Techno is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the 1980s in Detroit among middle-class African-American youths. Heavily influenced by European electronic dance music and American futurist Alvin Toffler’s concept of “techno rebels,” local deejay-producers such as Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson gained recognition for their innovative music.
Detroit techno is primarily all-instrumental, characterized by glacial synthesizer melodies and complex machine rhythms, distinguishing itself from Chicago house music. By the mid-1990s, techno had evolved into various subgenres, including trance, electronica, jungle, and gabba.