Ghettotech (also known as Detroit club) is a genre of

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

originating from

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. It combines elements of Chicago's ghetto house with electro, Detroit techno, and Miami bass.

Overview

Former Detroit music journalist for the ''Detroit Metro Times'', Hobey Echlin describes ghettotech as a genre that combines "techno's fast beats with rap's call-and-response." It features four-on-the-floor rhythms and is usually faster than most other dance music genres, at roughly 145 to 160 BPM. Vocals are often repetitive, crude, and pornographic. As DJ Godfather puts it, "the beats are really gritty, really raw, nothing polished." Ghettotech was born as a DJing style in the late 1980s, inspired by the eclecticism of The Electrifying Mojo and the fast-paced mixing and turntablism of Jeff "The Wizard" Mills. DJs would mix multiple genres including jungle, ghetto house,

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

, R&B, electro and Detroit techno. The music of

2 Live Crew 2 Live Crew is an American hip hop group from Miami, Florida, formed in 1984. The group was originally composed of DJ Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs), Fresh Kid Ice (Christopher Wong Won), and Amazing Vee (Yuri Vielot), though its most well-known lineup ...

is also cited as influential to the genre. A Detroit ghettotech style of dancing is called the jit. This dance style relies heavily on fast footwork combinations, drops, spins and improvisations. The roots of jit date back to Detroit

jitterbug Jitterbug is a generalized term used to describe Swing (dance), swing dancing. It is often synonymous with the lindy hop dance but might include elements of the Jive (dance), jive, east coast swing, collegiate shag, Charleston (dance), charlesto ...

s in the 1970s. Chicago's equivalent dance style is Juke, where the focus is on footwork dating back to the late 1980s.

Detroit Electronic Music Festival 2002 main stage after dark

Ghettotech was an integral part of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, an annual event. At this festival, Ghettotech serves to be between the techno and hip-hop scenes respectively and allow this younger audience into a side of electronic music not previously capable. This introduction of techno in a conventionally hip-hop centered festival allowed for otherwise unseen experiences for the festival-goers and allowed for more diverse experiences and an in to a different branch of music entirely. As a genre, Ghettotech also proves to show the ability of genres to be ever-changing and the impact that location can make on a genre as a whole as also seen through Swing,

Ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

, and countless others that thrived on regional popularity.

Key record labels

*Twilight 76 *Databass *Electrofunk * Jefferson Ave *Motor City Electro Company * Intuit-Solar * 666aline

References

External links

{{Techno Music of Detroit Music of Chicago Bass (sound) House music genres

Overview

Key record labels

References

Further reading

External links