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Techno

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with (free) tekno music.

For the YouTuber, see Technoblade. For the Marvel character, see Fixer (Marvel Comics).

Techno is a genre of electronic dance music^[2] (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat.^[3] Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. Drum machines from the 1980s such as Roland’s TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.

Much of the instrumentation in techno emphasizes the role of rhythm over other musical parameters. Techno tracks mainly progress over manipulation of timbral characteristics of synthesizer presets and, unlike forms of EDM that tend to be produced with synthesizer keyboards, techno does not always strictly adhere to the harmonic practice of Western music and such structures are often ignored in favor of timbral manipulation alone. Another distinguishing feature of techno music and techno aesthetic is the general embracement of creative use of music production technology.

Use of the term “techno” to refer to a type of electronic music originated in Germany in the early 1980s. In 1988, following the UK release of the compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit, the term came to be associated with a form of EDM produced in Detroit.^[4][5] Detroit techno resulted from the melding of synth-pop by artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Yellow Magic Orchestra with African American styles such as house, electro, and funk.^[6] Added to this is the influence of futuristic and science-fiction themes^[7] relevant to life in contemporary American society, with Alvin Toffler‘s book The Third Wave a notable point of reference.^[8][9] The music produced in the mid-to-late 1980s by Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson (collectively known as The Belleville Three), along with Eddie Fowlkes, Blake Baxter, James Pennington and others is viewed as the first wave of techno from Detroit.^[10]

After the success of house music in a number of European countries, techno grew in popularity in the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Europe regional variants quickly evolved and by the early 1990s techno subgenres such as acid, hardcore, bleep, ambient, and dub techno had developed. Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use of the term, so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related but often qualitatively different styles, such as tech house and trance.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Detroit techno[edit]

Main article: Detroit techno

See also: Electro (music), House music, Italo disco, Kraftwerk, and Synthpop

In exploring Detroit techno’s origins, writer Kodwo Eshun maintains that “Kraftwerk are to techno what Muddy Waters is to the Rolling Stones: the authentic, the origin, the real.”^[15] Juan Atkins has acknowledged that he had an early enthusiasm for Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, particularly Moroder’s work with Donna Summer and the producer’s own album E=MC². Atkins also mentions that “around 1980 I had a tape of nothing but Kraftwerk, Telex, Devo, Giorgio Moroder and Gary Numan, and I’d ride around in my car playing it.”^[16] Regarding his initial impression of Kraftwerk, Atkins notes that they were “clean and precise” relative to the “weird UFO sounds” featured in his seemingly “psychedelic” music.^[17]

Derrick May identified the influence of Kraftwerk and other European synthesizer music in commenting that “it was just classy and clean, and to us it was beautiful, like outer space. Living around Detroit, there was so little beauty… everything is an ugly mess in Detroit, and so we were attracted to this music. It, like, ignited our imagination!”.^[18] May has commented that he considered his music a direct continuation of the European synthesizer tradition.^[19] He also identified Japanese synthpop act Yellow Magic Orchestra, particularly member Ryuichi Sakamoto, and British band Ultravox, as influences, along with Kraftwerk.^[20] YMO’s song “Technopolis” (1979), a tribute to Tokyo as an electronic mecca, is considered an “interesting contribution” to the development of Detroit techno, foreshadowing concepts that Atkins and Davis would later explore with Cybotron.^[21]

Kevin Saunderson has also acknowledged the influence of Europe but he claims to have been more inspired by the idea of making music with electronic equipment: “I was more infatuated with the idea that I can do this all myself.”^[19]

These early Detroit techno artists additionally employed science fiction imagery to articulate their visions of a transformed society.^[22]

School days[edit]

Prior to achieving notoriety, Atkins, Saunderson, May, and Fowlkes shared common interests as budding musicians, “mix” tape traders, and aspiring DJs.^[23] They also found musical inspiration via the Midnight Funk Association, an eclectic five-hour late-night radio program hosted on various Detroit radio stations, including WCHB, WGPR, and WJLB-FM from 1977 through the mid-1980s by DJ Charles “The Electrifying Mojo” Johnson.^[24] Mojo’s show featured electronic music by artists such as Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Tangerine Dream, alongside the funk sounds of acts such as Parliament Funkadelic and dance oriented new wave music by bands like Devo and the B-52’s.^[25] Atkins has noted:

He [Mojo] played all the Parliament and Funkadelic that anybody ever wanted to hear. Those two groups were really big in Detroit at the time. In fact, they were one of the main reasons why disco didn’t really grab hold in Detroit in ’79. Mojo used to play a lot of funk just to be different from all the other stations that had gone over to disco. When ‘Knee Deep‘ came out, that just put the last nail in the coffin of disco music.^[16]

Despite the short-lived disco boom in Detroit, it had the effect of inspiring many individuals to take up mixing, Juan Atkins among them. Subsequently, Atkins taught May how to mix records, and in 1981, “Magic Juan”, Derrick “Mayday”, in conjunction with three other DJ’s, one of whom was Eddie “Flashin” Fowlkes, launched themselves as a party crew called Deep Space Soundworks^[26][27] (also referred to as Deep Space).^[28] In 1980 or 1981, they met with Mojo and proposed that they provide mixes for his show, which they did end up doing the following year.^[16]

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, high school clubs such as Brats, Charivari, Ciabattino, Comrades, Gables, Hardwear, Rafael, Rumours, Snobs, and Weekends^[29] allowed the young promoters to develop and nurture a local dance music scene. As the local scene grew in popularity, DJs began to band together to market their mixing skills and sound systems to clubs that were hoping to attract larger audiences. Local church activity centers, vacant warehouses, offices, and YMCA auditoriums were the early locations where the musical form was nurtured.^[30]

Juan Atkins[edit]

Main articles: Juan Atkins and Cybotron (American band)

Of the four individuals responsible for establishing techno as a genre in its own right, Juan Atkins is widely cited as “The Originator”.^[31] In 1995, the American music technology publication Keyboard Magazine honored him as one of 12 Who Count in the history of keyboard music.^[32]

In the early 1980s, Atkins began recording with musical partner Richard Davis (and later with a third member, Jon-5) as Cybotron. This trio released a number of rock and electro-inspired tunes,^[33] the most successful of which were Clear (1983) and its moodier followup, “Techno City” (1984).^[34][35]

Atkins used the term techno to describe Cybotron’s music, taking inspiration from Futurist author Alvin Toffler, the original source for words such as cybotron and metroplex. Atkins has described earlier synthesizer based acts like Kraftwerk as techno, although many would consider both Kraftwerk’s and Juan’s Cybotron outputs as electro.^[36] Atkins viewed Cybotron’s Cosmic Cars (1982) as unique, Germanic, synthesized funk, but he later heard Afrika Bambaataa‘s “Planet Rock” (1982) and considered it to be a superior example of the music he envisioned. Inspired, he resolved to continue experimenting, and he encouraged Saunderson and May to do likewise.^[37]

Eventually, Atkins started producing his own music under the pseudonym Model 500, and in 1985 he established the record label Metroplex.^[38] The same year saw an important turning point for the Detroit scene with the release of Model 500’s “No UFO’s,” a seminal work that is generally considered the first techno production.^{[39][40][41][42][43]} Of this time, Atkins has said:

When I started Metroplex around February or March of ’85 and released “No UFO’s,” I thought I was just going to make my money back on it, but I wound up selling between 10,000 and 15,000 copies. I had no idea that my record would happen in Chicago. Derrick’s parents had moved there, and he was making regular trips between Detroit and Chicago. So when I came out with ‘No UFO’s,’ he took copies out to Chicago and gave them to some DJs, and it just happened.^[16]

Chicago[edit]

See also: Chicago house and House music

The music’s producers, especially May and Saunderson, admit to having been fascinated by the Chicago club scene and influenced by house in particular.^[44][45] May’s 1987 hit “Strings of Life” (released under the alias Rhythim Is Rhythim) is considered a classic in both the house and techno genres.^[45][46][47]

Juan Atkins also believes that the first acid house producers, seeking to distance house music from disco, emulated the techno sound.^[48] Atkins also suggests that the Chicago house sound developed as a result of Frankie Knuckles‘ using a drum machine he bought from Derrick May.^[49] He claims:

Derrick sold Chicago DJ Frankie Knuckles a TR909 drum machine. This was back when the Powerplant was open in Chicago, but before any of the Chicago DJs were making records. They were all into playing Italian imports; ‘No UFOs’ was the only U.S.-based independent record that they played. So Frankie Knuckles started using the 909 at his shows at the Powerplant. Boss had just brought out their little sampling footpedal, and somebody took one along there. Somebody was on the mic, and they sampled that and played it over the drumtrack pattern. Having got the drum machine and the sampler, they could make their own tunes to play at parties. One thing just led to another, and Chip E used the 909 to make his own record, and from then on, all these DJs in Chicago borrowed that 909 to come out with their own records.^[16]

In the UK, a club following for house music grew steadily from 1985, with interest sustained by scenes in London, Manchester, Nottingham, and later Sheffield and Leeds. The DJs thought to be responsible for house’s early UK success include Mike Pickering, Mark Moore, Colin Faver, and Graeme Park (DJ).^[50]

Detroit sound[edit]

The early producers, enabled by the increasing affordability of sequencers and synthesizers, merged a European synthpop aesthetic with aspects of soul, funk, disco, and electro, pushing EDM into uncharted terrain. They deliberately rejected the Motown legacy and traditional formulas of R&B and soul, and instead embraced technological experimentation.^{[51][52][53][54]}

Within the last 5 years or so, the Detroit underground has been experimenting with technology, stretching it rather than simply using it. As the price of sequencers and synthesizers has dropped, so the experimentation has become more intense. Basically, we’re tired of hearing about being in love or falling out, tired of the R&B system, so a new progressive sound has emerged. We call it techno!

— Juan Atkins, 1988^[51]

The resulting Detroit sound was interpreted by Derrick May and one journalist in 1988 as a “post-soul” sound with no debt to Motown,^[52][53] but by another journalist a decade later as “soulful grooves” melding the beat-centric styles of Motown with the music technology of the time.^[55] May described the sound of techno as something that is “…like Detroit…a complete mistake. It’s like George Clinton and Kraftwerk are stuck in an elevator with only a sequencer to keep them company.”^[52][53] Juan Atkins has stated that it is “music that sounds like technology, and not technology that sounds like music, meaning that most of the music you listen to is made with technology, whether you know it or not. But with techno music, you know it.”^[56]

One of the first Detroit productions to receive wider attention was Derrick May’s “Strings of Life” (1987), which, together with May’s previous release, “Nude Photo” (1987), helped raise techno’s profile in Europe, especially the UK and Germany, during the 1987–1988 house music boom (see Second Summer of Love).^[57] 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. Mike Dunn says he has no idea how people can accept a record that doesn’t have a bassline.”^[58]

Acid house[edit]

See also: Acid house, Rave, and Second Summer of Love

By 1988, house music had exploded in the UK, and acid house was increasingly popular.^[50] There was also a long-established warehouse party subculture based around the sound system scene. In 1988, the music played at warehouse parties was predominantly house. That same year, the Balearic party vibe associated with Ibiza-based DJ Alfredo Fiorito was transported to London, when Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold opened the clubs Shoom and Spectrum, respectively. Both night spots quickly became synonymous with acid house, and it was during this period that the use of MDMA, as a party drug, started to gain prominence. Other important UK clubs at this time included Back to Basics in Leeds, Sheffield’s Leadmill and Music Factory, and in Manchester The Haçienda, where Mike Pickering and Graeme Park’s Friday night spot, Nude, was an important proving ground for American underground^[59] dance music. Acid house party fever escalated in London and Manchester, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. MDMA-fueled club goers, faced with 2 A.M. closing hours, sought refuge in the warehouse party scene that ran all night. To escape the attention of the press and the authorities, this after-hours activity quickly went underground. Within a year, however, up to 10,000 people at a time were attending the first commercially organized mass parties, called raves, and a media storm ensued.^[60]

The success of house and acid house paved the way for wider acceptance of the Detroit sound, and vice versa: techno was initially supported by a handful of house music clubs in Chicago, New York, and Northern England, with London clubs catching up later;^[61] but in 1987, it was “Strings of Life” which eased London club-goers into acceptance of house, according to DJ Mark Moore.^[62][63]