Sunday! “Assembling a Black Counter Culture” by DeForrest Brown Jr.
The Belleville Three
I remember a phrase in a New York Times opinion piece a few years ago that stuck with me: it argued that people had tired of living under “the doctrine of multiculturalism” that now dominates our lives. I don’t remember who wrote the piece- although it might have been Ross Douthat- which was replete with the fuzzy thinking of the greater punditocracy. It was also really weird– what exactly does this “doctrine,” which after all dominates our lives, state? Because, unless you’re living in an Amish village, multiculturalism is likely much more of a tangible reality than a matter of opinion. In NYC, talking about a “doctrine of multiculturalism” would be like talking about a “doctrine of gravity.” It matters not what you think on the subject.
Similarly, asking whether we should be “for” or “against” globalization seems a little insipid, since our civilization has existed with globalized trade and culture for, at least, five centuries. We’ve lived “under globalization” our entire lives. Admittedly, as labor and culture have been deterritorialized and capital has sloshed around the globe, outcomes have been mixed. When even the IMF admits neoliberalism has its failings, it’s sensible to have mixed feelings. Or, to put it another way, our lives are enriched by virtue of living in a global village; but, also, fuck U, pay us.
People from Detroit no doubt have mixed feelings about globalized trade and industrial technology and the idealized future that never came to be. Not to mention Black people were treated as a commodity in Atlantic/global trade starting four centuries ago and are still impacted by the legacy of that trade. Afrofuturism strikes me as an understandable effort to create an alternative futurism to escape the white future that already exhausted itself decades ago. There is a perennial argument made against the seductive dangers of “Utopianism,” but I notice it’s one always made by white people.
The Belleville Three
What’s maybe more interesting about globalized culture are all the strange connections and cross-pollination that result. I’ve recently read DeForrest Brown Jr.’s dense and mind-expanding book Assembling a Black Counter Culture, which contextualizes and details techno music, a genre that many folks still don’t know was born and originated in Detroit before it caught on in Europe, probably more than it ever did in the United States.
In the popular imagination, Detroit is associated with Motown and the auto industry in the 50s and rust belt decline since the late 60s. Barbarian is only the most recent film to depict modern Detroit as a sort of hellish Wild West ghost town. In fact, the problems took root some time ago: the population of Detroit started shrinking by the late 50s. Motown Records had relocated to Los Angeles by 1972.
And so, culture responded. Assembling a Black Counter Culture tells the story of young men rooted in a somewhat dystopian city creating the soundtrack for a slightly ersatz “future.” Musical pioneer Derrick May once described Detroit techno as
“a complete mistake… like George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator, with only a sequencer to keep them company.”
May should know- along with Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson- the “Belleville Three”- he essentially created the genre. Belleville is a suburb about 30 minutes outside of Detroit, where the three teenagers were a little isolated, but still plugged into the world of music and what it can do through the visionary DJ Charles Johnson “The Electrifying Mojo” on WJLB, who by a happy accident came upon a Kraftwerk record in the studio and played it along with Parliament, the B-52’s, and Prince. The planets aligned and began to rock.
Soon, the three teenagers started experimenting with synthesizers and drum machines- there has to be a history of the Roland TR808 by now- and recording music under different names and their own individual record labels. Electro and then Techno were born, and soon they were traveling to nearby Chicago to check out that nearby city’s “house” DJs. A revolution in musical consumer technology spurred a revolution in music. I’m admittedly a novice when it comes to this music, so it’s hard to understand why Atkins and Richard Davis’s Cybotron song Cosmic Cars, from 1982, is frequently called “electro” rather than “techno”:
Or, for that matter, why Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” isn’t the first “techno” song.
But I think we can all get why this song is funky and futuristic and just plain fantastic.
DeForrest Brown Jr. knows the story inside and out and details an entire universe of musicians and songs and connections. It seems that the American music industry did not actually understand why this music was more fun to dance to than, say, Guns ‘n’ Roses, and basically missed the boat, while young people in similar post-industrial landscapes- particularly Berlin- got techno music right away. To some extent, all art is local- it’s created in conversation with a specific time and place- but it radiates outward. In the same way that hip hop escaped the Bronx, techno became a global musical form.
Along the way, there were all kinds of startling connections; for instance, how did European ravers discover ecstasy? Oh, they got it from the Osho Rajneesh cult (of Wild Wild Country fame), of course! Wait, what?!
DeForrest Brown Jr.’s book is full of startling connections replete with a lengthy soundtrack. (Here’s another) I’m still a novice, but by the end you can understand why a group of young Black Americans tried to assemble their own sci-fi cultural machinery to escape an exhausted vestigial future and travel to outer (and inner) worlds with better parties. As Emma Goldman knew, a revolution isn’t worth a damn if you can’t dance.
And so, what are YOU creating, pondering, playing, reading, watching, or dancing to this weekend?
I recently purchased Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany from Oxford University Press. In general, this kind of history book hits the sweet spot for me because it is not written in academic jargon.* It is also written at a sophisticated enough level to be for the reasonably educated amateur or hobby historian, something very hard to find in history. I imagine the market for this kind of book is nill.
*Which is a very real thing especially in arts scholarship it seems. Someone I know from undergrad is getting her Ph.D. and she is sincerely into what she studies but her writing on it has that kind of academic jargon which can be alienating to all but other academics “exploring the intersections between X and Y to extrapolate the paradigms…” That was a quote invented by me but academics in the arts often talk and write like this as if it were second nature. Maybe this is why I was not cut out for a Ph.D. program in dramatic literature. They also seem quite defensive if you criticize this kind of academic jargon.Report
I have this on Kindle. Histories like Weavers, Scribes, and Kings are basically the academic equivalent of popular history. They aren’t meant for academics but for the educated reader who might at some time aspire to read about the Ancient Near East or something similar.Report
Yeah, I think the industry term is “trade press” histories. I’ve always kind of loved these books too because they talk to you like you’re smart enough to learn from them, but don’t expect you went to grad school in the subject.
On a related note, I’ve recently found the New York Public Library system has my book in the research section because it’s from an academic press and ended up in a series that has to do with an academic subject. But, nonetheless, I wrote it so that readers could take it on vacation and enjoy it. All academic jargon was gone by the second draft. So, I have to send them an email.Report
This seems to be pretty much their purpose. The university presses or publishers like Penguin, Basic Books, and Hurst know that there is a large number of people way to smart and educated for popular history but are earning their living out of academia and aren’t coming from a position of in-depth knowledge. Books like Weavers, Scribes, and Kings and I guess the previous equivalent would be the works of Will and Ariel Durant are meant to cater towards this group. They are basically middle-brow histories.Report
I’m wondering if techno took on more in Europe because it was easier for European teens and twenty-somethings to go to clubs and dance than American teens or twenty-somethings. Clubs might have been thicker on the town and fact that Europe tends to be a less sprawling place but also seemingly more tolerant of teenage wildness and occasionally doing things like go to clubs or drinking just made techno more accessible. There could be factors beyond the cluelessness of the American music industry.
On SlateStarCodex, yes I know, there was an old post on why no science of nerds. That is since so many nerds have an academic bent than why aren’t there more academic studies into nerdrom. In the thread, there was a sub-thread on whether the concept of a nerd exists in Europe. Teens from continental Europe tend to come across as less nerdy than their North American and developed democracy Asian counterparts for some reason. I’m not sure if it is true but my brief experiences hanging around with European teens when I was an American certainly gave me the impression that the European teens were somehow more worldly and sophisticated than their American counterparts.Report
Somewhat related, I’m reading Nelson Algren’s stories of urban low-life in the mid-20th century. Urban low-life novels seems to be a sort of genre that basically disappeared even in literary fiction.Report
I’ve always heard that Algren’s one of the best and can’t recall ever reading one of his books. Since I’ve made myself book poor this month, it might be a case for Archive dot org.Report
He wrote the Man with the Golden Arm, later turned into a major motion picture. He is pretty good. It is sort of the literary equivalent of an Edward Hopper painting. It depicts an urban world that really doesn’t exist anymore but is kind of fascinating towards people.* I guess Grand Theft Auto is the most modern equivalent of the urban low life media.
*A lot of ink has been spilled over whether the decline of vibrant urban culture was caused by the car or something else. I used to lean heavily on the car but now I think that the increase of activities you can do at home, starting with watching television, played a bigger part. The vibrant urban culture that existed between the late 19th and mid-20th century was basically because of an increase in leisure time and spending money but not a lot of activities to do at home. It is debatable whether people playing video games at home is better than going to a pub and sitting around drinking playing cards, darts. dominos, and pool all day.Report
It’s worth remembering that Gibson’s original idea for cyberpunk’s aesthetic was far closer to the ganja-reggae tradition than to techno/speed/LSD.Report
Nice piece – will definitely check the book out.
the electro v. techno distinction is pretty simple, I think – techno requires a 4 on the floor orientation (even if it’s not always a kick on the ones) and electro is clearly hip hop oriented in its roots and its presentation.
And of course kraftwerk sits at the intersection between the two, like a grandpa whose post-disco children are rambunctious and rapidly reproducing.
For more on this general topic and well into the rabbit hole, you can check out Simon Reynold’s “Energy Flash” for a UK-oriented view of the 80s-2000s.
The music industry noping out on this until the mid 90s (remember “electronica?”) can be very easily summed up as “what do you sell if your audience is fully on board with personalities and singers and bands and not some guy staring at equipment”? it’s not like they were wrong, after all.Report
Thanks, this is useful. My problem is really that I haven’t ever caught the taste for what gets called techno, while generally quite enjoying electro. I think the book also helped me because, well, it’s pretty hard not to love Kraftwerk and Parliament, so if that’s what they were listening to, I get that.
This is a good point about the presentation- some of the Youtube clips of UK raves are 2,000 people going nuts over a handful of guys on a stage fiddling with knobs on a table of gear. But, again, ya know, Kraftwerk did the same thing and people went nuts years before. I’d still probably choose Labelle or Iggy for the show.Report
“Not to mention Black people were treated as a commodity in Atlantic/global trade starting four centuries ago ”
Yeah, in the WEST. Slavery’s been around for a lot longer than that. At least as early as 300 BC. I find it curious that the West views slavery as starting when “white folk” started doing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Saharan_slave_tradeReport