Belleville Three
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The Belleville Three are three American musicians,
Juan Atkins Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of the Belle ...
, Derrick May, and
Kevin Saunderson Kevin Maurice Saunderson (born September 5, 1964) is an American electronic dance music DJ and record producer. He is famous for being a member of a trio, along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May, who came to be known as the Belleville Three, w ...
, who are credited with inventing the
Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mi ...
genre in
Belleville, Michigan Belleville is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A western suburb of Detroit, Belleville is located roughly southwest of downtown Detroit, and southeast of Ann Arbor, and is completely surrounded by Van Buren Township. A ...
.


Origins

Kevin Saunderson was born in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. At the age of nine he moved to
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
, where he attended Belleville High School in Belleville, a town some 30 miles from Detroit, in the more rural area near its suburbs. In school he befriended Derrick May and Juan Atkins, both of whom had been born in Detroit but later moved to Belleville. The three were among the few black students in their high school, and Saunderson later commented, "we three kind of gelled right away." The setting affected how they experienced music. "We perceived the music differently than you would if you encountered it in dance clubs. We'd sit back with the lights off and listen to records by
Bootsy William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himse ...
and
Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (abbreviated to YMO) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, ...
. We never took it as just entertainment, we took it as a serious philosophy," recalled May.Reynolds, Simon. ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture'', Routledge, 1999. Belleville was located near several automobile factories, which provided well-paying jobs to a racially integrated workforce. "Everybody was equal," Atkins explained in an interview. "So what happened is that you’ve got this environment with kids that come up somewhat snobby, ‘cos hey, their parents are making money working at Ford or GM or
Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...
, been elevated to a foreman, maybe even a white-collar job." European acts like
Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...
were popular among middle-class black youth. The three teenage friends bonded while listening to an eclectic mix of music: Kraftwerk,
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
,
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
, the
B-52s B5, B05, B-5 may refer to: Biology * ATC code B05 (''Blood substitutes and perfusion solutions''), a therapeutic subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System * Cytochrome ''b''5, ubiquitous electron transport hemoproteins ...
. The electronic and funk sounds that influenced the Belleville Three came primarily from a 5-hour late-night radio show called The Midnight Funk Association, broadcast in Detroit by DJ Charles " The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson on
WGPR WGPR (107.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting an urban contemporary radio format. Owned by the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons, its studios and offices are on East Jefferson Avenue on Detroit's ...
. Juan Atkins was inspired to buy a
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
after hearing Parliament. Atkins was also the first in the group to take up turntables, teaching May and Saunderson how to DJ.http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:U6Dk5AXh-_UJ:www.thetechnocracy.net/techfiles/The%2520beginning%2520of%2520Techno.doc+belleville+three Under the name Deep Space Soundworks, Atkins and May began to DJ on Detroit's party circuit. By 1981, Johnson was playing the record mixes recorded by the Belleville Three, who were also branching out to work with other musicians. The trio traveled to
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
to investigate the
house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
scene there, particularly Chicago DJs
Ron Hardy Ron Hardy (May 8, 1958 – March 2, 1992) was an American, Chicago, Illinois-based DJ and record producer of early house music. He is well known for playing records at the Muzic Box, a Chicago house music club. Decades after his death, he is re ...
and
Frankie Knuckles Francis Warren Nicholls Jr. (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), known professionally as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer, and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music, a genre of mus ...
. The trio began to formulate the synthesis of this dance music with the mechanical sounds of groups like Kraftwerk, in a way that reflected post-industrialist Detroit. An obsession with the future and its machines is reflected in much of their music, because, according to Atkins, Detroit is the most advanced in the transition away from industrialism.


First wave of Detroit techno

While attending
Washtenaw Community College Washtenaw Community College (WCC) is a public community college in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan.Rick Davis Richard Dean Davis (born November 24, 1958) is an American former soccer midfielder, and former captain of the U.S. national team for much of the 1980s. He is considered by fans the best U.S.-born player of the North American Soccer League er ...
and formed Cybotron with him. Their first single "Alleys of Your Mind"—recorded on their Deep Space label in 1981—sold 15,000 copies, and the success of two follow-up singles, "Cosmic Cars" and " Clear," led the California-based label
Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
to sign the duo and release their album, '' Enter.'' After Cybotron split due to creative differences, Atkins began recording as Model 500 on his own label, Metroplex, in 1985. His landmark single, "No UFOs," soon arrived. Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson also recorded on Metroplex. Although the Detroit musicians—the Belleville Three and other early pioneers like Fowlkes and James Pennington—were a close-knit group who shared equipment and studio space, and who helped each other with projects, friction developed. Each member of the Belleville Three branched off on his own record label. May's Transmat began as a sublabel imprint of Metroplex. Saunderson founded KMS based on his own initials. They set up shop in close proximity to one another, in Detroit's Eastern Market district. All of the Belleville Three have worked under many different names and titles. Derrick May saw great success under the name is , his moniker when he released his landmark " Strings of Life." Kevin Saunderson's most commercially recognized project was
Inner City The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...
with vocalist
Paris Grey Inner City is an American electronic music group that formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1987. The group was originally composed of the record producer and composer Kevin Saunderson (born September 5, 1964) and the Chicago, Illinois, vocalist Paris ...
. Juan Atkins has been lauded as the "Godfather of Techno," while May is thought of as the "Innovator" and Saunderson is often referred to as the "Elevator." Inspired by Chicago's house clubs, May, Atkins and Saunderson started a club of their own in downtown Detroit, named the Music Institute. The club helped unite a previously scattered scene into an underground "family," where Saunderson, Atkins and May, DJed with fellow pioneers like Fowlkes and
Blake Baxter Blake Baxter (born 1963) is an American techno musician, associated with the first wave of Detroit techno. AllMusic called him "perhaps the most underrated figure" of the early Detroit techno scene.John Bush, Blake Baxterat AllMusic Baxter wa ...
. It allowed for collaboration, and helped inspire what would become the second wave of Detroit-area techno, which included artists whom the Belleville Three had influenced and mentored.


Success abroad

In 1988, dance music entrepreneur Neil Rushton approached the Belleville Three to license their work for release in the UK. To define the Detroit sound as being distinct from Chicago house, Rushton and the Belleville Three chose the word "techno" for their tracks, a term that Atkins had been using since his Cybotron days ("Techno City" was an early single). However, the trio from Belleville had some reservations about the culture that surrounded the drug-filled techno subculture abroad. Derrick May in particular continues to advocate that drugs are not necessary to participate in good music.


The Movement

In 2000, the first annual
Detroit Electronic Music Festival Movement Electronic Music Festival is an annual electronic dance music event held in the birthplace of Techno, Detroit, each Memorial Day weekend since 2006. Previous electronic music festivals held at Hart Plaza on Memorial Day weekend includ ...
was held, and in 2004 May assumed control of the festival, renamed Movement. He invested his own funds into the festival, and "got severely wounded financially." Saunderson helmed the festival, renamed FUSE IN, the following year. Saunderson, May and
Carl Craig Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980 ...
all performed but did not produce the festival in 2006, when it was again called Movement. Saunderson returned to perform at the 2007 Movement as well.


Collaboration as the Belleville Three

In 2017, Atkins, Saunderson and May began working on the Belleville Three as an official collaborative effort. Despite being labelled as the Belleville Three since the late 1980s, due in no small part to the British press, they had resisted official collaboration in the hope of distancing themselves from that moniker. However, three decades later it was clear that the mantle of The Belleville Three had stayed intact, and there was a clear demand to see them operate as a group. They launched this project at
Coachella Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music festival, music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valle ...
2017. The Belleville Three continue to tour internationally. Derrick May says that his mission continues to be "to save the world from bad music."


See also

*
Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mi ...
*
Techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belleville Three, The African-American DJs American techno musicians Electronic music groups from Michigan American electronic dance music DJs Year of birth missing (living people)