First, came House. Then, came Techno.

I love history. I love to know how things got started and to see the evolution of society’s perspective through each generation. I also love music, electronic music to be exact. So naturally I like to know the history of music. To know exactly what was going on in the world which caused new genres of music to be created. Something that will forever hold true is that when you restrict a person’s right to express themselves freely, you’re just paving the way for a new way of artistic expression to take flight. That was definitely the case in Detroit during the 1980’s.

I posted a blog a while back called “Death to Disco,” it gave a brief background on how house music got started. It was a majority push back to a changing culture and growing minority. Disco music was the sound of that change and when it did not coincide with existing values, it was forced to retreat to the underground. It was in the underground where it was taken apart and what was put back together was known as house music. This push back took place in Chicago, Illinois. Not too far from that in Detroit, similar trouble was brewing.

Detroit during the first half of the 20th century was thought to be one of the “Great American Cities.” This was when industrial production was at its height and Detroit was positioned in the center of production. This also made it one of the most technologically advanced cities in the country. But all of this started to come down the second half of the century. During the second half of the century there was “white flight” in Detroit. This is where large portions of the population, mainly whites, were leaving the city and moving into the suburbs. This change in the landscape not only gave rise to unemployment and crime rates but it also left a lot of buildings empty in the inner city. Segregation practices were still going on in the city, so this proved to be a very very tough period for the black low-income people stuck in the declining city. This led to increase frustration in the black community which in turned pushed them to let out this frustration inside these abandoned buildings. The underground rave started to take shape and techno was born.

Techno is a mixture of black styles of music that include Chicago house, funk, electro and electric jazz. Similar to disco in that it is dance music with a very fast “four-on-the-floor” tempo but with looping tracks and sounds. It also has a consistent pulse. Some of its instrumental sounds will come from drum machines, digital audio workstations and synthesizers. Pioneer DJs that are credited of creating techno are Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May. They were known as the Belleville Three.

...A very very early techno track

Detroit was the first instance where techno was the sound of rebellion, but similar movements have taken place in different parts of the world and they all stem from the same thing: oppression. In Berlin after the wall came down, techno blew up in the area. Little did people know that during the oppressive years of the wall, a quiet underground techno scene had been simmering that didn’t flourish until the wall came down. Recently, the biggest Techno Revolution has been happening in Ukraine. The country fell into war early 2014 which cost over 10,000 civilian lives and has displaced over 1.5 million people. Since the conflict started, Ukraine has also undergone an Underground Rave Revolution. “People drowned their sorrows. They started going out and partying more.” “There was an absolute fear that everyone here could be a part of a completely pointless butchery.” These are the sentiments that has given birth to this revolution.

All in all, to me it seems that...TO TECHNO IS TO PROTEST.

I’m about it but it’s not all bad.

Techno may have come from such a dark place but on the other side of that same coin, it has taken over popular culture and mainstream EDM. Not only do we have absolute Techno legends like Adam Beyer, Amelie Lens, Charlotte de Witte and Deborah De Luca, just to name a few. But there are even festivals just for techno music. Here in my home state of Texas, Seismic Dance Event just took place where the main genres of the festival were house music and techno. Seismic Dance Event was lowkey the inspo for this blog post.

Good or bad one thing is for sure; TECHNO IS HERE TO STAY!

Where is Techno today? Check out this clip from Blacklizt (Zhu)'s set from this past weekend's Seismic Dance Event in Austin, TX