A Visual Tale of Two Techno Cities : How does the visual expression of techno music present itself in Detroit & Berlin, and how has it developed between 1980 & 2020?
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2021
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Some cities in the world have a deeper connection to specific music genres than others. Sometimes it is the political situation of the city that reflects itself in the music, other times it's the geographical isolation in the city. The American Dream in Detroit had ended with the fall of the automobile industry and the city had experienced a decline throughout the 50s and 80s. The political, economic and social break in the city inspired a group of young, Black people to produce early works of techno music influenced by Chicago's disco and house music culture and, of course, European electronic music. The City's soul music legacy had been refurbished with Roland drum machines into a radically edgy yet funky Detroit techno sound. 1 When techno music found its way to Europe, it was quickly adopted by the young generation, especially in the city of Berlin. After the reunification, the left-behind empty places and no-curfew rule in the city were a perfect match for the labels and record stores that had already established a connection with record stores in Chicago, thus creating the first wave of techno in the city.2 Berlin's secrecy and squatting heritage took over the abandoned buildings and factories in East Berlin and turned them into nightclubs. Techno music rooted itself well into the clubs of Berlin, and had become a big part of the city's economy until the Covid-19 global pandemic hit the music industry by its Achilles' heel. The City commission declared all the clubs in the city to be cultural institutions by law, where they could earn tax benefits and government support during the outbreak.3 Techno music has established a strong visual presence with unique characteristics throughout the years. The development of technology made it possible to produce more complex and conceptualized visuals. As an urban culture that is rooted in Detroit's Black community, early artworks and imagery of the music were expressed with Afro futuristic illustrations and connected to science fiction elements in the design artefacts. As the music spread worldwide, the sound and visual interpretation began to diverge from city to city, culture to culture. Early artworks from Berlin labels interpreted techno music from an outer space perspective through colorful and abstract illustrations and an edgier typographic approach. The culture developed a minimalistic style with dark color palettes, complex imagery, brutal and grotesque motifs, and graphic texture