Originating in Detroit in the 1980s, techno music gained global popularity in the 1990s. Influenced by European electronic dance music and American futurist Alvin Toffler’s concept of “techno rebels,” Detroit-based DJs and producers such as Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Kevin Saunderson began showcasing their innovative music in 1985.
Joey Beltram from New York City, and second-wave Detroit labels such as Underground Resistance and +8 also helped pioneer the techno genre. By the mid-1990s, techno had evolved into various subgenres, including trance, electronica, jungle, and gabba. Carl Craig and Jeff Mills are known as inheritors of the Detroit originator sound.