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Techno Music Essay

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“Techno music” has defined the American music culture since the emergence of rock and roll in the 1950s. Throughout the 1960s, technology evolved and it was accepted and incorporated into various factions of life and society. With rock and roll being associated with hippies, the middle class in society wanted to find something that they could relate to and be classified as a higher social class than the hippies. Musicians and music directors mashed up various sounds and the energetic nature of rock roll was used as an essential way of keeping the crowd engaged and the musicians lively all along. Music directors and musicians started using technology to alter the tones and to give more bass, and life, making rock and roll more structured …show more content…

Instead, it adopted the idea of being enthralled by the beat” (Reynolds and Reynolds 20). Simon Reynolds explains that the genre’s development originated from Detroit, New York, and Chicago, which spread to other parts of the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Juan Atkins and Richard Davis, the co-creators of Cybotron, were the early pioneers of Detroit techno. Detroit techno began as an experiment by the DJ’s with electronic music and playing it in nightclubs (Reynolds and Reynolds 6). The type of music influenced a specific group of people and created a culture. Before its popularity and diversity, techno music was identified with the African-Americans living in Detroit. African-Americans used the music to express the city’s oppressive nature, social and environmental decay. Many people engaged in techno music as a means of freeing themselves from the limitations, prejudice, and preconceptions manifested in Detroit’s urban environment. Due to these conditions, a new style of thinking opened up, and people all across the world appreciated techno music because of the incorporation of electronic sound. Cybotron’s album, Enter, released in 1983 incorporates various aspects of techno music that makes it appealing to their listeners’ ears. Mostly, the album is considered as the genesis of Detroit techno because it was founded on the fundamental principle that electrical instruments are as good as or even better musical allies than human beings.

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