Book dossier

Techno rebels

by Dan Sicko

This book provides a fairly straightforward history of the birth and early development of techno music in Detroit. Unlike other histories of electronic dance music, there's relatively little exploration of the music's peripheral culture, such as the rave scene. Rather, the focus is squarely on the activities of Detroit area musicians, DJs, and other key players in the evolution of techno. A supporting character is the city itself—its physical blight and artistic & economic decay providing not just a backdrop, but also a catalyst for the early/mid-1980s transformation of a cadre of suburban students into an urban creative class which is sometimes hyper-insular, other times very publicly celebratory. Chapters are mostly narrative and are roughly chronological, yet they repeatedly touch on several themes, including the artists' love-hate relationships with the trappings of mainstream success, and the role of the music press in mythologizing the music and its founders. The first edition (1999) was essential for scholars of this underdocumented and widely misunderstood genre, but it was dominated by techno's pre-history and gets sidetracked in reminiscences and coverage of techno outside of Detroit. The second edition (2010) is leaner; its meanderings are reined in, the lens stays on Detroit, and it provides better balance, not just chronologically but also in its dispensation of raw information, analysis, commentary, and nostalgic interviews.