The Belleville Three: Kraftwerk, Funk and the Birth of Detroit Techno

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Detroit techno grew from three high school friends in Belleville, Michigan, about 30 miles outside Detroit: Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Raised in middle-class families tied to the auto industry, they sat in the dark absorbing Parliament, Bootsy Collins, Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Depeche Mode, Prince and the B-52s. Atkins bought a synthesizer, taught the other two to DJ, and at Washtenaw Community College formed Cybotron with Rick Davis. Their 1981 single Alleys of Your Mind, released on their own Deep Space label, sold 15,000 copies. Atkins went on to found Metroplex and record No UFOs as Model 500, while May described the sound as George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator with a sequencer.

The early scene ran on suburban prep parties thrown by crews like GQ Productions, with dress codes meant to keep inner-city kids out, a contradiction with Atkins' wish for music free of racial labels. In 1987 May, as Rhythim Is Rhythim, released Strings of Life, which exploded in Britain. Virgin talent scout Neil Rushton planned a compilation called The House Sound of Detroit, but the producers voted that down, and it came out as Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit. A second wave at the Music Institute, including Carl Craig, Octave One and Underground Resistance, made the music harsher and more militant.

• Atkins said Detroit was the most advanced US city in the shift away from industrialism, as robots replaced line workers.
• The Belleville Three traveled to Chicago to study the house scene of Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy and concluded their sound was colder and more machine driven.
• The hosts link techno's UK success to warehouse parties in factories emptied during the Thatcher years.
• Underground Resistance, with Mike Banks, Jeff Mills and Robert Hood, wore ski masks and framed its fight against the mainstream industry, which it called the programmers.
• The Detroit Electronic Music Festival began at Hart Plaza in 2000 and continues as Movement, with Saunderson and May involved over the years.