Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Belleville Three
I have an interesting find, a whole movie on YouTube, which explains the way Detroit techno came to be.
This should be interesting for any electronic music fan out there, because this already is music history.
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| Belleville Three |
Also, I’ll provide a short description of the birth of techno for anyone who isn't interested in the movie itself.
So basically, it all started around 1980s in Detroit. The thing that made it different from the electronic music of the day (house mostly) was the focus to repetitive sounds of factories, the technic sounds that it produced. At the time it seemed really futuristic.
The people that are held the most responsible for the creation of this music were three school friends, also called “The Belleville Three” (consisting of Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May).
One of the first records to make it worldwide was Derrick’s “Strings of life” and it can really give you a good feel what was techno back then.
It has been said that the sound of Detroit techno was mostly influenced by bands like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Bootsy, Parliament, Prince and The B-52’s.
A funny quote from Derrick May, in which he described Detroit techno as a “complete mistake, like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator, with only a sequencer to keep them company”.
For anyone interested in more detail, I highly recommend the movie!
