Earliest use of "Techno"

February 8, 2008 1:02 PM

The origins of "Techno" - the earliest recorded use of the term.

I'm cross-posting this from uk-dance.org.

"The earliest references I can find to the use of the word "techno" to describe a form of music are both from 1988 - "Techno: The Dance Sound of Detroit" (Virgin Records LP, 1988) and Q magazine "'techno’ is the futuristic, synthesizer-based sound of Detroit" (October 1988, p.65).

Earlier uses of the term are in combined term only (e.g. in 1980 the New York Times uses "techno-pop" to describe Carly Simons' album "Come Upstairs"). Does anyone have any pre-1988 uses of "techno" in an uncombined form?"

Following the thread the earliest discoveries we've found, in terms of music, have been c.1984.

Does anyone have any earlier references?

posted by urbanwhaleshark to media & arts (18 comments total)

Anecdotal, but I and my peers were using the term "Techno" long before 1988. That was in Detroit, to boot.
posted by The World Famous at 1:05 PM on February 8, 2008

I find that interesting, TWF. Do you know if that predates (wikipedia) Juan Atkins's claim that "Toffler's phrase "techno rebels" [inspired] him to use the word "techno" to describe the musical style he helped to create."? That would've been around the 1984 Cybotron era.

Personally I'd love to find a reference to Techno pre-1980 to describe Raymond Scott or Bruce Haack, but I think I'm running up against a wall with that one.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 1:17 PM on February 8, 2008

Somewhere between 1984 and 1986 sounds about right to me.
posted by The World Famous at 1:23 PM on February 8, 2008

Somewhere in a box at home I have a magazine with an interview with (I think) Derrick May (might have been Atkins), describing how much he hates the word techno, and how it was first used in an interview with him, Atkins, and whatshisname, Carter? in about 1985 or so.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:41 PM on February 8, 2008

Just fyi, according to this, Toffler used the phrase 'techno-rebels' in 1980 in in his book The Third Wave. I just did a search in the book at Amazon and in every instance he used a hypen, and also used the words techno-rebellion and techno-sphere many times.
posted by iconomy at 1:41 PM on February 8, 2008

*hyphen*
posted by iconomy at 1:42 PM on February 8, 2008

The story I know is that Juan was using techno to describe his music before 1988, but it didn't come into popular usage until Neil Rushton asked Juan what he should call the "...New Dance Sound" compilation. The complicating factor in this history is that the sound that Juan was making in the early to mid 80s was already called Electrofunk in the rest of the country while the Detroit sound was being born. That the style also shared some rhythmic and melodic tropes with Freestyle also slowed the adoption of "Techno" as a style name. It wasn't really until techno included four on the floor tracks was it really given its own niche, which was around 1988.
posted by rhizome at 1:52 PM on February 8, 2008

What terms were being used to describe Kraftwerk's music in the 70's? I was listening to them back then, but can't recall any specific terminology used to pigeonhole them.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:46 PM on February 8, 2008

And, yes, I know Kraftwerk isn't "techno" in the Detroit sense. However, that doesn't mean the term couldn't have been used to describe them back then.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:48 PM on February 8, 2008

Thozdad - Electro, perhaps?
posted by Artw at 2:48 PM on February 8, 2008

I hear Kraftwerk more associated with "electronica," which I suppose techno is a later subset of.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 3:04 PM on February 8, 2008

Electronica is a late 90s American term for "we've just discovered ambient".
posted by Artw at 3:19 PM on February 8, 2008

Electronica is a late 90s American term for "we've just discovered ambient".

You should add "as created by the mainstream music press" to that. Most of us who that term was used to refer to hated and discouraged it.

I used to joke I was going to start my own pirate-inspired offshoot genre, electronicAARGH.
posted by General Zubon at 3:23 PM on February 8, 2008

The Kraftwerk album Electric Café was originally (around 1982-1983) going to be called "Techno Pop."

Here's a USENET post from December 1983 describing Herbie Hancock's Rockit as "techno-dance." A few other posts from 1984 use the word "techno" or variants.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 3:42 PM on February 8, 2008

Obligatory link to ishkurs guide
posted by Big_B at 4:06 PM on February 8, 2008

I know Juan Atkins used the terms like "techno", "techno-logic", "techno-..." even back when he was in Cybotron (early 80s). Here's one example from '84 - Cybotron - Techno City.

Kraftwerk and YMO were using the terms even a bit earlier (which is probably where Juan's inspiration came from), but they usually used it as "techno-something" (i.e. techno-pop, or ymo's technopolis), not just techno.
posted by p3t3 at 4:14 PM on February 8, 2008

Oh, and I think the birth of "techno" is often cited with that Neal Rushton comp because that was the first overt declaration of "techno" as a genre or description of a music style - the name of the comp. was "Techno - The New Dance Sound Of Detroit", and Juan's track on the comp was called "Techno Music" (with vocals: I program techno music..)..
posted by p3t3 at 4:23 PM on February 8, 2008

It's true that Juan Atkins gave the word techno its common meaning as a genre today; it's been agreed by Derrick May, Juan and Eddie Fowlkes that Shari Vari by A Number of Names (1981) was the touchstone of the developing Detroit Techno sound, and that influences, such as Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk and Future Shock by Alvin Toffler and his techno-rebels inspired the transition of the funk and disco sound into the iconic pure techno heard in "No UFOs"... if you want to split hairs, I've heard it argued that Shari Vari was the first official techno track (by producers in Detroit, including radio personality "The Electrifying Mojo"). It's referenced as such a few books and at least one documentary, which would put the term "techno" at 1981. Juan himself was inspired to create Cybotron after hearing "Shari Vari." Others (in the genre) define the first techno sound as being Kraftwerk retroactively, but it was not COMMONLY called that in the press, nightclubs or promotion. A lot of this is explored in the documentary High Tech Soul. (Warning; not as much music and real info as you'd like, although there are a few really valuable interviews...)

Earlier inspirations include the Musique Concrete movement in Europe, Bruce Haack (if you haven't seen the "King of Techno" documentary, it's a must) and Robert Moog.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:44 PM on February 9, 2008