Techno is a genre of electronic music which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time () and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat.Butler, M. (2006). Unlocking the groove: rhythm, meter, and musical design in electronic dance music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, page 78. "...Drawing on two of the most commonly used terms employed in this discourse, I will describe these categories as 'breakbeat-driven" and 'four-on-the-floor.'... The constant stream of steady bass-drum quarter notes that results is the distinguishing feature of four-on-the-floor genres, and the term continues to be used within EDM ... The primary genres within this category are techno, house, and trance." Brewster, B. & Broughton, F. (2014). Last night a DJ saved my life: the history of the disc jockey. New York: Grove Press, Chapter 7, paragraph 48 (EPUB."'No UFOs' was a dark challenge to the dancefloor built from growing layers of robotic bass, dissonant melody lines and barks of disembodied voices. It was music he'd originally intended for Cybotron, and in its theme of government control it continued Cybotron's doomy social commentary, but was noticeably faster-paced, with the electro breakbeat replaced by an industrial four-to-the-floor rhythm. This was the sound of Detroit's future. Julien, O. & Levaux, C. (2018). Over and over: exploring repetition in popular music. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, page 76."Most techno dance music is characterized by a post-disco, house-music-inflected, rhythm that is known as "four-on-the-floor": in reference to the pulse that is explicitly emphasized by a kick drum on each beat (regular like the piston of a mechanical machine), while the snare is heard on the second and fourth beats, and an open hi-hat sound provides a sense of pull and push in between the beats. Music styles that fall within the rhythmic realm of the disco-continuum include not only Chicago house music and Detroit techno, but also hi-NRG and trance." Webber, S. (2008). DJ skills: the essential guide to mixing and scratching. Oxford: Focal, page 253."A lot of dance music features what's called four on the floor, which means that the bass drum (also called the kick drum) Is playing quarter notes In time. While four on the floor is common in most genres derived from house and techno, it is far from new." Demers, J. (2010). Listening through the noise : the aesthetics of experimental electronic music. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, page 97."These newest subgenres drew listeners in part because they provided a respite from relent less dancing but also because they fleshed out the sparseness of straight-ahead techno and house. In particular, dub techno replaced EDM's mechanization with a way of muffling the sense of time's passage, despite the persistence of the four-on-the-floor beat." 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 Roland TR-808 and Roland TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular in this style.
Much of the instrumentation in techno is used to emphasize the role of rhythm over other musical aspects. Vocals and melodies are uncommon. The use of sound synthesis in developing distinctive timbres tends to feature more prominently. Typical harmonic practices found in other forms of music are often ignored in favor of repetitive sequences of notes. More generally the creation of techno is heavily dependent on music production technology.
In the early 1980s, the term "techno" was used to refer to a type of electronic music in GermanyRietveld, H. (2009), We Call It Techno! A Documentary About Germany's Early Techno Scene (Sextro and Wick), Dancecult, Vol. 1, No. 1, University of Huddersfield. and Japan. 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.Brewster 2006:354Reynolds 1999:71. Detroit's music had hitherto reached British ears as a subset of Chicago house; [Neil] Rushton and the Belleville Three decided to fasten on the word techno – a term that had been bandied about but never stressed – in order to define Detroit techno as a distinct genre. 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. Added to this is the influence of futuristic and science-fiction themesRietveld 1998:125 relevant to life in contemporary American society, with Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave a notable point of reference.Sicko 1999:28Having grown up with the latter-day effects of Fordism, the Detroit techno musicians read futurologist Alvin Toffler's soundbite predictions for change – 'blip culture', 'the intelligent environment', 'the infosphere', 'de-massification of the media de-massifies our minds', 'the techno rebels', 'appropriated technologies' – accorded with some, though not all, of their own intuitions, Toop, D. (1995), Ocean of Sound, Serpent's Tail, (p. 215). 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.
German literature on techno's origins describes it as a style that emerged in 1990 and based on Chicago house but influenced by Detroit techno, Belgian new beat and electronic body music. This version of techno became established in Europe and the United States in the early 90s. Initially, during the late 1980s in Germany, it was called 'Techno House'.Rietveld, H. (2009), We Call It Techno! A Documentary About Germany's Early Techno Scene (Sextro and Wick), p. 143, Dancecult, Vol. 1, No. 1, University of Huddersfield.Anz, P. & Meyer, A. Die Geschichte von Techno (in German, the history of Techno), page 21 in Anz, P. & Walder, P. (eds.), Techno, Zürich: Verlag Ricco Bilger, 1995 (ISBN 3908010144). For years, techno was synonymous with electronically generated music such as EBM [Electronic body music] or certain types of New wave. From 1990 onwards, however, techno referred to the type of electronic dance music that had emerged from house [Chicago House]. Even though Chicago's acid house and Detroit techno around 1987/88 contained many elements of today's [i.e. 1995] techno, 1990 is considered the birth year of techno as we know it today [i.e. 1995]. Originally called techno house, the word techno soon became established and became so popular that the original techno [EBM] soon had to give up its claim to the name.… Techno ... was there before you knew it - simultaneously in the USA, England, and on the continent [Europe].(Translated from German)
After the success of house music in Europe, techno grew in popularity in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands. 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. Every Monday night, Natania goes to Koncrete Jungle, a dance party on New York's lower East Side that plays a hip, relatively new offshoot of dance music known as drum & bass—or, in a more general way, techno, a blanket term that describes music made on computers and electronic gadgets instead of conventional instruments, and performed by deejays instead of old-fashioned bands.
Detroit techno
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."Kodwo 1998:100 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." 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.Sicko 1999:71
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!".Silcott, M. (1999). Rave America: New school dancescapes. Toronto, ON: ECW Press. May has commented that he considered his music a direct continuation of the European synthesizer tradition.Brewster 2006:349 He also identified Japanese synth-pop act Yellow Magic Orchestra, particularly member Ryuichi Sakamoto, and British band Ultravox, as influences, along with Kraftwerk. 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.Sicko 1999:49
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."
These early Detroit techno artists additionally employed science fiction imagery to articulate their visions of a transformed society.
School days Prior to achieving notoriety, Atkins, Saunderson, May, and Fowlkes shared common interests as budding musicians, "mix" tape traders, and aspiring DJs. 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. 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. Atkins has noted:
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 SoundworksBrewster 2006:350Reynolds 1999:16–17. (also referred to as Deep Space).Sicko 1999:56–58 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.