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The only people I know who can properly define a genre are the kind of DJ's who were only playing that genre at the height of its popularity. I was listening to Electro and then Techno avidly so it's one part of the puzzle I have a chance about.
It helps to look at Musique Concrete -> Synths in Rock/Prog -> CS80 -> Chariots of Fire/Gary Numan -> Kraftwork -> Electro. Then you have the basis for pretty much everything on that side which tends to be Electro. That's really Electronic music.
House has Disco influences, when you drop those you get Techno. When you add chord progressions you get Trance.
There's a decent book called Electronica Dance Music Programming Secrets, the edition I have was published in 2000. It shows how to program the different basic styles that had developed then.
I don't claim to be able to define all dance/electronic music into genres and I've been playing and collecting it since day one. I've got pretty good at deciding what Techno is for my own purposes and you're right it's a distinct kick drum that combines with the bass line. Probably a simple pattern in an 'acid' type synth sound and some other contrasting sounds for effect. Some break downs and builds.
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Airhead
@salad
Thanks @Airhead - I guess I never really got a grip on what's what, as, frankly, I was not listening to much techno (or any "electronic music" for that matter) back when this all developed.
Basically I always thought something with a really straight, pounding bass is "techno" and the rest is something else, and often I wasn't sure what exactly 💁
Now the lines are very much blurred and there's so many sub-genres as you say it's hard to keep track if you're not super into that specific spectrum of music.
I remember we talked about "what exactly is minimal" in this thread, and remember when speaking to friends (avid club-goers here in Berlin) they were often at loss to what's what exactly as well..