High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music

This movie goes through the birth of detroit techno and interviews all the major players. Very informative from a European perspective. While techno now may be seen as obscure, it is the root from which all the modern dance genres came from; this movie contains some documentation of a mostly undocumented genre and subculture. Most of the movie deals with the pre-rave time, and it's almost ludicrous how small the techno scene was at that time. The movie does not in any way discuss the European influences or scene, it is not about techno as a global phenomenon per se, it sticks to the detroit dj's which are now famous. It would be fascinating to see a similar movie about the scene in Holland, uk, Germany etc. -Ibiza dissected, -Mayday from the inside... Fun for the fan of dance music...

Music is changing. It's hard to tell who "invented" some or other music style, basically because we are all influenced with our experiences, and every music artist is influenced with music that he heard before - the music that someone else created.

"High Tech Soul" explains why techno music was "invented" in Detroit, and not some other city. It contains many interviews with people who were there and who were influenced enough by the city itself and many other things, artists and music - that they felt the urge to create something new and beautiful. Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson are basically the fathers of techno music. Besides them, this movie contains many other people who are important innovators in techno music, or made they contribution in those early days.

A great film that everyone should see - because techno itself influenced many other musicians in almost every music style that has been made in the past 20 years.

High Tech Soul is not only a history lesson about the techno scene, but a history lesson about Detroit, Michigan. I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of techno music, but when someone told me it goes deeper than that showing how techno relates to the history and city of Detroit, I became interested. My favorite bits of the film centered on the Professor from Wayne State University. He explained how techno was introduced to the city of Detroit, and why it even came to the city. Like most people, I think of Motown, and maybe Eminen when I think of Detroit, but not techno music. I had no idea that Detroit played such an important role in the making of techno a world wide phenomenon. I was also amazed at how long techno has been around. I lived in Europe during the 80s and early 90s. I knew it was big in Europe, but I had no idea that it was big in the US for decades. I gave this film a ten because it opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at the city of Detroit. Director Gary Bredow has something very original in this film.

Well done documentary that told the story of Detroit techno concisely and in a manner that kept the interest of the viewer. Mr. Bredow does a fine job putting the story together in the words of techno's historic figures themselves. The lack of narration adds authenticity to the story.

While short at 64 minutes, I felt it was the perfect length for the subject matter. I don't feel anything was left out nor was anything extraneous left in.

Well worth a watch (if you can find it) if you're at all interested in music history, especially that of electronic/techno. Also interesting as a cultural examination of the city of Detroit.

It was great that somebody did this. For those who are very close to that scene and those times, it is probably interesting. But it focuses too much on the personalities that initiated techno. They're heroes, but no more so than the many people who've carried it much farther, or the fans with the open-mindedness and vision to bring it so far.

There's very little exhibition of the art, very little about the music. (One scene that shows us some gear, and a few shots of turntablism.) Which means that this movie is not for the uninitiated ... and that's disappointing. The movie many times seems to wonder why the music hasn't been more accepted, gone more mainstream.

But what this movie shows the casual viewer - I'm not sure it was intended - is that there's a lot *not* to like about the original scene... or about Detroit. (What's with the college prof rhapsodizing about an empty city?) My respect for what happened there (but not the music) went *down* after seeing the movie. All the more reason it's too bad it didn't focus on the music and the fans more. Because without them, all you got is prima donnas cruisin for props.