As part of Black History Month in the United States, B.A.D. revisit three key moments in U.S. history that were monumental to the evolution of Dance music as we know it.
DISCO DEMOLITION NIGHT
Disco, the soundtrack of the 70s, was so popular that disco albums dominated the Grammy Awards by 1978. The popularity of disco was unsurprising; the genre allowed people from all walks of life, particularly those from marginalised communities, to come together and dance. A way of escaping the escalating social, political, and economic issues that had resulted in unsafe spaces for members of the BIPOC and LGBTQI+ communities. Black artists, and especially Black women, were frequently at the forefront of disco, with lyricism that centred around themes of surviving adversary. And, as powerful as disco’s embrace was, so was the backlash against it.
The same systemic racism and homophobia that fuelled disco’s rise were thought to have contributed to its demise. So much so that in 1979, Chicago radio DJ Steve Dahl (who was fired from his job when the station switched from rock to disco) organised Disco Demolition Night in an attempt to destroy disco. The Chicago White Sox hired Dahl to promote their games against the Detroit Tigers, who were looking to fill seats at Comiskey Park during a disappointing season. Dahl held a fiery demonstration between games, exploding disco records that he had encouraged his fans to bring. Instead of the usual 15,000 attendees, 50,000 people showed up that night, chanting “Disco sucks!” and rioting on the field.
Not long after that, disco’s once-positive sentiment began to deteriorate. On the flip side, disco had birthed an exciting club culture, and DJs began experimenting with new ways to mix in order to keep people on the dance floor. The end of the disco era ushered in a new era of dance music, as well as the emergence of new genres such as House Music.
DREXCIYA – DEEP SEA DWELLER
‘Deep Sea Dweller‘, released in 1992, was the beginning of the Drexciya story by Detroit techno duo James Stinson (R.I.P.) and Gerald Donald, one of the most influential electro artists of the 1990s. As part of Detroit’s Underground Resistance, they helped pioneer a harder Detroit-focused style of the genre. The Drexciyan world was imagined through Afrofuturism, a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of the African diaspora and technology, with the goal to reconnect African Americans with their forgotten and stolen African ancestry. While others who experimented with Afrofuturism looked to the stars for inspiration, Drexciya went under the sea.
The Drexciyan world’s origins were first revealed in their 1997 compilation ‘The Quest,’ in which they reimagined an alternate future for African Americans. Pregnant African women were thrown overboard during the voyage of slave ships through the Atlantic Ocean if they were considered sick or destructive. The women gave birth in the ocean to babies who didn’t need air, resulting to the creation of the Drexciyan tribes, who had advanced far beyond the human race. Their goal was to create a concept that transported people, Black people, to a world that fundamentally opposed the reality they were experiencing at the time.
Drexciya delivered their music through subaquatic electro beats and sythns. Sounds that were more futuristic than anything else before them, reflecting the power of water and imitating elements of the ocean.
Stinson and Donald expanded on the origins of Drexciya over the course of eight albums known as the ‘Storm Series,’ bringing their Afrofuturistic world to outer space. They reveal that their ancestors were from a distant planet, and as a result, their music evolved into astro electronica.
The final album, titled ‘Grava 4‘ after a real star the duo had purchased and named, brings their story to an end. Putting their afro-futuristic fantasy in a real existing place.
Drexciya’s music is still some of the most forward-thinking you’ll hear today. The duo’s powerful sounds and mythos took Afrofuturist music to places it had never been before.
DETROIT ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL (DEMF)
The Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF), now known as Movement, began in 2000 as the first major electronic music festival in the United States and one of the largest in the world at the time. DEMF was the creation of techno legend and Detroit native Carl Craig, as well as event producer Carol Marvin and her organisation, Pop Culture Media.
Despite a few setbacks in the days leading to the event, such as the city of Detroit’s refusal to acknowledge the festival’s existence until the day before it started, the event was a huge success, with nearly a million people in attendance.
It quickly became a cultural landmark, held annually on Memorial Day at Hart Plaza and was free for the first five years.
The festival featured a lineup of underground Detroit techno acts as well as an eclectic mix of underground house, hip hop, and other genre performances, giving them the opportunity to perform on a large stage. It was a festival that drew partygoers from all over the world to celebrate techno music in its birthplace and paved the way for music festivals across the country, particularly electronic music festivals.
Movement has come a long way since Paxahau took over in 2006, and despite many name changes early on and the addition of even more artists and genres outside of Detroit’s techno, a deep-rooted history in Detroit still exists today.