>Don't get me >wrong Why is it that this expression always makes me laugh.
I >just think that Detroit has gotten too much attention >and Chicago has almost completely been forgotten. What >about Adonis, Farley Jackmaster Funk and Marshall >Jefferson? You never hear their names as godfathers of >house. > >He has a point about the Chicago people not being >given their dues, but early Detroit techno more house >than techno? Compared to the mono Swedish stuff that >followed maybe I disagree with him too. I think that Detroit techno has a more clear cut 'genesis' - or a narrative that is easy to re-tell, hence the Belleville three, etc, has become like a story, a fable. I mean obviously there are some people who haven't got their props generally but there is a consensus I think within techno/the informed media that Juan Atkins is the Godfather and that Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson are up there too and what's more those three all agree pretty much on the sequence of events so the tale hasn't fractured. Whereas with Chicago there are many different narratives, so it has all become convoluted. I always credited Frankie Knuckles as the Godfather of house, but Marshall probably is too. And then there's.... Also techno seems very like a meta-fiction, it's conscious of its own history, culture and context, so maybe that is part of it? People in Chicago I have heard say that there is more unity in Detroit overall, it's less fragmented, so that is another thing to consider. I guess to someone like Christian the seminal techno of Detroit in the 80s sounds like house relative to what he counts as techno - which is the minimal percussive Swedish sound. I think his definition of techno is 'fast music' and that is his template. If anything, a lot of later Chicago house sounds more 'Detroit' and I don't think anyone would deny that influence or wish to. Also I think Christian thinks that those two traditions could be rivals but they are not, they are not competing with each other now.
