EDM’s roots in Black America: Detroit Techno
In comparison to Chicago house, Detroit techno is…a bit of an oddball, despite being more or less a direct offshoot. For one, concrete info on the beginning of Detroit techno is not as readily available, especially when compared to its parent genre. Secondly, much like Chicago, Newark and New York City did, Detroit actually had its own house scene develop after the fall of disco. But, it gets messy when trying to research because the Detroit house music scene was overshadowed by the Detroit techno movement, so boundaries between the two can get blurred pretty easily.
Before we formally get started: I want to give an honorable mention to the late DJ, Ken Collier. Like I said above, the distinction between house and techno in Detroit can get blurred, and Ken Collier’s story is one such example. From what I could find, Collier was THE guy in Detroit, much like how Frankie Knuckles was THE guy in Chicago, how Larry Leavan was THE guy in New York, and how Tony Humphries was THE guy in Newark. A lot/all of Detroit’s house scene can be traced back to him, including Detroit techno. Again, Detroit techno is its own thing separate from Detroit house, and Collier deserves his own in-depth story, but his popularity and techniques helped pave the way for techno to spring up in Detroit. So, we’re giving credit where it’s due.
Ken Collier
Now, onto techno. Again, much like house music, the genre found a new audience in Europe where it flourished more so than it did in the U.S. (although the argument can be made that techno music far surpassed house music in Europe, in terms of popularity). And, also like house, its roots come from the Black American experience, granted it gets messy, due to Kraftwerk being a repeatedly cited influence for different techno DJs in Detroit, while Kraftwerk themselves are also occasionally labeled as techno (although this varies depending on your source: some sources will have Kraftwerk classified as synth-pop/electropop).
In its prime, Detroit was a manufacturing city: many people were working class and spent all day using various machines to make a comfortable living. This is to say that at the time, machinery, industrialism, and technology were all parts of Detroit’s culture, and it’s why/how techno came to be. From Ken Collier blending the electronic dance sounds of Kraftwerk into his mixes, to the DJs that came after him using early, industrial sounding synthesizers to make their own music, with Chicago house as the base, so to speak.
For techno, the roots can be traced back to The Belleville Three: a trio of high school friends Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. The group named themselves after the town they lived in: Belleville, which is about 30ish miles outside of Detroit. Belleville’s more suburban location is essential when talking about the development of techno.
The Belleville Three: Juan Atkins (left), Kevin Saunderson (middle), and Derrick May (right)
One thing that makes Belleville stand out so much is the fact that it was home to well off, working families but was not racially segregated like other neighborhoods (although a few sources claim that the Belleville Three were some of the only black students at their school). As Atkins himself said,
“Everybody was equal. So what happened is that you’ve got this environment with kids that come up somewhat snobby, ‘cos hey, their parents are making money working at Ford or GM or Chrysler, been elevated to a foreman, maybe even a white-collar job.”
Being located far from the various clubs and discotheques meant that the trio didn’t consume house music live and surrounded by others. In the pieces about Chicago and Newark, a driving force of the house scene was the openness and general positive energy that the clubs had; the music was about getting people of all colors onto the floor. The Belleville Three didn’t have that, instead they often listened to house music alone in their houses, occasionally with the lights off.
House wasn’t the only thing the Belleville Three listened to, far from it really. The three have repeatedly cited Kraftwerk as huge influences, as well as Bootsy Collins, Parliament, Prince, and the B-52s. According to May,
“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 and Yellow Magic Orchestra. We never took it as just entertainment, we took it as a serious philosophy.”
The last part there about it being a serious philosophy is another key to this rambling mess.
This blending of eclectic influences, combined with Detroit’s openness to new technology, as well as the Belleville Three’s suburban, philosophical approach to the music, created something new. Music that, at its core, contained some of the same elements as house, but also championed this more industrious, futuristic sound that also was steeped in afrofuturistic concepts.
“My music has always to a certain degree been about a certain escapist attitude. Because there are times that you can be in a city like Detroit and it can get really bad. You just want to fly away. Sometimes you wish you could just sail off to another time and space. A lot of my tracks allude to that kind of adventure.” – Juan Atkins
The term, “afrofuturism,” wasn’t coined until 1993, but the concept has always been there, as seen in the above quote. Without getting too lost into the weeds, afrofuturism is a blend of African diaspora and sci-fi that deals with exploring futuristic worlds stemming from African diaspora experiences. It’s a genre where Black people (typically Black Americans), envision fictional worlds that address the real-life struggles that they face, such as establishing/reclaiming a cultural identity lost to slavery (among other themes). Black Panther and its setting, Wakanda, are probably the most popular examples of this idea, but there are far, FAR more out there.
The more aggressive and syncopated sound of techno alone makes it stand apart from house. And that’s without including the prominent afrofuturistic concepts that appear in Detroit techno records, be it in the song/album titles, the cover art, or even the lyrics; some Detroit techno records either sample or include some sort of spoken word or other poetry that tackle more of the same themes associated with afrofuturism.
These futuristic and escapist themes are what tie this whole series back to the origin point: Big Fish Theory (yes, a previous article/video I made is responsible for this mess). In the Big Fish Theory video, I made note of how (1) Zack Sekoff (the album’s majority producer) was sonically inspired by U.K Garage and (2) Vince Staples was inspired by Detroit techno specifically.
Sekoff going off and drawing inspiration from the sampling techniques from likes of Todd Edwards can directly be traced back to Tony Humphries in Newark and Larry Leavan across the Hudson in New York City (see: Garage House)
The existential and political lyrics of Big Fish Theory make even more sense after learning the background and content of Detroit techno. Staples was listening to a lot of this industrial, abrasive, oddly rhythmic music riddled with themes of the future and an oppressed people uplifting themselves and what did that give us? An album with industrial, abrasive, and oddly rhythmic sounds riddled with themes of the future and an oppressed people uplifting themselves. It’s a 1:1 comparison really.
Despite the more European connotations that both house and techno music may have now, both genres came from the minds and creativity of Black Americans in spaces largely meant for other people like them (Belleville being the outlier here). Even the disco music that was sampled and remixed in early house music was largely made by Black people, further strengthening a lineage that, while not forgotten, is definitely not paid attention to/talked about nearly enough.
Proof:
B., Marke. “Ken Collier: The Pivotal Figure of Detroit DJ Culture.” Red Bull Music Academy Daily, 24 May 2018, daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2018/05/ken-collier.
Glasspiegel, Wills, and Marlon Bishop. “Get Familiar With Detroit Techno: 10 Essential Songs.” NPR, NPR, 27 May 2011, www.npr.org/2011/05/27/136655438/get-familiar-with-detroit-techno-10-essential-songs.
Lee, Sammy. “This Is the Story of How Early '80s Detroit Gave Birth to the Sound of Techno.” Red Bull, Red Bull, 20 June 2016, www.redbull.com/us-en/quickfire-history-of-detroit-techno.
Nkiru, Jenn. “‘Black to Techno’ by Jenn Nkiru | Frieze & Gucci.” YouTube, Gucci, 7 Aug. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqVq_QMH46E.
“The Techno Rebels.” Energy Flash: a Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, by Simon Reynolds, Faber and Faber, 2013, pp. 3–4.