Celebrating Black History Month
Black History Month
It’s Black History Month in America, so the team here decided we should celebrate by compiling a playlist featuring a selection of productions from some of the heroes of electronic music. Pioneers new and old, renegades, mavericks, icons… musicians who have shaped the world of electronic music with their productions, their history, their experiences, emotions and stories.
In the last few centuries black artists have been responsible for the music that has changed the world, invigorated, inspired and enlightened millions of dancers, listeners and enthusiasts from every walk of life.
On the dance floors of fringe clubs in the mid-eighties DJs like Larry Levan, Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles experimented with disco, funk and early incarnations of house music. In makeshift studios pioneers like Larry Heard, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson were using synthesisers to escape into an imagined future. Machines became their tool for transmitting emotion, soul and afrofuturist visions.
From techno’s pioneers: Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Eddie Fowlkes, Jeff Mills, Norm Talley and countless more, through to the house fraternity, Larry Heard, Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy, Chip E, Larry Levan, Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Phuture… the list is endless.
Of course, we can’t forget the women Barbara Tucker, Ultra Nate, Kathy Brown, Kim English, Stephanie Cooke, Candi Staton, Loni Clark, Crystal Waters, and many many more. All of whom have helped to establish electronic music worldwide.
Without all of these artists there would be no house, no techno, no drum’n’bass, no garage…
Through those early innovators, the next generation found their way into the music. Kerri Chandler, Carl Craig, Moodymann, Anthony Shakir, Andres, Omar S, MK, Scott Grooves, K-Hand, Drexciya…
Drexciya in particular have made black history an intrinsic part of their mythology. The late James Stinson and his partner Gerald Donald centered the story of Drexciya on the creation of a ‘black Atlantis’, an underwater world that appeared when pregnant slaves were thrown overboard while traveling through the Middle Passage across the Atlantic.
The story of the global electronic music industry cannot be told without acknowledging the part that slavery has played. Without the forced transportation of African slaves to America, house and techno might never have been created. Ever since they were brought to the USA black people have been oppressed, abused and dehumanised. Music has provided an escape for black communities from the trauma of their past and present existence – both for those who create it and those who enjoy it. This is the dark history of the music that brings us so much joy and it should always be remembered.
The music then transcended the borders of US cities like Detroit, Chicago and New York, to every part of the planet, with fertile scenes in South Africa and the rest of the continent, London, Bristol, Manchester, Paris, Berlin, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and beyond.
In the UK, Carl Cox, Fabio, Grooverider, Colin Dale, Trevor Fung, Kid Batchelor, Jazzie B, Keith Franklin (KCC) were among the early adopters of the house sound. They built the foundations of what would become one of the world’s epicentres for electronic music. In the years since the house and techno wave hit the UK in the eighties, London has given birth to several genres that have descended directly from house and techno: hardcore, jungle, drum’n’bass, dubstep, grime…
The lineage continues today, and today’s black musicians carry that legacy with pride. Acts like Actress, GAIKA, Afrodeutsche, Black Coffee, Ash Lauryn, Kelela, Dee Diggs, Batu, Sherelle, Shannen SP, Josey Rebelle, Honey Dijon and a plethora of other acts from across the entire electronic music spectrum keep that eternal fire burning, on the dance floors of the world.
Check out the playlist and pay your respects to the architects of the music we love…
Stream dream offers best electronic music Spotify playlists.