techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Juan Atkins Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. '' Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Be ...

Eddie Fowlkes Eddie Fowlkes (born December 24, 1962) is an American techno DJ. He was influential to the early Detroit techno scene. Biography Eddie Fowlkes was born on December 24, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan. After attending a 1978 Charivari party with ...

Jeff Mills Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills foun ...

Blake Baxter Blake Baxter (born 1963) is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.John Bush, Blake Baxterat AllMusic Baxter was ...

Robert Hood Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often consid ...

Juan Atkins Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. '' Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Be ...

Belleville Three The Belleville Three are three American musicians, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, who are credited with inventing the Detroit techno genre. Origins Kevin Saunderson was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of nine he m ...

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

Washtenaw Community College Washtenaw Community College (WCC) is a public community college in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan.Rick Davis and formed Cybotron with him. Their first single "Alleys of Your Mind", recorded on their Deep Space label in 1981, sold 15,000 copies, and the success of two follow-up singles, "Cosmic Cars" and "Clear", led the California-based label Fantasy to sign the duo and release their album, ''Clear''. After Cybotron split due to creative differences, Atkins began recording as Model 500 on his own label, Metroplex, in 1985. His landmark single, "

No UFO's "No UFO's" is a 1985 techno song by Juan Atkins under the alias of Model 500. It was released on Atkins own label Metroplex. The song was the first track released after the split of Atkins' previous group Cybotron. The music followed similar the ...

", soon arrived.

Eddie Fowlkes Eddie Fowlkes (born December 24, 1962) is an American techno DJ. He was influential to the early Detroit techno scene. Biography Eddie Fowlkes was born on December 24, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan. After attending a 1978 Charivari party with ...

, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and

Robert Hood Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often consid ...

also recorded on Metroplex. May said that the suburban setting afforded a different setting in which to experience the music. "We perceived the music differently than you would if you encountered it in dance clubs. We'd sit back with the lights off and listen to records by

Bootsy William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading na ...

and

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is cons ...

. We never took it as just entertainment, we took it as a serious philosophy," recalls May.Reynolds, Simon. ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture'' Routledge, 1999. The three teenage friends bonded while listening to an eclectic mix of music:

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is cons ...

,

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...

,

Bootsy William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and singer. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s, and later with Parliament-Funkadelic, Collins established himself as one of the leading na ...

,

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

,

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

,

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depech ...

, and

The B-52's The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, ...

. Juan Atkins was inspired to buy a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

after hearing Parliament. Atkins was also the first in the group to take up turntablism, teaching May and Saunderson how to DJ. Under the name Deep Space Soundworks, Atkins and May began to DJ on Detroit's party circuit. By 1981, Mojo was playing the record mixes recorded by the Belleville Three, who were also branching out to work with other musicians. The trio traveled to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

to investigate the

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

scene there, particularly the Chicago DJs

Ron Hardy Ron Hardy (May 8, 1958 – March 2, 1992) was an American, Chicago, Illinois-based DJ and record producer of early house music. He is well known for playing records at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club. Decades after his death, he is ...

and

Frankie Knuckles Francis Warren Nicholls, Jr. (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), better known as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the ...

. House was a natural progression from disco music, so that the trio began to formulate the synthesis of this dance music with the mechanical sounds of groups like Kraftwerk, in a way that reflected post-industrialist Detroit. An obsession with the future and its machines is reflected in much of their music, because, according to Atkins, Detroit is the most advanced in the transition away from industrialism. Juan Atkins has been lauded as the "Godfather of Techno" while Derrick May is thought of as the "Innovator" and Kevin Saunderson is often referred to as the "Elevator" In the early years of techno Erik Travis launched his label PC records releasing "Sound of mind" Programming in 1987, and Direct drive ep in 1988 with a more Kraftwerk influence in sound. Travis's roots dates back to 1985. The label would have a small success due to Travis solely taking on the project. While many artist were inspired by the release and played by DJs like Jeff Mills (The Wizard) and other Detroit DJs and is now considered as a hidden gem of techno. Travis would receive more popularity with the 1998 Metroplex release of Techno Drivers. His releases also include "In the Mind of Erik" in 1995, "Rolling Through Time" in 1997, "Many Voices of Travis" in 1999 and more for his label F.a.c.t. Records. He still continues to press currently on Othofact Records.

Futurism

These early Detroit techno artists employed science fiction imagery to articulate their visions of a transformed society. A notable exception to this trend was a single by Derrick May under his pseudonym Is , called "Strings of Life" (1987). This vibrant dancefloor anthem was filled with rich synthetic string arrangements and took the underground music scene by storm in May 1987. It "hit Britain in an especially big way during the country's 1987–1988

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

explosion." It became May's best known track, which, according to Frankie Knuckles, "just exploded. It was like something you can't imagine, the kind of power and energy people got off that record when it was first heard. " The club scene created by techno in Detroit was a way for suburban blacks in Detroit to distance themselves from "jits", slang for lower class African Americans living in the inner city. "Prep parties" were obsessed with flaunting wealth and incorporated many aspects of European culture including club names like Plush, Charivari, and GQ Productions, reflecting European fashion and luxury, because Europe signified high class. In addition prep parties were run as private clubs and restricted who could enter based on dress and appearance. Party flyers were also an attempt to restrict and distance lower class individuals from the middle class club scene.

Afrofuturism

The three artists all contribute to the discourse of

Afrofuturism Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocultu ...

through their re-purposing of technology to create a new form of music that appealed to a marginalized underground population. Especially within the context of Detroit, where the rise of robotics led to a massive loss of jobs around the time these three were growing up, technology is very relevant. The process "took technology, and made it a black secret." The sound is both futuristic and extraterrestrial, touching on the "otherness" central to Afrofuturist content. According to one critic, it was a "deprived sound trying to get out."

Tukufu Zuberi Tukufu Zuberi (born April 26, 1959) is an American sociologist, filmmaker, social critic, educator, and writer. Zuberi has appeared in several documentaries on Africa and the African diaspora, including ''Liberia: America's Stepchild'' (2002), a ...

explains that electronic music can be multiracial and that critics should pay attention to "not just sound aesthetics but the production process and institutions created by black musicians."

The Music Institute

Inspired by Chicago's house clubs, Chez Damier, Alton Miller and George Baker started a club of their own in downtown Detroit, named The Music Institute at 1315 Broadway. The club helped unite a previously scattered scene into an underground "family", where May, Atkins, and Saunderson DJed with fellow pioneers like Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes and Blake Baxter. It allowed for collaboration, and helped inspire what would become the second wave of Detroit-area techno, which included artists whom the Belleville Three had influenced and mentored.

Success abroad

In 1988, due to the popularity of

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

and

acid house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthes ...

music in Great Britain,

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a world ...

talent scout Neil Rushton contacted Derrick May with a view to finding out more about the Detroit scene. To define the Detroit sound as being distinct from

Chicago house Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the first ever house music productions, which were by Chicago-based artists in the 1980s. History and origins Disco ...

, Rushton and the Belleville Three chose the word "techno" for their tracks, a term that Atkins had been using since his Cybotron days ("Techno City" was an early single).

Recent work

Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May remain active in the music scene today. In 2000, the first annual

Detroit Electronic Music Festival Movement Electronic Music Festival is an annual electronic music, electronic dance music event held in the birthplace of Techno, Detroit, each Memorial Day weekend since 2006. Previous electronic music festivals held at Hart Plaza on Memorial ...

was held, and in 2004 May assumed control of the festival, renamed Movement. He invested his own funds into the festival, and "got severely wounded financially." Kevin Saunderson helmed the festival, renamed FUSE IN, the following year. Saunderson, May, and Carl Craig all performed but did not produce the festival in 2006, when it was again called Movement. Saunderson returned to perform at the 2007 Movement as well.

Politics

The first wave of Detroit techno differed from the Chicago house movement, with the former originating in Detroit's suburban black middle class community. Teenagers of families that had prospered as a result of Detroit's automotive industry were removed from the kind of black poverty found in urban parts of Detroit, Chicago, and New York. This resulted in tensions in club spaces frequented by ghetto gangstas or ruffians where signs stating "No Jits" were common. Suburban middle class black youths were also attracted to Europhile culture, something that was criticized for not being authentically black. Schaub's analysis of Underground Resistance valued "speaking out of the perspective of the hood than about providing new visions of identity formation for people in the hood"Schaub,"Beyond the Hood? Detroit Techno, Underground Resistance, and African American Metropolitan Identity Politics."p.11 Identity politics in Detroit techno is focused mostly on race relations. Throughout the creation of techno there was this constant and strong "progressive desire to move beyond essentialized blackness". Even though the classist nature of techno avoided the artists and producers to separate themselves from the urban poor, especially in the first wave, it helped them make metropolitan spaces the subject of their own vision of different, alternative societies. These alternate societies aimed at moving beyond the concepts of race and ethnicity and blend all of them together. The early producers of Detroit techno state in multiple different occasions that the goal was to make techno just about music and not about race. As Juan Atkins said, "I hate that things have to be separated and dissected y race... to me it shouldn't be white or black music, it should be just music"

''The New Dance Sound of Detroit''

The explosion of interest in electronic dance music during the late 1980s provided a context for the development of techno as an identifiable

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other f ...

. The mid-1988 UK release of '' Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit'',Sicko 1999:98 an album compiled by ex- Northern Soul DJ and Kool Kat Records boss Neil Rushton (at the time an A&R scout for Virgin's "10 Records" imprint) and Derrick May, was an important milestone and marked the introduction of the word ''techno'' in reference to a specific genre of music.Brewster 2006:354Reynolds 1999:71. ''Detroit's music had hitherto reached British ears as a subset of Chicago house;

eil Eil may refer to: Places * Eil (crater), on Mars * Eil, Cologne, a quarter of Cologne, Germany * Eil, Somalia * Eil District, Somalia * Loch Eil, a lake in Scotland Other uses * Eastern Independent League, an American high school sports con ...

Rushton and the

Belleville Three The Belleville Three are three American musicians, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, who are credited with inventing the Detroit techno genre. Origins Kevin Saunderson was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of nine he m ...

decided to fasten on the word techno – a term that had been bandied about but never stressed – in order to define Detroit as a distinct genre.'' Although the compilation put ''techno'' into the lexicon of British music journalism, the music was, for a time, sometimes characterized as Detroit's high-tech interpretation of Chicago house rather than a relatively pure genre unto itself. In fact, the compilation's working title had been ''The House Sound of Detroit'' until the addition of Atkins' song "Techno Music" prompted reconsideration. Rushton was later quoted as saying he, Atkins, May, and Saunderson came up with the compilation's final name together, and that the Belleville Three voted down calling the music some kind of regional brand of house; they instead favored a term they were already using, ''techno''.

Second wave

The first wave of Detroit techno had peaked in 1988–89, with the popularity of artists like Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, and Chez Damier, and clubs like St. Andrews Hall, Majestic Theater, The Shelter, and the Music Institute. At the same time, Detroit techno benefited from the growth of the European

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mu ...

scene and various licensing deals with labels in the UK, including Kool Kat Records. By 1989 May's ''Strings of Life'' had achieved "anthemic" status. several years after its recording. By the early 1990s a second wave of Detroit artists started to break through, including, among others, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance (featuring Mike Banks,

Jeff Mills Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills foun ...

, and

Robert Hood Robert Hood (born 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He is a founding member of the group Underground Resistance as a 'Minister of Information' with Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. He is often consid ...

),

Blake Baxter Blake Baxter (born 1963) is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.John Bush, Blake Baxterat AllMusic Baxter was ...

, Jay Denham, and

Octave One Octave One is a group of American techno musicians composed of siblings Lenny Burden and Lawrence Burden, sometimes associated with their three other brothers, Lorne Burden, Lynell Burden and Lance Burden. In 1989, The band debuted on Derrick May ...

. According to music journalist

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on musi ...

, in the same period what began as a Europhile fantasy of elegance and refinement was, ironically, transformed by British and European producers into a "vulgar uproar for E'd-up mobs: anthemic, cheesily sentimental, unabashedly drug-crazed." Detroit embraced this maximalism and created its own variant of acid house and techno. The result was a harsh Detroit hardcore full of riffs and industrial bleakness. Two major labels of this sound were Underground Resistance and +8, both of which mixed 1980s electro, UK synth-pop and industrial paralleling the brutalism of rave music of Europe. Underground Resistance's music embodied a kind of abstract militancy by presenting themselves as a paramilitary group fighting against commercial mainstream entertainment industry who they called "the programmers" in their tracks such as ''Predator'', ''Elimination'', ''Riot'' or ''Death Star''. Similarly, the label +8 was formed by Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva which evolved from industrial hardcore to a minimalist progressive techno sound. As friendly rivals to Underground Resistance, +8 pushed up the speed of their songs faster and fiercer in tracks like ''Vortex''. On Memorial Day weekend of 2000, electronic music fans from around the globe made a pilgrimage to Hart Plaza on the banks of the Detroit River and experienced the first

Detroit Electronic Music Festival Movement Electronic Music Festival is an annual electronic music, electronic dance music event held in the birthplace of Techno, Detroit, each Memorial Day weekend since 2006. Previous electronic music festivals held at Hart Plaza on Memorial ...

. In 2003, the festival management changed the name to Movement, then Fuse-In (2005), and most recently, Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival (2007). The festival is a showcase for DJs and performers across all genres of electronic music, takes course over a period of three days, and is considered to be the best underground electronic music festival in the United States. There are also many events outside of the festival, including the largest afterparties at the

Detroit Masonic Temple The Detroit Masonic Temple is the world's largest Masonic Temple. Located in the Cass Corridor of Detroit, Michigan, at 500 Temple Street, the building serves as a home to various masonic organizations including the York Rite Sovereign Colleg ...

and another popular party at The Old Miami with a surprise line-up.

Notable Detroit area record labels

* 430 West Records *

Detroit Techno Militia Detroit Techno Militia is a grass roots collective of DJ's and producers located in Detroit, MI on a mission to promote Detroit Techno around the world. They compare their mission to restoring an old building. Musically, they believe that Detroit ...

* Axis Records * Fragile * Metroplex * Minus Records * Planet E Communications * Plus 8 * Transmat * Underground Resistance

Other notable Detroit techno styled producers and acts

* Aril Brikha *

Surgeon (musician) Anthony Child (born 1 May 1971), better known as Surgeon, is an English electronic musician and DJ. Child releases music on his own labels Counterbalance and Dynamic Tension. Established imprints, such as Tresor, Soma, and Harthouse, have also ...

* Fabrice Lig *

Kelli Hand Kelley Hand (September 15, 1964 – August 3, 2021), known professionally as Kelli Hand and K-HAND, was a musician and DJ from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Hand was widely credited with opening the door for Black women's participation in the ...

Bibliography

* Brewster B. & Broughton F., ''Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey'', Avalon Travel Publishing, 2006, (). * Reynolds, S., ''Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture'', Pan Macmillan, 1998 (). * Reynolds, S., ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture'', Routledge, New York 1999 ().''Generation Ecstasy'' is based on ''Energy Flash'', but is a unique edition significantly rewritten for the North American market. Its copyright date is 1998 but it was first published July 1999.

References

{{BlackMusicHistory 1980s in Detroit Techno genres Music of Detroit Music scenes African-American music

The Belleville Three

Futurism

Afrofuturism

The Music Institute

Success abroad

Recent work

Politics

''The New Dance Sound of Detroit''

Second wave

Notable Detroit area record labels

Other notable Detroit techno styled producers and acts

See also

Bibliography

References