Juan Atkins controversy

[SlavikSvensk]

for those interested in the early days of techno in detroit, there's an illuminating interview with juan atkins up at bleep43. actually, the most interesting part comes once you read the comments...turns out mr. juan has said some rather controversial things about who was doing what back in the day...

Home - Electronic music podcasts, parties, writings (http://www.bleep43.com/)

[The_Laughing_Man]

Old men waving their dicks around.

[morbid]

I remember when it was just me, Kevin and an old speak and spell - those were the days my friend.

Nice article - I doubt if we will see the same arguments occuring in 20 years time....

**** off mate I invented Donk.

I was doing wobble basslines whilst you were still in nappies

[SlavikSvensk]

I remember when it was just me, Kevin and an old speak and spell - those were the days my friend.

Nice article - I doubt if we will see the same arguments occuring in 20 years time....

**** off mate I invented Donk.

I was doing wobble basslines whilst you were still in nappies

absolutely right. these guys are really stuck in the past, and stuck in their old squabbles. but that said, i love getting the glimpse into what was going on when things were really unsettled and in flux, and when there were big ideas being claimed, rightly or wrongly. as much as there's good music being made today (and there is), there's no paradigm shifts that people will bother fighting over.

[qUE]

I doubt name DJs with big egos will ever stop squabbling.

[RDR]

how boring, fruitless and unnecessary.

[Natasha.mb]

I still find it amazing what the detroit guys did in terms of using electronic sounds in a way that separates it somewhat from the stereotypical 'black' music that was prominent at that time. It surely must have seemed bizarre to many people living in that area? Or even just that fact that it was different to an extent from genres like disco... I guess Kraftwerk and so forth are to 'thank' due to their electronic and 808 dabblings to say the least.

Any thoughts? Or have I been drinking too much Stella..... forgive me

[The Overfiend]

Natasha said some of the most sensical commentary in this thread.
To be honest the Black music of those times were simlar in usage of synths and polyrhythms, I can totally hear the Rick James, Zapp & Roger and the likes in most of the old Detroit material.

[morbid]

dont you feel that some of the people who are mentioned as early pioneers to a large extent live off that reputation and failed to develop anything further after the initial boom.

I only ask because you dont see the same bickering around other genres of music (or more accurately genres of modern dance music)

There is no great debate over the claim to dubsteps birth or similarly to drum and bass / uk jungle - you could credit A Guy called Gerald with being a drum and bass pioneer but I dont hear him banging on about it and you rarely hear anyone in Drum and Bass nowadays citing him as an influence, its just the way the music developed. He went onwards in a different direction. The whole progression from early hardcore to jungle to drum and bass was just that a progression which is exactly what detroit techno was in its earliest inception - a progression from the (mainly) black musical flavours of that period - disco soul funk mixed with the new technology of the time.

I follow the argument that the technology allowed the sound not the so called creators. Techno could have been born 10 years earlier if companies like Linn and Roland had released those key instruments in the early 70's

Side note - Blake Baxter is the only one out of those early adopters that I still consider fresh in that he has continually developed his own sound and not looked to past conquests for his inspiration.

I expect others will take a different view.........

[miss kosmix]

gossip.... get on with making (new) music ! :P

[Igneous]

Eastenders for techno heads. Cool.