but I just wanted to get my stuff out, you know what I mean? I think the bit of advice that I would give myself is just pull it back a bit. Don’t be in a rush to make it.”
Andrea Oliva: “I think the best piece of advice would be finding your own style, creating your own musical signature.
I think you really need to start getting your own sound and not sound like everyone else. Give yourself time and use the machines like you would use an instrument—an instrument is meant to be learned. Just learn about your ear.”
Ellen Allien: “One piece of advice that’s important is that you are feeling the music. In your body and soul—if you feel connected to the music, then you are doing something right.”
Guy Gerber. Courtesy of Guy Gerber.
Guy Gerber: “Something that could have saved me a lot of time is to know when you go to the studio, to know when it’s not your day. I’ve spent maybe decades in the studio fighting one bassline. Specifically to electronic music, there’s not so many elements so an element dictates the residents of the others. So let’s say I don’t like this kick drum, so I change the kick drum but now the snare doesn’t fit. So now you change the snare and then after two hours the track is completely different. So the one that I’m always telling myself that I wish I knew before is not to fight it. Because if you own it, it will just sound great and when it doesn’t, sometimes it’s better to take a step back.”
Stefano Noferini: “I do not have big regrets. Maybe I would recommend myself to be less critical with myself and play more what people wanted to hear, even though I would probably would not take my own advice as this is not me.”
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