the underground and experimental hardcore techno movement of the 90s was in many senses, to me, the logical end of the era of the modern, of the 20th century so to speak. we had seen uprisings in the 60s, in which many of the so called western "values", ideas, concepts, authorities and oppressive structures and their philosophy were attacked and criticed. the punk era took the nihilism even farther than that. with hardcore techno, the nihilism became total. experimental hardcore techno rejected everything. soundwise, it more or less made no amends to any genres that were around at the time; neither to pop, dance, or alternative rock, or the "intelligent electronica" genres that were around, and in a sense not even to its own techno and hardcore roots, as the funk and groove of techno and house were completely eradicated with the brickstone killer kicks.
i was around at that scene, so i know a lot of people in it where pissed at any scene, at any existing form of music, at all of society and western civilization, all the politics left and right. it was not uncommon to listen only to various forms of hardcore and to lock oneself in on friday nights when everyone else went out to the "club".
the lyrics, label pictures, quotes used in hardcore tracks and their records point to this nihilism. the frenetic use of any sample material available regarding global nuclear warfare; "the missiles take to the skies by the thousand" via brandon spivey "devastation on an unimaginable scale will occur" via surgeon 16 records. "Imagine surveying earth after nuclear destruction and enjoying what you see" via the mover's interview in alien underground.
it was like saying. hell, you people build these missiles. you kept us in fear of war for decades. just go ahead. launch the missiles. let nuclear warheads reign from the sky. it will not be a loss anyway. who cares about humanity.
okay, i could go on with further examples. but i will stop here. so we were sitting here, being over and disattached to anything and everything. now a new generation of idiots arrived, and immediately tried to make us feel old. especially in the breakcore scene. they were basically saying: "okay, everything sucks. but, resistance, rebellion, anarchy is a concept too. an ideology, if you will. so if you cling to it, you are still attached to something that is outdated. we are one stop further in nihilism. we won't even resist or scream anymore."
that's how they wished to appear, unconsciously or consciously. their standpoint was easy to refute and overcome, though, as they embraced mass culture, pop music, society's authorities, things that were used to be rejected. so they were the opposite of being nihilistic, after all. the 60s rebellion might have been old by 2000; but pop culture was even older and more outdated. so the new breakcore crowd actually put themselves into a conservativism of a long gone past. yet the problem was, their point was not so easy to refute after all. if you ought to reject *everything*. shouldn't you reject radical politics and anarchism too?
there are two things to say about this. first, the whole "art for art's sake" stance has one major problem. you can say art should be free of all catogories, and just be made for the sake of art itself, to spread and create art. but, this leaves one category intact. which is that "art" itself is a category. if you really want to remove all categories, you have to take art itself out of the equation too.
as long as you still say you create or enjoy art, you are still trapped in walking in categories.
this might seem very abstract - and it is, but it is entirely possible to remove the category of art itself. for example, in music, you could stop buying records altogether and just listen to car's driving on the streets or birds singing in the forest - "sounds" that are usually not classified as being "music". there is more to say about this, but this is not the room for that.
the second thing is, that, while in theory, all categories and concepts indeed should be removed, this doesn't hold so true in reality, or rather, it is not correct at all, at least not fully correct.
you ought to use categories, concepts, theories, symbols, thoughtsset. base art on them, entangle your art in them, use them as a focus point for your art. and also elsewhere. if you reject all ideology, you should be aware that anarchism can easily become an - oppressive - ideology too, if taken in the wrong direction. yet anarchism is necessary, in order to create a free society.
this sounds paradox, and it is paradox, one of the biggest paradox. but it is also right.
maybe the only thing one could say is: follow concepts, use concepts, ideas, theories; but be also on the guard about them, prepare yourself to reject them, deconstruct, and use this ability often.
this can lead to an interesting outcome.
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