A word describing a genre of electronic music that sprung up in detroit and europe around the same time (early 80's). Was (and Is) characterized by a 4/4 drum kick beat (varies), mechanicalistic effects and drum patterns from drum machines and synths, occaisional bassline, melody of various kinds, and a repititive feel (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH TRANCE). Unfortunately, the word techno was hijacked by mainstream media in the late 80's to cover for everything electronic. This pisses off a load of people each day when they hear others say techno for everything from house to jungle. Please, those of you who do use the word techno for everything electronic--don't. Figure it out.
Techno is made up of such subgenres like acid, detroit (dead), minimal, deep, german, and swedish.
by psytrancer July 1, 2004
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A word used by the ignorant majority to describe any piece of electronic music.
I listened to Super Eurobeat vol. 158. Wow, that's some pretty good techno!
by gs68 June 27, 2005
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Pionered in Detroit (How ironic, didn't Eminem, who hails from Detroit, tell us that suopposedly nobody listens to techno?) by 3 young black males (The Belleville Three or Holy Trinity - Derrick May, Jaun Atkins & Kevin Saunderson. How ironic again, aren't the 'gangsters' aka hip hop/rap listeners that say only nerds listen to techno?) Techno in it's purist form is a mindblowing musical genre for it's use of various synthesizers, computer programs and other equipment give the musical masterpeice so much character (Computer programs...sounds familiar..oh that's right, all that 'gangsta' musis is a midi -Nowhere near as good as the sheer intellegence of techno though- ...made on computer yet 95% of 'gangstas' have the nerve to call techno 'shit'.)
Speedy J is the barra.
by . September 7, 2003
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A term originally referring to a genre of dance music from Detroit. It has since become extremely overused. Pretty much any music with synthesizers is labeled as "techno" now. It is often incorrectly used to refer to edm, and its subgenres.
When I heard a friend say: "You know, technically Owl City is techno", I realized that the term "techno" had lost all meaning

Friend: "What you you listening to?"
Me: "Drum and bass. Here, listen"
Friend: "This is techno. It was made with a computer"
by newwatch September 10, 2010
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An ETERNALLY mislabeled genre of music which has nothing to do with Moby, Tiesto, Chemical Brothers, or Fatboy Slim. Techno is indeed a broad sub-genre of electronic dance music (or EDM, what many people use "techno" inproperly as a blanket term for) which fulfills these following constituents:

1. It is in some form minimalist, whether in composition or in sequencing.
2. It is created for the sole purpose of making people dance.
3. It is constructed in a manner to allow DJs to quickly and expertly mix and layer 2 or more of these compositions simultaneously.

Due to it's building-block nature, true techno is closer to hip-hop than many of the genres (such as trance and breakbeat) which it is erroneously associated with.
"Many argue that the works of Jeff Mills are techno in it's purest form, but others disagree."
by Kevin Farabaugh August 23, 2003
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There is one point that needs to be clarified and that is the stupid statments by some more ignorant people claiming techno is written by computers. This is as foolish as claiming a book is written by a pen or a song by the guitar itself. The computer (or drum machines/synths/samplers) is a tool used to compose techno music. and the creation of good techno requires a different skill set to conventional music and often classicly trained musicians who attempt to create techno fail. It is about the intricate layering of sounds, melodys , and rythmical elements . the creator is essential composing and conducting a peice of music that a virtual ochestra will play.the proccess is in a way similar to the way classical music is created where the credit lies prodomently with the composer not the people who actually play the music. would you say mosart knows nothing about music because he is merley putting pen to paper?

(please note i am not comparing classical music to techno just illustrating a point that both forms of music are created offline and rely on repeating structures that are created by thinking and editing rather than physically playing the music)

That techno record has 53 tracks going at the same time - it took me 3 weeks to arrange
by techno lover January 13, 2007
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A music genre that is hated by many because it usually has no lyrics, but if you use it as the background music for today's latest rap, pop, or country song, people will be dancing and whistling to the tune for months on end, and not realize that they are enjoying the EXACT SAME type of music they insist on claiming they hate.
Most people who hate techno are fucking hypocrites, since much of the music in the Top 40 chart uses techno music in the background.
by hmmm June 29, 2004
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