The last decade meant the massive difussion of the techno movement. U.S.A., British and European cities enjoyed together with the machine as man's best friend. African and Hindu musicians demonstrated, just in case, that it was possible to make music with feeling by one side and a synthesizer by the other one. The Japanese industry managed the new and modern MIDI technology drop prices considerably, and then it was made available to anyone. This made possible to any teenager on the world to make his room become a recording studio. One of them, Tim Simenon (Bomb The Bass) reached no. 1 with hardly any money. The creation process transforms and thanks to the sampler, it was possible to have original music using short pieces of other works already recorded. The Schiwitters's Merz collage techniques and William Borroughs's cut-ups are applied to sampled music. Usual rock instruments become obsolete and the word "band" is often substituted with project, confirming Robert Flipp's theory which said that the future is owned by the small intelligent and creative units. And concerts leave way for raves, parties (many of them illegal) held in abandoned hangars, beaches and other places of the sort. Revolution has begun!
The first years of the decade are for techno-pop emperors Depeche Mode and their followers, techno-funk projects (23 Skidoo, 400 Blows), the new romanticists (Visage, Spandau Ballet, Classix Nouveaux), the first wave of electronic body music (Front 242, Borghesia, ASplit Second) or the post industrial hordes (Test Deep, Einstürzende Neubauten, Laibach). But perhaps the main fact was the birth of electro sound. The New York black community discovers Kraftwerk and mixes it with funk rhythms, scratch techniques and rapped texts. Following the excellent Afrika Bambaataa's theme "Planet Rock" we find UFTO, Shango, Whodini or Funky 4+One, that managed to establish definetly the electro style.
And, finally, the great techno explosion arrives in the mid 80's from two big cities at the north of the U.S.A. In Chiacago Warehouse, DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Farley Jackmaster Funk create Philadelphia sound, Italian disco, Hi-energy and, of course, Kraftwerk. As Stuart Cosgrove used to say "house is meta-music", always referred to other styles, past or future. Artists like Marshall Jefferson, Vaughan MAson (Raze), Todd Terry or Larry Heard see their number of followers grow and house variants start to appear. Their crosspath wit soul and disco music gives origin to deep house or garage (Joe Smooth, Adeva, Blaze, Ten City). Hispanics make the style theirs and create latine house (Liz Torres, Nitro Deluxe, 2 Puertoricans A Blackman & A Dominican). House and hip-hop will join to give birth to hip-house, which expands over Europe and America (DJ Fast Eddie, Technotronic). Synthetic drugs and the recover of the LSD, which is sold hugely at macro-raves, start acid house (Bam Bam, Armando, Phuture), released with rhythm boxes and synthesyzers that create a new exciting, repeated and crispy rhythm. "Aciiiid!" is the new emblem. In the end the rhythm decreases, Brian Eno's and Tangerine Dream's sounds are recovered and ambient house emerges (Virgo, Mr. Fingers, Irresistible Force, The Orb), a style that in a certain way is advanced in the theme "Sueño Latino" from the Italian project of the same name, in which Ash Ra is sampled. Back to the roots.
Meanwhile, in Detroit the technomasters rebellion against Tambla Motown legacy is being prepared. As Juan Atkins said, a Kraftwerk fan who took part at the project electro Cybotron, "I'm more interested in Ford factories robots than in Berry Gordy's music". What means basically the same as futurists said "it's more beautiful a car than Smocratia victory". The result of a postindustrial developed Detroit, black musicians decide to embrace the new technological religion and make pure experiments. That's how abstract techno is born. Derrick May puts it very clear: "Techno is like if George Clinton and Kraftwerk got stuck in an elevator only with a sequencer". With an idealized Europe image and with influences from people like Bauhaus, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode or Kraftwerk, Detroit musicians start their own labels (KMS, Transmat, Metroplex) and projects (Model 500, Inner City, Rythim is Rithym), Origins of which can be tracked in the great compilation "Retroactive Detroit Definitive". Finally, the emergentist new Belgium beat in Europe and teutonic beats are clearing the path for disco climax (or hardcore-techno) and trance, respectively.