Assembling a Black counter culture / DeForrest Brown, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, DeForrest, Jr., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Music--History and criticism.

African Americans.

Electronic music--United States--History and criticism.

Electronic music.

Popular music--United States--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Popular culture--United States.

Popular culture.

Technology--Social aspects--United States.

Technology.

African Americans in popular culture.

United States--Civilization--African American influences.

United States.

African Americans--Music.

Civilization--African American influences.

Technology--Social aspects.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

432 pages : illustrations, maps ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Brooklyn, N. Y. : Primary Information, [2022]

Summary:

In 'Assembling a Black Counter Culture', writer and musician DeForrest Brown, Jr., provides a history and critical analysis of techno and adjacent electronic music such as house and electro, showing how the genre has been shaped over time by a Black American musical sensibility. Brown revisits Detroit's 1980s techno scene to highlight pioneering groups like the Belleville Three before jumping into the origins of today's international club floor to draw important connections between industrialized labor systems and cultural production. Among the other musicians discussed are Underground Resistance (Mad Mike Banks, Cornelius Harris), Drexciya, Juan Atkins (Cybotron, Model 500), Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Detroit Escalator Co. (Neil Ollivierra), DJ Stingray/Urban Tribe, Eddie Fowlkies, Terrence Dixon (Population One) and Carl Craig. With references to Theodore Roszak's 'Making of a Counter Culture', writings by African American autoworker and political activist James Boggs, and the "techno rebels" of Alvin Toffler's Third Wave, Brown approaches techno's unique history from a Black theoretical perspective in an effort to evade and subvert the racist and classist status quo in the mainstream musical-historical record. The result is a compelling case to make techno Black again.

"Brown traces the genealogy and current developments in techno, locating its origins in the 1980s in the historically emblematic city of Detroit and the broader landscape of Black musical forms. Reaching back from the transatlantic slave trade to Emancipation, the Industrial Revolution, and the Great Migration from the rural South to the industrialized North, Brown details an extended history of techno rooted in the transformation of urban centers and the new forms of industrial capitalism that gave rise to the African American working class. Following the groundbreaking work of key early players like The Belleville Three, the multimedia output of Underground Resistance and the mythscience of Drexciya, Brown illuminates the networks of collaboration, production, and circulation of techno from Detroit to other cities around the world." -- Provided by publisher.

In 'Assembling a Black Counter Culture', writer and musician DeForrest Brown, Jr, provides a history and critical analysis of techno and adjacent electronic music such as house and electro, showing how the genre has been shaped over time by a Black American musical sensibility. Brown revisits Detroit's 1980s techno scene to highlight pioneering groups like the Belleville Three before jumping into the origins of today's international club floor to draw important connections between industrialized labor systems and cultural production. Among the other musicians discussed are Underground Resistance (Mad Mike Banks, Cornelius Harris), Drexciya, Juan Atkins (Cybotron, Model 500), Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Detroit Escalator Co. (Neil Ollivierra), DJ Stingray/Urban Tribe, Eddie Fowlkies, Terrence Dixon (Population One) and Carl Craig. With references to Theodore Roszak's 'Making of a Counter Culture', writings by African American autoworker and political activist James Boggs, and the "techno rebels" of Alvin Toffler's Third Wave, Brown approaches techno's unique history from a Black theoretical perspective in an effort to evade and subvert the racist and classist status quo in the mainstream musical-historical record. The result is a compelling case to make techno Black again.

Contents:

White silence : Introductory notes on how the west was won

Techno city, the final frontier

Drifting into a time of no future

The spirit of the people is greater than man's technology

Global techno power : Japanese electronics, black machine music

Hi-tech dreams, lo-tech reality

Wake up America, you're dead!

Detroit-Berlin axis

Underground resistance : Electronic warfare for the sonic revolution

The Drexciyan empire

The collapse of modern culture.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and discography.

ISBN:

9781734489736

1734489731

OCLC:

1159855313