Techno: The Rise Of Detroit’s Machine Music at the Michigan State University Museum will explore the Motor City’s relationship with the world-famous electronic music genre.
What started out as an exchange of ideas between electronic musicians in Germany and Detroit still reverberates through dancefloors today. A new Michigan State University Museum exhibit called Techno: The Rise Of Detroit’s Machine Music aims to explore this watershed moment. Slated for February 4 – April 30, it will be free of charge to the general public.
Aiding in the endeavor are Underground Resistance (UR), whose sound installation accompanied by visuals courtesy of Andrew Charles Edman stand out as the centerpiece of the exhibit. The local collective’s history extends back almost as far as Detroit techno itself. The outfit’s militant themes played no small role in its legacy as Afrofuturist protest music.
Techno: The Rise Of Detroit’s Machine Music will also showcase artifacts from early Motor City dance music history, including speakers from the seminal Club Heaven, drum machines of the era, and album art accompanying key records. Additionally, UR Cofounder “Mad” Mike Banks and longtime Detroit fixture Stacey “Hotwaxx” Hale are among the speakers who will give panel talks.
“Underground Resistance has always been about pushing beyond the expected,” said John Collins of UR, the community curator of the exhibit. “About showing Detroit youth that technology isn’t just something that replaces jobs, it’s a tool for creating new futures. This exhibition captures that spirit of possibility, showing how Detroit’s techno pioneers turned machines into voices of hope and transformation.”
Inspired by the likes of German early electronic music group Kraftwerk, Motor City artists like Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, and Juan Atkins belonged to Detroit techno’s first wave. Their music, in turn, became part of the soundtrack of Germany’s reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, influencing a new generation of artists at a time when dance music was also exploding throughout the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
More information on Techno: The Rise Of Detroit’s Machine Music can be found on the Michigan State University Museum website.