By the time the late 80s rolled around, strings and singers had been doing their thing for hundreds of years.

But the primarily Black artists of Detroit Techno didn’t want to paint with that brush. Living in dystopian, post-crash Detroit, they were surrounded by a unique form of mechanized decay and abandonment.

They used drum machines and samplers to create the kind of techno music that expressed that emotion. And they threw  raves in former factories, which increased the connection between the listener and this new form of futuristic music. And no, a guitar and a drum-kit wouldn’t have done the job.

Today, I’m shocked when I see electronic musicians rallying against AI instead of using it daily.

Electronic music has always been about pushing the boundaries of technology. Why should this quest have stopped in the 90s or early 00s?

Don’t fight it, embrace it. Use these tools to create the emotion that’s right for this time, not twenty years ago.

Don’t use technology to create what you used to. Use it to create something new that you never could have before.