Amoeblog

The Scene

Techno dance party!
A direct descendent of American Bandstand, and the older, cooler cousin of Dance Party USA, Detroit's own televised dance show The Scene ran from the mid-70's until the late 80's, giving local urban teens a place to strut their stuff and be seen by nearly everyone in the metro area - literally. The show's popularity was so high at its peak that its ratings outshined all competitors, including the six o'clock news. The Scene was the focal point for local kids, as is evident by the enthusiasm of these young dudes:



More pertinent to this blog (and interesting to me) is that The Scene was popular during the birth and growth of Detroit's last enduring gift to the world: Techno.

The show aired on Detroit's only black-owned TV station, WGPR, and had its roots in the swinging disco Seventies, as you can see in this short piece from Detroit local news:


As disco "died", it was replaced by electro, boogie, and the eurodisco now commonly referred to as Italo-disco in the early Eighties. Its use of synthesizers would directly influence Detroit's black youth, not to mention the Belleville Techno triumvirate of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Case in point: Scene-sters dancing suavely to Kano's "I'm Ready".

Even more exciting, though, is this spectacular 1982 clip featuring a guys-only dance to "Sharevari" by A Number of Names, believed to be the first Detroit Techno record and coincidentally reissued this past week on vinyl. Peep the dude with the prop guitar!

With all the frenzied screaming, yelping and hollering, the atmosphere in the studio sounds electrified! Silly dance moves and outdated fashions aside, what you have here is a mostly black (but quite multicultural) audience getting seriously down to the sort of thing that was widely (and erroneously) considered "white" music - synthesizers, drum machines, minor keys. Not only did Detroit's musical climate at the time open the doors for this music to be appreciated, it legitimized it in the eyes and ears of a young, urban, black audience, which embraced it and made it their own. Today, it makes Detroit completely unique in the US - there is no other (S/s)cene quite like it, enough so that the Detroit Historical Society now has a permanent exhibit about Techno.
Posted by Mike Battaglia on April 7, 2007 at 05:43pm | Comments (3)

Relevant Tags

A Number Of Names, Sharevari, Italo-disco, Italodisco, The Scene, Detroit Techno, Techno, Disco, Kano, Detroit, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins

Comments

yeah, the scene later mutated into the new dance show, which has some great clips available on youtube as well (including people getting down to some DBX in the early 90's, completely classic!). the way electronic music is ingrained in detroit's culture is so fascinating.

Posted by pipecock on April 13, 2007 at 11:09am

Posted by on April 23, 2007 at 06:19am

Are there any videos out there in exsistance for sale of the New Dance show or The Scene?

Posted by mphygienist on August 18, 2007 at 08:43am

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