By Techno School, Vertigo Shtick contributor and dance/electronic correspondent
It's always funny to see where you find
yourself on December 31. This time last year I was visiting friends
on the East Coast, waiting to get back to LA and praying with all my
might that 2011 would serve me as well as the latter half of 2010
had. For the first time in a long time, things were looking up, like
I'd finally turned a corner that I'd been searching for over the past
decade. I wanted things to stay just as they were; you couldn't have
paid me to move out of California. And just look at what happened.
There's snow falling outside my apartment's window right now. Ain't
no snow falling in LA: that I know for a fact.
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| Techno/pop crossover Diplo |
There have been a lot of exciting turns in my life this year, one of which being that I get to share my love of music with the world on Vertigo Shtick. I get to share the exciting things I'm hearing over the radio waves with you guys. And the most exciting thing I've noticed so far is that techno is starting to take the stage, in a big way, thanks to the pop crowd.
A friend and I were cruising toward the
beach earlier this year when we heard Jennifer
Lopez's comeback single, “On
the Floor,” play on the radio. My first reaction was “WTF
J-Lo is still alive?” and my second, “Wow, this song is heavy on
the techno! Listen to that beat!”
“Yeah,”
my friend replied, “when someone's career needed saving, they used
to come out with a hip-hop single. Now the thing to do is release a
techno song.”
Dude.
And
then it kept on going. Bits and pieces of techno springing up like
Electric Daisies in the springtime. A dubstep bridge in Britney's
“Hold
it Against Me.” Electro beats woven into the background of
major radio hits like “Give
Me Everything” and “Tonight
(I'm Fuckin' You).” David
Guetta's increasing fame. Daft
Punk getting tapped to co-produce the soundtrack to Tron:
Legacy. That techno
interlude to Flo
Rida's “Good
Feeling.” Rihanna
teaming up with Calvin
Harris for an incredibly seamless pop-techno collaboration with
“We
Found Love.” The reboot of Beavis
and Butthead has even
featured music videos by deadmau5
and Skrillex.
And the wave just keeps building. LMFAO,
Diplo,
Afrojack...these
were all names well known among the techno crowd, and now the top 40
followers know them, too.
Techno is nothing
new. Hell, I'm riding the second wave of this genre—the 1990s
heyday of the rave scene is long gone. What started this year, and
what I think will continue into 2012, is techno's long-awaited
entrance into the mainstream. The beginning of songs by artists
like Katy
Perry and Benny
Benassi being played on the same radio stations, topping the
charts together. Electronic music spreading beyond the raves and
drawing in fans from completely new crowds. Rap fans becoming techno
fans. Hip hop fans becoming techno fans. Country fans
becoming... well, maybe not. Like I always say, baby steps.
Baby steps.
For a unique, insightful and personal look at life, love and techno music, follow Techno School on Twitter (@itstechnoschool) and visit the blog.
