INTERRUPTIONS #12
Lost Techno-Pop Weekend in Rural Midwestern America
Curated by Terre Thaemlitz
By the time mainstream pop music really became electronically based in terms of synthesizer/sampler instrumentation and editing (first with R&B and hip-hop, then mainstream pop), the techno-pop synth sound would be utterly abandoned by both pop and underground electronic cultures (techno, house, etc.). In this sense, techno-pop constitutes an isolated and rarely discussed ‘lost weekend’ from standard pop practices.
Techno-pop is most often dismissed as a shade of new romanticism, punk or electro. However, I believe its strict emphasis on electronics and critical rejection of rock culture (at least in the beginning) make techno-pop in and of itself one of the most important, albeit short-lived, genres of the last century. Then again, my views are admittedly warped by an upbringing in the rural Midwestern US, where electronic music was not only scarce, but phobically abhored by most people.
Terre Thaemlitz, 2013
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