when I use the term "Black" I am referring to people of the African diaspora and African musical influences.
Detroit Techno is not "Black" because Black people made it in the begginning. It is Black because it utilizes African musical concepts of rhythm instead of an European emphasis on melody. But I'm not going to stick to that too much either because I'm sure that Africans utilize melody as well. But for the sake of American radio and its racist programming I want to make this distinction. No one ever said that Detroit pioneers are and were not influenced by other kinds of music. Yes Germany plays a big role because of Kraftwerk. But Juan Atkins said the Kraftwerk told him their biggest influence is James Brown ( a Black American rhythm master). I want to recall Lester Kenyatta's post about the first people coming from Africa and how strong their cultural contributions have been on the world. No one is saying that music springs up out of nowhere, Kodwo Eshun says that music is its own genesis but I can't agree with that because that sounds ahistorical but what I am saying is that this thing called Detroit Techno comes from Detroit. And these men and women are the pioneers of this music and that has something to do with the people who picked up on it later; they were listening to these folks. I still don't quite understand this disbelief over "Blacks inventing music" because I think that, that is a decontextualized statement. Five
