That’s ok for musicians and dj’s but what about the fans who know nothing about music? I am a dj and I get pissed off when my mates label a house track as techno. I know it’s silly but to me it’s like labelling a heavy metal track as country & western. Ok, that’s a bit exaggerated but you know what I mean. If someone asks me what the difference between techno and house is, I would like to be able to give them a proper explanation. But I will be buggered if I’m gonna tell someone who knows nothing about dj’ing that the difference is to do with the looping and layering. That will confuse the shit out of them!

Most websites and dj’s will tell you that house and techno is all to do with the difference in time signature, that may be true 10+ years ago but today both genres have the same signature (4 by 4). What is obvious though is that techno simply sounds synthetic whereas house sounds more realistic, as if the song was actually played with instruments. You will also find that house is more commercial than techno as it is structured for big choruses and lyrics. I guess you would say it is more radio-friendly. Whereas, techno is more underground and chaotic; it rarely has lyrics and it’s generally not structured with choruses and verses, etc. But this is only the basic difference because sometimes these criterions don’t in fit to one genre. An example is Zombie Nation ‘Kernkraft 2000’ (an absolute dance floor classic), it has big choruses, it’s structured, it’s very commercial/cheesy and has it been categorised as house. If you listen to the song it actually sounds very synthetic. I don’t think it sounds like a house at all; it sounds like techno that has some structure. To be honest, I think it sounds quite trancey (just to make it more confusing). So which one is it?

Another problem is when you start to sub categorise dance music, it all starts to get complicated. For instance, I’m a big fan of progressive house (John Digweed) however it sounds the same as minimal techno (Sven Vath). So why isn’t Digweed classed as minimal? I have read various descriptions on both sub genres but all have failed to explain the difference, if there is a difference? If you do not comprehend, you will have to a listen to some tracks to understand.

Maybe I’m thinking too hard about it all or maybe we need to scrap all these sub-genres and keep it simple? Some people still refer some house tunes as acid techno or acid jazz. What the fuck? I guess it’s all to do with the age of the music. This confusion is gonna get worse with all the new sub genres popping up every decade. Soon, no one will know the difference between techno and house!