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Ya, I* have heard that lame statement before, that techno has no feeling or soul, but it just isn't true.
I actually love both genres. I was brought up on music like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Rush, Yes, Styx, Jethro Tull etc... so I have genuine appreciation and a love for music with a message that was brought about by the chemistry between a number of humans playing instuments. I have played guitar, bass and drums since I was 5 (1976), and I truely love the music that I grew up with and many of the metal and rock acts around today such as Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, and Tool.
However, Techno is about listening and feeling music differently (for me anyway). With rock, a person needs a certain amount of cognitive awareness to really appreciate the music, or in other words, a body needs to focus on the music somewhat to really get into it. People still sort of "space out" while listening to rock and drift with the music, but one is still aware of lyrics and guitar solos and song names and the people who made the music and so on and so forth. With trance (a genre of techno), one can really let themselves go into a meditative state, caused by the repetitive rhythms and shimmering layers of sound on top of the beats, and really dig deep into the psyche. It isn't easy, but it can be achieved, and it's a great experience. It harkens back to tribal times, and the same methods have been practiced for thousands of years by buddhists and tribal communities all over the world. Some tribes still practice this today, jsut stop by a local pow-wow on the local Indian reservation to see.
Techno is about getting together with a bunch of people and getting tribal, dancing for 8 hours, working knots out of my back, and really just forgetting about the normal day in, day out. I feel great rock focuses your concious mind on important issues and feeli9ngs, put into a different light by the artists in question, where trance is about personal reflection and meditation of the subconcious, brought on by hypnotic tribal beats. Trance has ancient roots, at least the theory behind what the music does to a mind and body. It's gotta be lous though, even I get annoyed by techno that is turned down low so all one hears in tickkity tick over and over again. One must really give ones self over to (very loud) trance to experience it like it should be experienced.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell