History of Techno Timeline

DJ Charles 'The Electrifying Mojo' Johnson hosted the Midnight Funk Association, an eclectic five-hour late-night radio program on Detroit stations including WCHB, WGPR, and WJLB-FM from 1977 through the mid-1980s, providing key musical inspiration for future Detroit techno pioneers.

Atkins recalled that around 1980 he had a tape of nothing but Kraftwerk, Telex, Devo, Giorgio Moroder and Gary Numan, playing it while driving around in his car. He found Kraftwerk's sound 'clean and precise' relative to the 'weird UFO sounds' of his own psychedelic music.

Image source: Juan Atkins

In 1980 or 1981, Atkins and May met with DJ Mojo and proposed that they provide mixes for his Midnight Funk Association show, which they ended up doing the following year, cementing their place in Detroit's music scene.

After Atkins taught Derrick May how to mix records, 'Magic Juan' Atkins and Derrick 'Mayday' May, along with three other DJs including Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes, launched themselves as a party crew called Deep Space Soundworks.

Atkins viewed Cybotron's 'Cosmic Cars' as unique Germanic synthesized funk, but after hearing Afrika Bambaataa's 'Planet Rock' later that year, he considered it a superior example of the music he envisioned. Cybotron's earliest compositions from 1981 are often cited among possible first techno records.

The Cybotron trio released a number of rock and electro-inspired tunes, the most successful of which were 'Clear' (1983) and its moodier follow-up 'Techno City' (1984).

Eventually, Juan Atkins started producing his own music under the pseudonym Model 500, and in 1985 he established Metroplex, a foundational record label for Detroit techno.

Derrick May's 1987 hit 'Strings of Life', released under the alias Rhythim Is Rhythim, is considered a classic in both the house and techno genres. Together with 'Nude Photo' (1987), it raised techno's profile in Europe during the Second Summer of Love house boom.

Image source: Strings of Life

Compiled by Neil Rushton and Derrick May for Virgin's 10 Records imprint, this mid-1988 UK release introduced the word 'techno' to UK audiences and associated the term with EDM produced in Detroit.

Image source: Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit

Developments in the Detroit scene led to the opening of the Music Institute nightclub at 1315 Broadway in downtown Detroit. It closed on 24 November 1989, with Derrick May playing 'Strings of Life' accompanied by a recording of clock tower bells.

Image source: Electronic dance music

Although the Techno! compilation did not recoup commercially, Inner City's production 'Big Fun' (1988), a track almost not included on the compilation, became a crossover hit in fall 1988.

While working at Frankfurt's City Music record store, DJ Talla 2XLC began using the term techno to categorize artists such as Depeche Mode, Front 242, Heaven 17, Kraftwerk and New Order, as shorthand for technologically created dance music.

Image source: Techno

Radio host François Mürner from Swiss National Radio DRS 3 used the term techno in his daily two-hour show Sounds! as early as 1983 to categorize artists such as Depeche Mode, Front 242, Heaven 17, Kraftwerk and New Order.

Image source: Techno

Talla further popularized the term techno in Germany when he founded Technoclub at Frankfurt's No Name Club in 1984; the club later moved to the Dorian Gray club in 1987.

From 1985, a club following for house music grew steadily in the UK, with interest sustained by scenes in London, Manchester, Nottingham, and later Sheffield and Leeds.

Image source: House music

By 1987 a German party scene based around the Chicago sound was well established, laying groundwork for the country's later dominance in techno culture.

According to DJ Mark Moore, it was 'Strings of Life' which eased London club-goers into acceptance of house music, demonstrating how Detroit techno supported the wider spread of dance music in Britain.

Glasgow's Sub Club opened in 1987 and, along with London's Trade (opened in 1990), helped bring techno into the United Kingdom.

The Ufo opened in West Berlin as an illegal venue for acid house parties, existing until 1990. Around the same time, Munich's Negerhalle (1983–1989) and ETA-Halle established themselves as the first acid house clubs in dilapidated industrial halls, marking the beginning of Germany's 'hall culture'.

Image source: UFO Club

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and German reunification in October 1990, free underground techno parties mushroomed in East Berlin.

Image source: Berlin Wall

The Babalu Club, the first afterhours techno club in Germany, opened in Munich and became a place for the formation of the southern German techno scene, bringing together protagonists such as DJ Hell, Monika Kruse, Tom Novy and Woody.

London's Trade club opened its doors in 1990 and, together with Glasgow's Sub Club (1987), was a venue that helped bring techno into the United Kingdom.

By Spring 1990, Tanith, along with Wolle XDP of the X-tasy Dance Project, were organizing the first large-scale rave events in Germany, distinguishing acid house as fun and electronic rather than aggressive.

In the reunified Berlin, several locations opened near the wall's foundations from 1991 onwards, including Tresor (est. 1991), Planet (1991–1993), Bunker (1992–1996) and E-Werk (1993–1997). Tresor became the standard bearer for techno and hosted many leading Detroit producers, some of whom relocated to Berlin.

Image source: Tresor (club)

In June 1992 the magazine Frontpage split into two separate publications: New Life Soundmagazine for techno according to the Frankfurt definition, and Frontpage (the next generation) for the Berlin definition, reflecting the view that 'House/Technohouse and EBM/Electro are two completely different worlds'.

The German techno label Tresor Records released Tresor II: Berlin & Detroit – A Techno Alliance, a testament to the influence of the Detroit sound upon the German techno scene and a celebration of a 'mutual admiration pact' between the two cities.

In 1993–94 rave became a mainstream music phenomenon in Germany, seeing a return to melody, New Age elements, insistently kitsch harmonies and timbres.

Image source: Rave

Roland released the TR-909 drum machine with a retail price of £999. It became one of the defining instruments of techno; ironically, barely a year after launch it was being sold off cheaply for around £375 to make way for the TR-707 and TR-727.

Sound on Sound reported that popularity of the 808 had started to decline, with the rarer TR-909 taking its place as the dance floor drum machine to use, selling for between £900 and £1100 — a dramatic rise from prices under £200 in 1988.

Image source: Roland TR-909

Swedish company Propellerhead released the ReBirth RB-338, called 'the ultimate techno software package' and 'a considerable software success story of 1997'. Despite its success it was officially taken out of production in September 2005.

Image source: ReBirth RB-338

Manchester-based techno act 808 State helped fuel the genre's development with tracks such as 'Pacific State' and 'Cobra Bora' in 1989.

Image source: 808 State

Labels including Black Dog Productions (1989), Carl Craig's Planet E, Kirk Degiorgio's Applied Rhythmic Technology, Rephlex Records and General Production Recordings (all 1991) emerged, and in 1993 new labels like New Electronica, Mille Plateaux, 100% Pure and Ferox Records appeared, alongside terms such as armchair techno, ambient techno and electronica.

Image source: Intelligent dance music

UK journalist Matthew Collin wrote that Europe may have the scene and energy, but it is America which supplies the ideological direction: Belgian techno gives riffs, German the noise, British the breakbeats, and Detroit supplies the sheer cerebral depth.

Detroit producer Mike Banks was heavily influenced by jazz, as demonstrated on the influential Underground Resistance release Nation 2 Nation (1991), paving the way for jazz-inflected techno.

Image source: Underground Resistance

With less than 24 hours notice and little publicity, more than 35,000 people gathered at the Castlemorton Common Festival for five days of partying — the high point of the British free party period.

Image source: Castlemorton Common Festival

By 1993 Detroit acts such as Model 500 and UR made explicit jazz references with 'Jazz Is The Teacher' (1993) and 'Hi-Tech Jazz' (1993), the latter part of Galaxy 2 Galaxy, a self-described jazz project based on Kraftwerk's 'man machine' doctrine. Dave Angel's 'Seas of Tranquility' EP (1994) followed this lead in the UK.

The Castlemorton event was largely responsible for the introduction in 1994 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, effectively leaving the British free party scene for dead.

Image source: Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

With a marketing campaign targeting under-35s, Ford used 'Detroit Techno' as a print ad slogan and chose Model 500's 'No UFO's' to underpin its November 2000 MTV television advertisement for the Ford Focus, saying young people were embracing techno.

Image source: Smith & Wesson Model 500

Rapper Missy Elliott featured material from Cybotron's 'Clear' on her 2006 release 'Lose Control', exposing the popular music audience to the Detroit techno sound and earning Juan Atkins a Grammy Award nomination for his writing credit.

Image source: Lose Control (Missy Elliott song)

In 2007, Berlin's Berghain was cited as possibly the current world capital of techno, much as E-Werk or Tresor were in their respective heydays.

Image source: Berghain