Last week “The 1306” skimmed the surface of Michigan’s musical history from Indigenous music through the folk tunes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This week, I’d like to follow that history from where I left off to the modern day. I hope my readership, who absolutely lived through the inception of these Michigan-born music genres, enjoys having them explained by a 28-year-old who can’t even recognize half of the Beatles' greatest hits. Don’t worry, I’ll get my just desserts one day when my children explain emo rock to me, and I’ll have to pretend like I’ve never heard of Fall Out Boy.
We’ll start our retrospective with the wonderful world of Motown, which holds a special place in my heart as the genre my grandparents introduced me to in place of the Beatles. While commonly referred to as a genre of '60s and '70s soul that found widespread appeal in the greater national pop culture, Motown itself is the name of a music label. Motown (named for its headquarters in “Motor Town”) was founded in 1959 by songwriter, music producer and Detroit native Berry Gordy.
The record label scouted and produced music ranging from not just soul but also Doo-Wop, Blues and R&B at a house studio on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, designated “Hittville U.S.A.,” from the label’s inception until the 1967 Detroit Riots. Throughout the label's heyday, Motown-signed artists produced over 100 songs that charted in “Billboard’s” top 10 list. Many of these hits - such as the Marvelettes' “Please Mr. Postman,” Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There,” Diana Ross and the Supremes' “Baby Love,” and the Temptations' “My Girl” - have endured in the cultural consciousness through generations, appearing in movies and television.
Despite its recognition as a distinctly '60s sound, Motown still exists today as a subsidiary record label of Universal, with the headquarters migrating from Detroit to New York in the past 60 years. While producing records for a variety of genres over the decades, today Motown’s top artists are popular hip-hop and R&B musicians.
Contrasting Motown’s hit-making machine, our next Detroit invention is a classic example of counterculture. While the 1970s punk-rock movement is largely recognized as originating in NYC and the UK, “proto-punk” was formulated in the late 60s by Detroit-based acts MC5 (with frontman Iggy Pop) and the Stooges. These proto-punk garage bands didn’t spring from the ground fully formed of course, citing earlier rock inspirations such as Chuck Berry, the Kinks and the Velvet Underground.
Not only is punk a genre, but it's also a lifestyle with its own philosophy and aesthetics. Political activism is fairly difficult to divorce from the subculture, characterized by progressive and anti-authoritarian principles. Perhaps the most recognizable elements of punk are the aesthetics - alternative hairstyles, facial piercings, studded jewelry and leather. Despite those anti-authoritarian principles, the subculture does come with many strict rules. You simply cannot be mainstream and punk, and if you are, you’re quickly labeled as a “sell-out.” You probably also shouldn’t adopt punk aesthetics for aesthetics sake, which will slap you with another label, that of a “poser.” Despite sounding familiar with the subculture, I wouldn’t label myself as such, but I did anthropologically observe a fair amount of punks in art school. Personally, I wear Doc Martens and dislike the government in normal, conventional ways.
Despite its allergy to anything mainstream, punk is an integral link to modern alternative rock as we know it, as well as a million other adjacent subgenres associated with alt-rock. Its natural evolution and revival in the 90s and 2000s made the genre accessible to millions of music listeners across the world, a far cry from its underground roots. And this, everyone, is how you get punks at private art schools doing spoken-word poetry, in Detroit and beyond.
The final of the big three Detroit musical developments is both the most recent and the one that I know the least about. It’s also the music we in Oceana County get to overhear for an entire week every June. Techno is not a music label turned vintage soul catch-all, nor is it a decades-spanning countercultural movement - it is primarily a music genre.
Techno is very aptly named, as the majority of music is produced through electronic means - synthesizers, drum machines, looping music tracks, etc. Conventional instruments or vocals range from non-essential to non-existent in techno, and don’t expect any catchy melodies. The purpose of EDM, or electronic dance music, is (can you guess it?) music to dance to.
Techno emerged in 1980s Detroit with the convergence of synthetic pop production and African-American house party music, and slotted in perfectly with similar electronic music coming from Japan and Germany. Some artists associated with early techno are acts such as Kraftwerk and Front 242, and the “Belleville Three,” consisting of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Techno has also spawned dozens of subgenres, which all have their own distinct inspirations and features.
Like punk rock, techno also has an associated subculture, though far less notorious. In fact, the techno subculture is generally considered to be more inclusive than punk, similar to the “peace, love and music” vibes of the hippie movement. In that same vein, the techno scene is also characterized by creativity, ingenuity and, of course, dance. Techno is also characterized by the venues through which it is experienced, primarily raves and festivals such as our local Electric Forest.
Though all seemingly dissident movements, Motown, punk and techno are deeply influential to the modern musical landscape. I hope this week's and last week’s examples of Michigan’s music legacy have introduced you to at least one variety of music you were not familiar with previously and that you walk away with some added music appreciation. I know I certainly have a dozen more niche topics to keep me researching for weeks to come.
