Just logging on to make sure there was adequate shit talking of Dylan and there is enough for my taste
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Good points. I donât think I suggested that electronica was âpurelyâ a Black genre in any way, but apologies if I gave that impression. And youâre right about current Black artistsâ success (in the same way that Michael Jackson etc. capitalized on the white market in the 80s).
Totally agree that itâs complicatedâjust adding some additional perspective.
The obvious answer is: Bob Dylan. A man who has had an undeniable, lasting impact on art and culture of the western world for decades. Electronic music falls under this umbrella.
I think this inquiry isnât fully cooked
Iâm not an engineer, but I work with a lot of engineers, and I think a formal specification clarification is required to hash this out.
What is Bob Dylan in this context?
The father of the wallflowers guy? (again the answer is Bob Dylan).
One of the guys who help write the timeless soundtrack of Vietnam era?
The guy who help Jimi find his voice?
The harmonica guy?
etc. etc.?
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This is a minefield of an area because, just like the bluesmen before them, black (and gay) artists were left out of the financial discussions in the early days of the music they helped to found.
I donât think there is a question who created House: gay black men. I donât think there is any cross-pollination there of Kraftwerk or anybody else: those were black and gay clubs DJed by gay black men playing disco and R&B, genres that people were racistly shrugging off (or burning). Full stop.
Techno is a little more complicated. While certainly influenced by Kraftwerk et al, I think black men in Detroit established what we now define as techno. But I think there was enough influencing either way to make it complicated.
Fortunately there seems to be more recognition of their contributions than their blues and rock-n-roll forbearers. But unfortunately very unequal in comparison to their modern white counterparts.
Yeah, I was just commenting on whether itâs fair to call Aphex Twin or Orbital or any electronic music artist from the UK as ripping off a black music style, as british musicians were among the first to make any kind of popular electronic music. The influencing was a back and forth rather than a one sided arrangement.
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Please keep this thread polite and respectful.
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Iâm reminded of The Dark Knight Returns, where Gordon describes Batman as âtoo bigâ. Dylan is really Too Big for this topic to work, and I say that with a healthy appreciation for iconoclasm. The question is ultimately pointless because this mythical person wouldnât be âthe Bob Dylan of electronic musicâ, theyâd just be another Bob Dylan. But Lord knows itâs futile to start worrying about pointless activities at this stage in my life, so what the hell.
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The way I understand it, house was a direct descendant to disco like rock & roll is to blues, and disco was a very multicultural phenomenon. While the early innovators of house music were gay and black, it did not have a long tradition before transitioning to other communities and across the pond. Thereâs naturally a long tradition of straight white dudes ripping off the culture of urban minorities, in the case of electronic music in my opinion itâs more of a back and forth movement.
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Hot-take: Miles Davis is the Bob Dylan of electronic music.
You cannot tell me In A Silent Way did not explode what music with electronic elements could be.
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Maybe. I donât know enough about that. I had been under the impression disco was black considering the reaction the white rock community had to it. But again I donât know. Iâd be interested though.
It wasnât exclusively black, but it was an inner city movement and style so mostly of black & hispanic people (minorities in general), as well as sexual minorities. Still, there were white DJâs involved, it was a melting pot type of thing rather than a cultural tradition of any particular people.
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Letâs take the example of Dutch Gabber.
Yes, itâs a sort of techno, therefore owes at least something to the Detroit masters. But then it also has a huge amount of industrial, EBM, Grindcore, death metal, 80âs horror films, hip-hop, punk, post punk, the list could go on.
The history of the various branches of European Techno is complex and intertwined with so many cultures and subcultures itâs difficult to say that it came from any one place. Thatâs why I love it, proper mongrel music. That feeling of togetherness, that weâre all welcome, thatâs the overriding feeling I get at raves and parties. No-oneâs sitting there debating it, theyâre there to enjoy it together.
Thatâs a world away from a bunch of white guys getting rich pretty much stealing the music of a black artist and repackaging it for hysterical teenage girls. I donât blame the Beatles for doing it, everyone was doing it, I blame the system that allowed that to go on, a system that I believe has been significantly disempowered by the liberating effect of taking drugs and dancing to 4/4 beats together.
Iâm an optimist though.
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Four tet is the Bob Dylan of electronic music - 72% hair reasons 26% Artistic reasons 2% Trolling.
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omfg 
Is that Travis Barker in the âMasked Drummerâ?
Vengaboys
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