Techno is a type of electronic dance music played on synthesizers and drum machines featuring often dark menacing robotic-sounding melodies with squelchy synth and deep bass lines set to a four on the floor beat.
In 1980's Detroit, the Belleville three, first Juan Atkins (Cybotron, Model 500) and later his friends Derrick May (Rhythim is Rhythim) and Kevin Saunderson (Inner City, Reese) began experimenting with synthesizers to create electronic dance music. Read more on Last.fm.
Techno is a type of electronic dance music played on synthesizers and drum machines featuring often dark menacing robotic-sounding melodies with squelchy synth and deep bass lines set to a four on the floor beat.
In 1980's Detroit, the Belleville three, first Juan Atkins (Cybotron, Model 500) and later his friends Derrick May (Rhythim is Rhythim) and Kevin Saunderson (Inner City, Reese) began experimenting with synthesizers to create electronic dance music. Derrick May described it as sounding like George Clinton (of Parliament and Funkadelic) and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator. Atkins' early tracks were akin to the emerging electro of Hashim, Herbie Hancock and Man Parrish, and also shared an emphasis on drums found in the freestyle of Shannon combined with the deep bass and danceability of British new wave synthpop (eg. New Order, Simple Minds, Pete Shelley) and the spacey sound of italo disco (eg. Rizo Ortolani, Laser, Charlie). Detroit's developing electronic music was influenced by Chicago house music particularly in Saunderson's work with Inner City, and in turn influenced the emergence of the squelchy acid house of Steve "Silk" Hurley and Lil' Louis. In 1988, Atkins, May and Saunderson released a compilation album, 'Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit' finally giving the new genre its name.
The word or prefix 'techno' had been used by or about the Techno Twins (1977), Kraftwerk (1978 in Japan's 'Rock Magazine'), Yellow Magic Orchestra (1979 single Technopolis), but Detroit Techno had a darker sound with more bass, and was often played at a faster more 'danceable' tempo. Skinny Puppy is another early band that had been described as 'techno' (e.g. in Billboard 1985), but they were perhaps closer to the ebm of Front 242. The Detroit sound had a strong impact on early English ebm/industrial bands such as Cabaret Voltaire and Nitzer Ebb. In Saunderson's Reese band, he was influenced by and influenced Belgian new beat/ebm (eg. A Split Second, 101).
When British bands such as The KLF and Psychic TV were formed in the mid-1980's, they took 'techno' in a psychedelic direction, and along with acid house, it began to be played at rave parties, impromptu dance gatherings in abandoned warehouses or outdoors. Techno-influenced west European bands began to score major hits in the late 1980's early 1990's (eg. M/A/R/R/S, Snap, Technotronic, 2 Unlimited) and came to dominate club music for a time. Breakbeat, chillout, hardcore, trance and trip hop developed within the techno rave scene, and eventually split off as separate genres. The popularity of techno faded somewhat after 2000 (supplanted to some extent by house and trance), but minimal techno continues to be produced. Gabber and happy hardcore developed out of hardcore techno. Big beat acts such as The Chemical Brothers are also commonly classified as techno. Rave techno is still an influence on electro house artists such as Benny Benassi, Vitalic, Bingo Players and Krewella.
This style of music uses loop-sequencing and turntables. Though often strongly mixing melodies and heavy bass lines, techno music relies on pulsing rhythms. Techno songs rely on heavy syncopation. Most songs are in 4/4 time and feature time marked with bass drums on the quarter note and hi-hats every second eighth note. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.