As Detroit techno moved beyond its early (Juan Atkins-dominated) phase in the mid- and late-eighties, particularly with the release of Derrick Mayâs Nude Photo in 1987, Europeans consumed the music in much more substantial quantities than audiences in Detroit, New York, or Chicago. Simultaneously, rap gained increasing prominence if not validity in the music industry. Techno and house had a few top-40 hits and dedicated local audiences, and for many musicians it was possible to make a living in the American Midwest. However, neither genre was ever commercially comparable to hip hop in the United States. For techno and house artists, larger crowds and higher record sales were increasingly likely to be reached abroad. Atkins, May, and others have attributed this to two factors. The first is the reluctance of the media to showcase black music which its commentators and editors perceive to prioritize intellectualism. The second is the general disbelief among American audiences which greets the idea that Detroit, a âdevastatedâ area, is the center of an artistic movement. According to Anthony Shakir, âWhen people think of black kids, they donât think of computers and books. For me, Iâm a black guy and itâs black music to me. But I couldnât tell that to people [who] just hear whatâs on the radio.â Thus Shakir connects the media to the promulgation of an ideology in which intellectual thought and blackness are disjoined. Derrick May further links such tendencies in the media to the deeply ingrained acceptance of devastation in Detroit:
      Detroitâs not supposedly one of the forefront leaders of ideas and creativity. So people tend to discount it in the media. They donât really say âOkay, well, Detroit is the focus of the music in America.â Theyâll never let that happen. Theyâll never say that a city like Detroit, that is going through so much economic strife, that is a city full of illiterates, at one point, at one level, is the focal point of electronic music, period. They wonât let that happen. They will constantly discount it, and they will act like this didnât happen.
Ben Tausig, Detroit Techno: Race, Agency, and Electronic Music in Post-Industrial Detroit (via igelahnlich)
