Come and join us for a night of rebellious music -- Dance floor Afro-Beat, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Salsa & Cumbia classics, all with messages of freedom and rebellion. Amoeba employees Gazoo (Edwin), Askari (Eric) and myself will be on the turntables with Ray Ricky Rivera as our host. Special guest will be East Los Angeles Reggae En Español band Umoverde.

All of this for only five bucks!



The Scene
806 E. Colorado St.
Glendale, California
Cost: $5

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".