Techno

Not to be confused with (free) tekno music.
For the YouTuber, see Technoblade. For the Marvel character, see Fixer (Marvel Comics).
Techno
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsMid-1980s, United States (Detroit), and West Germany (Frankfurt, Berlin)
Derivative forms
Subgenres
Fusion genres
Regional scenes
Local scenes
Detroit
Other topics

Techno is a genre of electronic dance music[2] 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 (4/4) and often characterized by a repetitive four on the floor beat.[3] 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 TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro instruments are popular.

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.

Use of the term "techno" to refer to a type of electronic music originated in Germany in the early 1980s. 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.[4][5] Detroit techno resulted from the melding of synth-pop by artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Yellow Magic Orchestra with African-American music such as house, electro, and funk.[6] Added to this is the influence of futuristic and science-fiction themes[7] relevant to life in contemporary American society, with Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave a notable point of reference.[8][9] 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.[10]

After the success of house music in a number of European countries, techno grew in popularity in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Europe 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.[11][12][13][14]

  1. ^ Carpenter, Susan (6 August 2002). "Electro-clash builds on '80s techno beat". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  2. ^ According to Butler (2006:33) use of the term EDM "has become increasingly common among fans in recent years. During the 1980s, the most common catchall term for EDM was house music, while techno became more prevalent during the first half of the 1990s. As EDM has become more diverse, however, these terms have come to refer to specific genres. Another word, electronica, has been widely used in mainstream journalism since 1996, but most fans view this term with suspicion as a marketing label devised by the music industry".
  3. ^ 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 4/4 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."
  4. ^ Brewster 2006:354
  5. ^ Reynolds 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.
  6. ^ Bogdanov, Vladimir (2001). All music guide to electronica: the definitive guide to electronic music (4 ed.). Backbeat Books. p. 582. ISBN 0-87930-628-9. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2011. Typically, that birth is traced to the early '80s and the emaciated inner-city of Detroit, where figures such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, among others, fused the quirky machine music of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra with the space-race electric funk of George Clinton, the optimistic futurism of Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave (from which the music derived its name), and the emerging electro sound elsewhere being explored by Soul Sonic Force, the Jonzun Crew, Man Parrish, "Pretty" Tony Butler, and LA's Wrecking Cru.
  7. ^ Rietveld 1998:125
  8. ^ Sicko 1999:28
  9. ^ Having 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).
  10. ^ "Detroit techno". Keyboard Magazine (231). July 1995.
  11. ^ "Music Faze – The Electro House, Dubstep, EDM Music Blog: Electronica Genre Guide". 20 December 2014. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  12. ^ Critzon, Michael (17 September 2001). "Eat Static is bad stuff". Central Michigan Life. Archived from the original on 24 May 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
  13. ^ Hamersly, Michael (23 March 2001). "Electronic Energy". The Miami Herald: 6G.
  14. ^ Schoemer, Karen (10 February 1997). "Electronic Eden". Newsweek. p. 60. 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.