Another Detroit discussion......
People with an Afro-American heritage created techno, based their on theirinfluences and social surroundings.
In the year 2008, it seems that it is the white-suburban guy that are more concerned with keeping the Detroit-myth alive....
detroit
Talla 2XLC founded the "Technoclub @ Dorian Gray" in Frankfurt in 1984 - just to put things in a more global perspective. The connection of the word "Techno" to electronic dance music had many origins, Detroit being only one of them, though of couarse the most mythical one.
Aside from Juan Atkins' "Techno City" I found no proof that the word "techno" was already referring to a genre of club music in Detroit before 10 Records established the phrase with their legendary "Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit" compilation in 1988, ironically in the UK. There it was basically used to distinguish a new trend from the mainstream acid house trend, as well es establishing an opposition with Detroit to Chicago, which was already being marketed as the origin of acid house. So you can also read the origin of Techno and the whole Detroit myth as a marketing trick.
This is in no way meant to bash at the Detroit hype. I just say there are a lot of different (hi)stories and the mythical one is just one of them.
Another myth by the way is that techno came from the lower social classes and some run-down Detroit ghettos, but that's a different story...
Aside from Juan Atkins' "Techno City" I found no proof that the word "techno" was already referring to a genre of club music in Detroit before 10 Records established the phrase with their legendary "Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit" compilation in 1988, ironically in the UK. There it was basically used to distinguish a new trend from the mainstream acid house trend, as well es establishing an opposition with Detroit to Chicago, which was already being marketed as the origin of acid house. So you can also read the origin of Techno and the whole Detroit myth as a marketing trick.
This is in no way meant to bash at the Detroit hype. I just say there are a lot of different (hi)stories and the mythical one is just one of them.
Another myth by the way is that techno came from the lower social classes and some run-down Detroit ghettos, but that's a different story...
"In my life I widened a lot of holes!" (Jeff Milligan, talking about slipmats)
Does anyone know where this myth started off ´cause I´ve heard loads of people tell me this time and time again? Not that it really matters to me, though. Just interested.Red Kite wrote:Another myth by the way is that techno came from the lower social classes and some run-down Detroit ghettos, but that's a different story...
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John Clees
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I'm not from Detroit. Nor have I been there. All I know about Detroit is second-hand information, although i can be critical enough to distinguish between the plausible and the marketing bogus.
Also, I'm not black. I'm white and culturally blocked between Belgium and Italy. All I know about black culture is what I picked up in history books, novels, lyrics, movies etc. So there's no way for me to know what it's like to be black in Detroit (or any other big city in the US for that matter). We simply don't have that racial segregation history in Europe.
So everytime someone from Detroit links Techno with black people, in Europe nobody will fully understand this. In addition, if Mad Mike says something that comes off pretty hard, he will most likely be criticised in Europe or even be called a racist. The cultural difference between the black community in the US and white Europe is too big. So, if Europeans want to understand the black roots of techno in Detroit, they need to know a thing or two about black history in the US so they can put that in the right context. If you don't understand each other, you can't communicate.
(yes i know, there are also black people in Europe, but it's still a different thing)
In other words, if someone from outside the US, is doubting about the Detroit roots of techno (the music, not the word), then this person probably doesn't have all the facts. The decent thing to do then is to dig deeper and find out for yourself. Unfortunately, a lot of people somehow prefer to complain, to get hostile, to spit, to moan, to insult.
No idea why... i guess ignorance is a haven to some people.
My two cents about Techno being invented in Detroit. Here it comes.
Techno was not invented in Detroit, nor was it invented anywhere else.
Techno happened in Detroit. Somehow, all the right ingredients and elements came together there and influenced a bunch of black kids who later pioneered a particular sound that ended up influencing electronic music worldwide. Those elements are among other things, the musical heritage of Detroit, the obvious influence of that heritage on the black community over there, Kraftwerk, italian disco, Chicago house, Detroit urban life, synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, the industrial 'desert' and i guess many other things that only a detroiter can tell.
Techno could have happened in a different city as other cities had their own peculiar ingredients and if it did, techno would have sounded differently. It probably wouldn't be coined 'techno' at all. You can come up with a lot of "what if's". What if Juan Atkins's parents moved to Texas? What if Franke Knuckles didn't move to Chicago? What if Kraftwerk wasn't successful in the US? What if Giorgio Moroder was never born?
But it happened in Detroit. And that sound went on to influence so many other producers worldwide, including people like Autechre where the influence may be a bit less obvious.
The same can be said about House music in Chicago, and Disco in New York etc
It's no myth. It's an occurrence. It happened.
But it's important to set the record straight or at least try to.
Also, I'm not black. I'm white and culturally blocked between Belgium and Italy. All I know about black culture is what I picked up in history books, novels, lyrics, movies etc. So there's no way for me to know what it's like to be black in Detroit (or any other big city in the US for that matter). We simply don't have that racial segregation history in Europe.
So everytime someone from Detroit links Techno with black people, in Europe nobody will fully understand this. In addition, if Mad Mike says something that comes off pretty hard, he will most likely be criticised in Europe or even be called a racist. The cultural difference between the black community in the US and white Europe is too big. So, if Europeans want to understand the black roots of techno in Detroit, they need to know a thing or two about black history in the US so they can put that in the right context. If you don't understand each other, you can't communicate.
(yes i know, there are also black people in Europe, but it's still a different thing)
In other words, if someone from outside the US, is doubting about the Detroit roots of techno (the music, not the word), then this person probably doesn't have all the facts. The decent thing to do then is to dig deeper and find out for yourself. Unfortunately, a lot of people somehow prefer to complain, to get hostile, to spit, to moan, to insult.
No idea why... i guess ignorance is a haven to some people.
My two cents about Techno being invented in Detroit. Here it comes.
Techno was not invented in Detroit, nor was it invented anywhere else.
Techno happened in Detroit. Somehow, all the right ingredients and elements came together there and influenced a bunch of black kids who later pioneered a particular sound that ended up influencing electronic music worldwide. Those elements are among other things, the musical heritage of Detroit, the obvious influence of that heritage on the black community over there, Kraftwerk, italian disco, Chicago house, Detroit urban life, synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, the industrial 'desert' and i guess many other things that only a detroiter can tell.
Techno could have happened in a different city as other cities had their own peculiar ingredients and if it did, techno would have sounded differently. It probably wouldn't be coined 'techno' at all. You can come up with a lot of "what if's". What if Juan Atkins's parents moved to Texas? What if Franke Knuckles didn't move to Chicago? What if Kraftwerk wasn't successful in the US? What if Giorgio Moroder was never born?
But it happened in Detroit. And that sound went on to influence so many other producers worldwide, including people like Autechre where the influence may be a bit less obvious.
The same can be said about House music in Chicago, and Disco in New York etc
It's no myth. It's an occurrence. It happened.
But it's important to set the record straight or at least try to.
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John Clees
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kristofason
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so whats the moral of the story again?!dsat wrote:I'm not from Detroit. Nor have I been there. All I know about Detroit is second-hand information, although i can be critical enough to distinguish between the plausible and the marketing bogus.
Also, I'm not black. I'm white and culturally blocked between Belgium and Italy. All I know about black culture is what I picked up in history books, novels, lyrics, movies etc. So there's no way for me to know what it's like to be black in Detroit (or any other big city in the US for that matter). We simply don't have that racial segregation history in Europe.
So everytime someone from Detroit links Techno with black people, in Europe nobody will fully understand this. In addition, if Mad Mike says something that comes off pretty hard, he will most likely be criticised in Europe or even be called a racist. The cultural difference between the black community in the US and white Europe is too big. So, if Europeans want to understand the black roots of techno in Detroit, they need to know a thing or two about black history in the US so they can put that in the right context. If you don't understand each other, you can't communicate.
(yes i know, there are also black people in Europe, but it's still a different thing)
In other words, if someone from outside the US, is doubting about the Detroit roots of techno (the music, not the word), then this person probably doesn't have all the facts. The decent thing to do then is to dig deeper and find out for yourself. Unfortunately, a lot of people somehow prefer to complain, to get hostile, to spit, to moan, to insult.
No idea why... i guess ignorance is a haven to some people.
My two cents about Techno being invented in Detroit. Here it comes.
Techno was not invented in Detroit, nor was it invented anywhere else.
Techno happened in Detroit. Somehow, all the right ingredients and elements came together there and influenced a bunch of black kids who later pioneered a particular sound that ended up influencing electronic music worldwide. Those elements are among other things, the musical heritage of Detroit, the obvious influence of that heritage on the black community over there, Kraftwerk, italian disco, Chicago house, Detroit urban life, synthesizers, drum machines, sequencers, the industrial 'desert' and i guess many other things that only a detroiter can tell.
Techno could have happened in a different city as other cities had their own peculiar ingredients and if it did, techno would have sounded differently. It probably wouldn't be coined 'techno' at all. You can come up with a lot of "what if's". What if Juan Atkins's parents moved to Texas? What if Franke Knuckles didn't move to Chicago? What if Kraftwerk wasn't successful in the US? What if Giorgio Moroder was never born?
But it happened in Detroit. And that sound went on to influence so many other producers worldwide, including people like Autechre where the influence may be a bit less obvious.
The same can be said about House music in Chicago, and Disco in New York etc
It's no myth. It's an occurrence. It happened.
But it's important to set the record straight or at least try to.