I've been listening to a lot of remixes from the late 80's and 90's and the comments always say "this is techno, not house" or vice versa. I've read some basic definition of these two but I'm still confused. What's the major difference between these two genres?? By that I mean can you actually recognize if it's techno or house when you listen to random electronic club music?

Also is it safe to say Chicago house is usually more melodious than Techno even though they both basically depend on the same technology and electronic instruments? (so far that's the only difference I could tell from these two genres, but I could be wrong. Techno sounds more consistent and predictable from the start to finish than house to me)

To me it's all house. House can be trance, techno, mellowhouse, acidhouse, electrohouse tc.

Not sure if this is true, but that's how I see it.

Techno is a harder version. In the early 90's you could really hear if something was techno, with artists like Laurent Garnier, Dave Clark. Usually less vocals and less melody.

Yeah I hate Techno and I love House.

Many people think it all fits under the umbrella of House, I respectively disagree. Give me Chicago style House any day. Techno is torturous.

Best way to think of it though and the way it started out -
House was originally about using machines to make sounds like real musical instruments, to make organic sounding, soulful music with a groove you can dance to (using electronic equipment).

Techno was much more about being experimental, more linear and more industrial. If house was about using machines to sound like instruments then techno was about using machines to sound like machines.

So thats how I tend to define 'em - house = organic, more man-made sound. techno = synthetic, machine made sound (trance being a melodic form of techno which evolved and took on a life of its own).

Tech-house - again going by the original idea = music with the groove and tempo of house but using the synthetic more industrial sounds of techno.

As I said though going by that description half of the stuff called house these days isn't house and half of the stuff called techno isn't techno.

Everyone has spot on posts

Yes I can tell the difference

there is a lot of Classic House that sounds almost like RnB of the 1980s or disco

Classic House, Gospel House, Tribal House, Techno House, Jazzy House etc

one of my fav sites is Traxsource.com, you can listen/buy every style of house

David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, MAW,

Peven Evert is doing so hot stuff

They are not even close in any way. Especially Chicago House.

TD3 said:

Yeah I hate Techno and I love House.

Many people think it all fits under the umbrella of House, I respectively disagree. Give me Chicago style House any day. Techno is torturous.

Exactly.

Quite a bit different to those who listen to both genres a lot. Understandably, if you aren't accustomed to either one, it's easy to say in many cases that the sounds (electronic, 4-on-the-floor beat, hi-hat, etc.) are similar. In the 90s, people continually grouped everything electronic/dance-oriented (or the current trendy name, EDM) together as "techno". In actuality, techno (as a genre) is a lot more minimal and experimental (as stated above, and not always torturous -- just depends on what you like). Traditional house is essentially updated disco (a lot more soulful than techno). Both tend to keep to the 4-on-the-floor beat. There are a lot of sub-genres under both umbrellas, especially house. I listen to a lot of Progressive House (darker, instrumental), Deep House (soulful, funky, sometimes with vocals) and Tech House (a bit like combining techno and deep house -- soulful, yet very techie in instrumentation). There's also Trance, which traditionally was A LOT better than the crap that's been churned out over the last decade. Traditionally, Trance was a bit like taking Tangerine Dream or Vangelis and adding a beat to it.

While I'm not an expert, I tend to devour a lot of electronic music (house, techno, IDM, ambient, etc.)--so I'm usually pretty adept at picking out the many sub-genres.

those are very generic , back in the 90s (in my opinion, the golden age of electronic music), there were those multiple sub-genres, and nobody truly gave a damn if they were House OR Techno.

that said, to my ears House has always been the successor of 70s Funk, Disco and early-80s Urban/Dance-Pop/Electro (Daft Punk, Basement Jaxxx)

while Techno is more like purely electronic music, noise sometimes, sometimes bassless, sometimes focused just on the beat, a repetitive rhythm to get lost in the crowd, sometimes with drugs...(Prodigy, Goldie)

[Edited 12/11/12 8:12am]

House and Techo are totally different. I DESPISE shit labeled as House and it isn't

Graycap23 said:

They are not even close in any way. Especially Chicago House.

Exactly. Chicago House & Detriot Techno in their origins & "original" forms are different.

1. On average, the tempo in house is 120-125 BPM, while techno is between 125-140 BPM.

2. House is a spin-off of disco. Techno is a spin-off of everything that Kraftwerk, YMO, & even P-Funk have already done with their synths & drum machines.

3. House got it's name from the music that was once played from a club that once existed in Chicago known as The Warehouse. Techno is a name that is short for "technology", meaning that all the tracks from this genre are made with music technology.

OFF TOPIC: Now if anyone wants to make a fair comparsion about any electronic music genres, it should be italo disco, electro, & techno. All three of these genres sounded more alike in the 1980's than they do to house.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/...48/summary#

Nice example of Juan Atkins style of techno.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/...48/summary#

And a nice example of modern house.

Believe me there really is a huge difference but unfortunately for you the world of electronica has split into soooo many sub-genres it's very, very difficult to define anything now.

TonyVanDam said:

Graycap23 said:

They are not even close in any way. Especially Chicago House.

Exactly. Chicago House & Detriot Techno in their origins & "original" forms are different.

1. On average, the tempo in house is 120-125 BPM, while techno is between 125-140 BPM.

2. House is a spin-off of disco. Techno is a spin-off of everything that Kraftwerk, YMO, & even P-Funk have already done with their synths & drum machines.

3. House got it's name from the music that was once played from a club that once existed in Chicago known as The Warehouse. Techno is a name that is short for "technology", meaning that all the tracks from this genre are made with music technology.

OFF TOPIC: Now if anyone wants to make a fair comparsion about any electronic music genres, it should be italo disco, electro, & techno. All three of these genres sounded more alike in the 1980's than they do to house.

I could not have said this better, myself.

shorttrini said:

Best way to think of it though and the way it started out -
House was originally about using machines to make sounds like real musical instruments, to make organic sounding, soulful music with a groove you can dance to (using electronic equipment).

Techno was much more about being experimental, more linear and more industrial. If house was about using machines to sound like instruments then techno was about using machines to sound like machines.

So thats how I tend to define 'em - house = organic, more man-made sound. techno = synthetic, machine made sound (trance being a melodic form of techno which evolved and took on a life of its own).

Tech-house - again going by the original idea = music with the groove and tempo of house but using the synthetic more industrial sounds of techno.

As I said though going by that description half of the stuff called house these days isn't house and half of the stuff called techno isn't techno.

That's how I think of it too. House sounds more organic, and techno sounds more techno.