A BRIEF STORY OF TECHNO 

Techno music first emerged in the 1970s and quickly evolved, spawning many subgenres.

 Early days: Techno music grew out of European electronic music from the 1970s and 1980s. Influences included Germany's Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream as well as Belgium's C.J. Bolland. These artists used electronic synthesizers and songs anchored around repetitive basslines and drumbeats.

 

Emergence of Detroit techno: By the late 1980s, Michigan residents Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson formed a collective known as the Belleville Three. They used many of the same electronic instruments favored by European dance groups. Music historians sometimes credit Atkins with the first true techno song, 1985's "No UFO's." Along with the rest of the Belleville Three, he helped establish a Detroit sound that caught on in Europe. Much of European rave music in the late '80s and early '90s revolved around Detroit techno.

 

Techno’s expanding influence: Techno continued to thrive in Detroit thanks to the Underground Resistance music collective, formed in 1989 by "Mad" Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, and Robert Hood. Other techno capitals around the world included New York (where Joey Beltram helped elevate the genre), Chicago (where techno merged with the deep house, Chicago house, and acid house music), Berlin (where the Bunker club hosts famous techno live sets), and Ghent (home to R&S Records).

 

Techno today: Today's ravers dance to a wide array of electronic music. The same nightclub could mix techno into a playlist that includes dubstep, EDM, Chicago house, and breakbeat hardcore. As such, today's techno music is slotted in among genres that influenced it and genres that grew from it. Techno spawned many subgenres including minimal techno, ambient techno, hardcore techno, industrial techno, intelligent dance music (IDM), Detroit techno, trance, deep techno, and tech house. From these subgenres came offshoots like acid house, rave, electronica, and EDM.