⸻ Spectacle of Total Anarchy: A introduction by tough guys to the “hard” condition

    

  


        I believe this spectacle is something many people have experienced. It’s about one of the “introductions” to free tekno culture I experienced in Czechia. But similar dynamics are also visible from “hard” techno people towards groups who support EDM, for example.

During my teenage years—around 2001 and onwards—I often encountered free tekno people, “tough guys” who had no limits to their behavior, operating “outside” the law, and who sometimes even physically attacked people who supported other electronic music genres like EDM. They rejected anything not aligned with the “tough,” often drug-driven and total anarchy values of free tekno. They even tried to rob such people of their belongings. That’s why I emphasize that free tekno culture is a very toxic culture.

However, similar behavior from free tekno people was also experienced by techno people. And this toxic behavior was one reason why many techno people started to collaborate with these “tough guys”—because if they didn’t adapt give up their property and wealthy, they could be constantly bullied on the streets by free tekno people. (Yet perhaps today, a poor values clash more with ones for reasons that belong to the realm of sociologists.) 

In a way, some techno people are now doing similar things to EDM fans—though more in verbal form, like through social media posts.

Today, in the Czech Republic, there are massive collaborations between techno artists, events, and free tekno people. And it’s difficult to convincingly argue here that when media say a free tekno party is a techno party, that it’s actually free tekno, not techno—because of the deep collaborations between free tekno figures and techno scenes. Yes, free tekno people are a daily social reality in Czechia.

On the other hand, the international trend, especially in Western culture, is quite the opposite. Many techno artists like Charlotte de Witte or Anfisa Letyago have a sound heavily influenced by trance, 90s EDM, and its emotional values. And also, for that, some “purist” techno fans criticize them, claiming their music is more trance than techno. And yeah, progressive music artists like Miss Monique also are now available at Western techno events.