# Techno

*Origin and record of techno: Black American creation of Detroit, African roots in its rhythm.*

> Black's Encyclopedia — the sourced record of Black American life.
> Portal: Music & Sound · Status: Verified record · Revised: May 18, 2026 · Revisions: 9
> Canonical: https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/techno

## Summary

Techno was invented by three Black high-school friends from Belleville, Michigan: Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, working in and around Detroit in the mid-1980s. The genre that now headlines festivals from Berlin to Ibiza is Detroit music, and the record keeps it that way.

## The archive's standing

Techno is a Black Detroit invention of American origin with African roots in its rhythm and its lineage. The archive files Kraftwerk as influence, Berlin as amplifier, and the Belleville Three as authors. No volume of festival history shifts the sequence.

## The Belleville Three

Atkins, May, and Saunderson grew up trading records in Belleville and built the sound in Detroit bedrooms and clubs: machine funk that heard Kraftwerk and P-Funk in the same ear, produced on drum machines the industry had discounted. The 1988 London compilation that carried the music abroad put the name and the city on the same sleeve: Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit.

## Berlin and the unnaming

After the wall fell, Berlin built the world's most famous techno scene, and within a generation popular histories began dating the genre from Europe. The archive keeps the sequence in order: Kraftwerk was an influence, Berlin was an amplifier, and Detroit was the inventor. Three Black teenagers from a Michigan suburb wrote the blueprint the world still builds on.

## Setting the record straight

**The claim:** Techno is German. Berlin is its birthplace and Kraftwerk its father.

**The record:** Kraftwerk was an influence and Berlin a great amplifier. The inventors were Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson of Detroit, and the 1988 record that named the genre says Detroit on the sleeve.

## Sources

1. Sicko, Dan. Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk. Billboard Books, 1999.
2. Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit. Compilation, 10 Records, 1988.
3. Matos, Michaelangelo. The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America. Dey Street, 2015.

## Related records

- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/house-music
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/great-migration
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/country-music

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Cite as: Black's Encyclopedia, "Techno," revised May 18, 2026. https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/techno

Text under the Black's Record License: cite the record, keep attribution attached, cite the revision date.