The History of Techno Music

Techno has quite an enormous group of sub-genres and different styles. 1988 was the year techno was first used to describe the growing genre. The genre Electronic dance music in the late 1980’s was composed entirely of electronic instruments and was made popular.Trap music originated in the 90's and is known for it's ominous lyrics and high kick drums. Jungle is a genre that came from England in the 90's as part of Rave scenes.

Drum machines were invented in the 80’s such as the Roland TR-808 that really allowed the Techno beats to take off. It was used by artists such as Marvin Gaye and Afrika Bambaataa in their hits from the early 1980’s. Other Drum machines came after the TR-808 but it still is used for the old school sound along with newer drum sets. In the 1990’s there seems to have been more of a jazz influence in the techno genre as seen in the albums by UR and Model 500. 

 

Throughout the late 80’s techno was making a scene in Germany and the UK and new sub genres were emerging. In the UK a genre called Acid house was making a move and becoming quite popular amongst the British youth. While in Germany genres such as Gabber, Tresor and Trance music were occurring. The Genre was really making a name for itself among the rave scenes in Europe and artists like Groove connection and Jam and spoons. 

I am going to look at a couple popular songs from the 80's, 90's and early 2000's and try to see what about it is different from the rest. 

To begin with  I am going to look at a song that was popular in the 80's and used the famous TR-808 drum machine. Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" released in 1982 with Columbia Records and was the hottest pop-culture song since "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. One can definitely hear the drum machine in the background, it just sounds very electronic. It is not what I would usually think of with the techno genre, but considering it was using electronic instruments as it's base especially when that idea was new, it counts. The singer behind "Motown" really had another hit, because this song will still be played on the radio every once and a while even though it has been near 35 years.

Next I am going to look at a song from the English sub-genre Jungle, or old school jungle it is by Johnny Jungle and it is a mix from 1994. Johnny Jungle was a DJ in the streets of England during the 90's and early 2000's, and Wikipedia says that he was pioneer for the sub-genre.The title is "Johnny'94" and I believe the original mix. The song starts out very eerie but the the drum machines starts to pick up and there is a woman calling for Johnny.  The drum is fast and just picks up, it does seem like a song that adolescents under the influence would enjoy to dance to. Besides the creepy fact that somebody is calling out for Johnny to help her this song does have a nice rave feel. 

                                          

House music seems to be the largest sub-genre list, there are even sub-genres to the sub-genres. There is Acid house, Hip house, Witch house, Electro house with complextro and Bouncy house. Intrigued i picked a song from Witch house because that seemed one of the more different of the types. I picked a song by Balam Acab called "See Birds" released in 2010, around the time Witch house was emerging from Techno. The beginning of this song sounds like one is dancing and clanging in a once abandoned warehouse. As the song progresses eerie voices and the vibrations from the bass start to overpower the industrial undertone. The back voices create a scene similar to a horror movies seance scene to me. The beat never really picks up or changes once the initial scene is set, and creates a rhythmic trance that surrounds the listener. 

                                       

In all the Techno genre is diverse and mostly pleasant to listen to at times you want to get pumped, rave and some for just relaxing. It's history is still new and evolving as new genres are emerging with every new decade. The genre emerged out of the creation of voice synthesizing in the 60's for western popular music and became a much deeper experience. From small amounts of electronic instruments to the album being entirely composed using drum machines and similar machines.