For this CuriosiD, we’re partnering with WBEZ and WUWM to explore our Midwest connections in the limited series, Curious Midwest.

Listener Chris Gerben asked this question about Detroit and Chicago:

How did these two cities, and their home-grown music scene, become almost separated? And to what degree were they rivals or were they partners in creating electronic dance music.

Disco dies in Chicago

In 1979, after Game 1 of a doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, the Sox hosted a “Disco Demolition” event. Local DJ Steve Dahl detonated a crate of disco records in center field. Fans rushed onto the field and the night ended in a riot. Disco was declared dead. 

But out of the ashes, DJs created something new. In Detroit, it was techno; in Chicago, it was house.

The late Frankie Knuckles is considered “the godfather” of Chicago house music, an upbeat, soulful blend of electronic drum machine beats and lyrical disco samples. He was instrumental in developing and popularizing this new sound in the late 1970s at the Warehouse Club, a prominent dance venue where DJs remixed disco, funk and post-punk music into long, continuous tracks. At the time, it was just called “dance music.”

“When we found electronic instruments like the Roland drum machines and the Ensoniq samplers … all of those tools allowed us to continue and to expand our creativity,” said Chicago House DJ Chip Eberhart, known as “Chip E.” 

Unlike Disco, it wasn’t played on the radio. People mainly heard it during DJ sets at the Warehouse, which some people called “the House.” Some say this shorthand is where the genre’s name originated. 

DJs looking for the latest dance music shopped at Imports Etc. in Chicago’s Printers Row, where a young Chip E. happened to work. 

“We found that if we put a sign next to a record that said ‘As Heard at the House,’ people would instantly flock to that section,” he said. “So I decided I’m gonna use that term.”

Chip E. said he and his crew — Kurt Landrum, Joe Smooth and Eric “E.T.” Taylor — were intentional about branding the genre. He said they created the first house music EP, “Jack Trax,” and a song on that record was called simply “It’s House.” 

“I made that specifically because I want to tell people this is something new, and I wanted it to be highly memorable,” he said.

“Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit” 

At the same time, another disco derivative was born in metro Detroit. Techno was a futuristic, machine-driven blend of synthesizer pop, funk and disco with few lyrics, if any. 

In the 1970s, DJs Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derek May met in Belleville, roughly 30 miles west of Detroit. They formed a group called the Belleville Three and created some of the first techno tracks, including Juan Atkins’ pioneering single “No UFOs.” 

At the time, techno was often referred to as “progressive music” and “Detroit house.” People mainly listened to it at clubs, warehouse raves and underground parties. 

Charles “The Electrifying Mojo” Johnson brought this new sound to Detroit radio waves on his show “The Midnight Funk Association.” He and local DJ Jeff “The Wizard” Mills were instrumental in creating a community around it. 

In 1988, British record collector Neil Rushton released the compilation “Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit,” officially stamping a label on the genre.

Many have tried to pit house and techno against each other. But Chip E. said it wasn’t a rivalry. 

“It was really more of a love fest: We loved what they did, they loved what we did,” he said. “We weren’t competing so that we would be the best. We were really competing for the dance floor. We were competing to make people move their bodies.”

There is no rivalry between the DJs, but the dance floor is a different story. 

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