Technique, Experience and the Social Function of Techno Music
A Comparative Analysis of Theodor Adorno and Robert Fink
Abstract
The aim of this article is to deepen reflections on the links between the technical aspects of techno music, the experience of listening to it and its social function. In order to achieve that goal, we carry out a comparative analysis between Theodor Adorno and Robert Fink, which allows us to construct an interpretation of the social dimensions of the techno technique, specifically from the analysis of its teleology and time. This work acknowledges the irreconcilable aspects of the authors; where Fink finds a liberating possibility of manifestation and creation of desire or an expression of an emerging new subjectivity, Adorno finds the innermost fibres of a mechanism of social alienation. These contradictory interpretations, complexified by contributions from other authors (such as Rick Snoman, Mark Butler and Diedrich Diederichsen, Ragnhild Solberg and Juliane Rebentisch), allow us to build a detailed description of the particularities of techno aesthetics.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Such derivate works or subsequent publications must happen no less than one calendar year after the initial publication date in Dancecult.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).