there was one thing that made techno of the 90s interesting, and especially it's hardcore variant, and especially the sample-based digital hardcore / noizecore variant of it. this was that by sampling and other techniques, it was build on top of other genres, using their sounds, methods, and fusing them together, and building something that was above them - a higher level of sound. it was one of the first widespread meta-genres; the sonic exploration no longer took place within the confines of a single genre such as punkrock, reggae etc, but stacking whole genres together by using samples out of them. while producers before took care of elements of a genre - which chord to use, which notes, this was not so important to a techno producer; rather, which "genre" to use, to fuse together with the other elements of the track. producers use drums, baselines, guitars, chords; meta-producer produce their track out of genres.
there is a widespread feeling that culture, especially music, is stuck right now and has been for the last decade at least. it's not. culture is just slowly moving to the meta-genre i talked about.
on the sonic level, almost everything seems to be done already; disharmonic sounds, harmonic sounds, distortion, analogue stuff, accoustic guitars, noize, ambiance... so what is next? no longer caring about sounds on this level, or at least not putting the main focus on it, but to move to the next higher level, and no longer stack sounds together, but fuse and combine genres and create something new out of that.
i think it's unlikely that either something wholly new on the basic sonic level could be found, or that it is possible to produce music really in the old styles, and if it is possible, it should not be done, because that level should be left behind - it's time to go the higher level.
again, meta-music means that music is built out of existing music, creating something new by the combination of it and other things. like sound is the element of music, genres and existing concepts are the elements of meta-music.
obviously, this is going on for a while now, starting long before the turn of the millenium. you can see it in an egg-like state in rock genres now; rockbands now longer want to sound like ac/dc or hardrock only, or just like the pistols buzzcocks and punk; they fuse everything from funk reggae rap metal folk, anything that you can think of.
this meta-intention might be noble, but to me it's still lacking; there is too much of a focus on creating a seamless sound, meta-music should have some rough edges; with it's almost "mystical" sentimentality for old rock and rock'n'roll or CBGBs heroes, it's anti-intellectual, and meta-music has to be intellectual. and, above all, its products don't really sound so meta to me.
with a lot more focus on sampling and its issues, than there was in the 90s and 80s, it's not viable to really do "sampled-based" music anymore, at least not if you don't have permission for that. this is actually a hindrance to creating a higher level sound; but it's not something that would really stop it. focus not on literally sampling music or re-using notes and melodies, or rhythms, but on the concepts of music, of genres, of takes on sounds. like the emotionality of early punkrock. the "grooviness" of funk. the mindblowing effect of avantgarde music. by this, you can fuse new creations, higher level creation of sounds, without touching your samples at all.
it would be interesting where this leads in the future. maybe this meta-concept will fade away like so many cultural hopes. but i don't think music will be created on a "simple" level again; like a punkband writing just a punksong; or a techno act doing just a 90s techno track; these times are definately over.
there is a lot to be said, on how music on this higher, new level can be created; maybe in another text. but maybe it's better to be left in the open and for everyone to be found out by him or herself.
but the point remains; by putting together existing concepts, creating something new and building something on top of that, you can produce something really new.
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