Detroit Music, Part 3

The city of Detroit is renowned for its musical heritage. With a long and rich history that includes Motown Records, it has produced such homegrown stars as Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations and the Four Tops.

The Detroit Theatre District is the nation's second largest, after New York City, with eighteen professional theaters. It is also home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Opera House. Major theaters include the Fox Theatre, Masonic Temple Theatre, Fisher Theatre, The Fillmore Detroit, Music Hall, Saint Andrews Hall and the Detroit Repertory Theatre.

During the 1980s, Madonna -- one of the most famous pop icons in the 20^th Century -- emerged onto the scene. She was born and raised outside of Detroit and went to the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship. She has gone on to capture audiences around the world with her chameleon looks and audacious acts.

As of 2006, twenty-two Detroit artists have been enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Bill Haley, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson, the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Hank Ballard, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, John Lee Hooker, Wilson Pickett, Martha and the Vandellas, Little Willie John, Parliament-Funkadelic, James Jamerson, Michael Jackson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Glenn Frey, Berry Gordy, and the Jackson Five.

The Detroit area is also generally accepted as the birthplace of Techno, which has grown over the past 25 years from local radio and clubs to dance venues worldwide. The most popular Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. While Techno and Chicago music import, House, has remained popular with underground audiences in Detroit. The local style of Electro also known as Techno Bass, also related to Miami Bass, was pioneered by Juan Atkins and has remained the most popular electronic dance style in Detroit. This highly syncopated and futuristic, Kraftwerk, influenced urban dance music was later fused with the minimal Chicago House known as Ghetto House or simply "Jack", to create the frenetic and fast-paced Ghettotech. Other scene's luminaries continue to find that their more progressive and less club-oriented work is far more popular in Europe than anywhere in America.

Detroit hip hop is a term that refers to hip hop music that originates from this city. Detroit has a distinctive hip hop music scene that is characterized by artists as diverse as Insane Clown Posse, J Dilla, Slum Village, D12, Eminem, Obie Trice, and Royce Da 5'9".

The 1990s brought with it a new round of economic despair for Detroit, the once mighty Motor City. Music artists responded by reaching deep into Detroit's musical past to unleash a diverse and startling mix of new music and old, rap, and soul. Detroit is more recently home to many hip-hop artists such as: Aaliyah, Slum Village, King Gordy, Jerry Flynn, P-19, Alley Life, Eastside Chedda Boyz, Rock Bottom, Juan, Trick Trick & The Goon Sqwad, D12, Teairra Mari, Tone-Tone, MC Breed, Blade Icewood, the Street Lord'z, Wasted Youth, Quelle, Ta'rrach, Guilty Simpson, Prozak (Project Deadman), Riff Raff, Team Swass, Black Milk, 5Ela, Raw Collection, Blacksmif, Octane and Illite, Mu, Big herk, Plee, RENCEN and Miz Corona are among the musical acts who have kept Detroit's diverse musical pipeline flowing.