Building the Beloved Community Through Techno Music Production in Detroit

This chapter examine Detroit techno music production by utilizing the lenses of Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community and community-based proposals for rebuilding Detroit, which recognize that large-scale industrial production will not be coming back to the city. In light of the limited opportunities in the formal economy for city youth, the threat of illegal drugs and alcohol, and the defunding of arts programs in the public schools, Detroit’s techno community has been active in fostering the next generation of musicians while producing a critical alternative to mainstream urban music that glorifies violence and programs failure. To ensure the future for such young musicians by protecting the Detroit techno brand, Detroit’s techno community has also worked to emphasize Detroit both as the place where techno was born but also as a current creative force in the music. Detroit’s globally recognized techno musical production highlights a creative and mutually supportive community that has long been part of the city that has inspired its artists, even as Detroit and Michigan have largely overlooked them in favor of initiatives aimed at attracting footloose creative workers.