The Rise of Techno

A personal Essay involving computers

Techno began in Detroit: you can't argue with this. Seattle has Grunge. Denmark the Lego. But techno: It's all Detroit, baby. While some protest the influences extend beyond just the state of Michigan (the new African American funk movement, as well as the electro of the late 70's) the new style of music was popular in dance halls and definitely from Detroit. Detroit realized early the power technology could have in composing new songs, allowing unique and strange sounds to be produced with little or no actual knowledge of music theory. In short, Detroit created Daft Punk (who were not from Detroit, but France). Daft Punk is a hardcore techno band with a distinct electronica sound, making them one of the most loved and hated music groups of the 21st century. In a way, they embody everything the techno movement is, as well as quite a bit of teenage angst. Even the hipsters have a hard time appreciating every one of their songs, but we won't let them decide everything. All we know are the basics. Detroit created techno: that is a fact.

American Boy

I used to play video games but don’t anymore. Before, my brother Joshua and I would play for hours in my basement, slumped on the couch, t-shirts lying on a lampshade or barbell. It used to be that my brothers, cousins, and I could survive for days on white bread, having stocked two loaves under the couch with a stick of butter. We’d use it to create “toast.” It’s not like that anymore. Check it out: nowadays I don’t enjoy the senseless killings. It’s not that I think that they are truly senseless, but I don’t enjoy the blood splatters as much. I’ve grown out of it.

For example, Call of Duty Ghosts just doesn’t appeal. The last time I put a hand on a controller wasn’t to lash out against The Horde (a pack of mindless zombies) to find the cure. To save the girl. To save the world. The last I played a video game I couldn’t concentrate hard enough to run across the ravine and dive past the napalm blasts because I was too busy trying to order my collection of Thoreau essays from A to Z. Lately, (the past two years) books have sort of taken over the hack and slash areas of my life to the point where I don’t think of PlayStation, Adobe, Cube, X-Box every minute I have off. I did other things. It no longer appeals. I can’t bring myself to play them. But I used to.

(My life)

My brother Joshua and I were notoriously “gamers.” This was the lingo thrown around for the loser elite. From as early as age four we were known in the neighborhood to stay indoors and watch television instead of helping the miscreants pick apart a dead bird they found by the road. This was considered “uncool.” Which is not to say other kids disliked cartoons: it’s just that my brother and I were the worse cases. In the town I grew up in Massachusetts, the video craze hadn’t sunk until five years after we had started playing them. Clinging to the outdoors, the influential generation of park bound teenagers hadn’t quite left yet. No one wanted to “play Poke-ur-Mom.” The rest of the kids our age started fires and threw bricks in the Blackstone River, scavenging dumpsters for cardboard and anything resembling chains or steel. It used to be cool to be dirty. But once the internet and handhelds (back then it was the Game Boy Color) began to come around, the whole dynamic changed. Suddenly, we moved to stardom.

From ages six to nine we got knocks on our door nearly every day from scrappy elementary and middle school kids wanting to check out the latest releases. When we felt charitable, we’d let them in and have them hold out their hands for sanitizer, guiding them to the basement where it all happened. Our father was a computer hardware engineer and supplied us with the newest models and cheat codes every Saturday after work. It was a weekly ritual. He pulled up in his convertible and wore his black baseball cap and black sunglasses. He cut off the stereo (Metallica) and cut straight to the basement so we could all unbox the new _____. Gold and Platinum editions. Customizable headphones. This is what we cared about.

(Old skool)

But I don’t anymore. I just don’t care anymore about the newest gaming keyboards and handhelds and PC enhancements available in Japan. We always coveted the East. South Korea, China, Taiwan: they always had the newest “thing.” In Korea, you could play StarCraft and be a professional gamer and get paid thousands if you won the big tournaments. In China, MMO designers were rockstars. And that’s where I lived, I think: the East. Not Massachusetts. Not Whitinsville. Not in my basement. But somewhere far away in a Tokyo skyscraper, far away from America and the drab familiar world.