Speaker 1: Hi, this is Paris Hilton and you're listening to the
Speaker 1: History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs, a twelve part podcast
Speaker 1: about the iconic venues and people that revolutionized Howie Party.
Speaker 1: A song can change your life, and that's what free
Speaker 1: by Ulternate did for me. I heard it for the
Speaker 1: first time at a club in New York, not long
Speaker 1: after I left provokinne In school, where I experienced mental
Speaker 1: and physical abuse that left me with trauma I'm still
Speaker 1: healing from. But in the late nineties, this song saved me.
Speaker 1: The song starts with sorrow. You can hear it in
Speaker 1: the lyrics, the despair in the song, and the Despairro's
Speaker 1: feeling was undeniable. But like the journey I was about
Speaker 1: to go on, the song evolved, transforming into something uplifting,
Speaker 1: something beautiful. Those lyrics filled me with an unimaginable amount
Speaker 1: of hope. That song became my anthem. An alternate's voice
Speaker 1: became my guiding light. Even now, years later, whenever I
Speaker 1: play this song at a show, my iconic opening chord
Speaker 1: progression brings me to tears. I hear the pulsing beat
Speaker 1: and I'm taken back into the nights. I spent singing
Speaker 1: along to the words You're afraid to do what you
Speaker 1: want to do. It's euphoric and reminds me of my
Speaker 1: favorite nights and clubs around the world, the dance floors
Speaker 1: and the DJ booths that welcomed me with open arms
Speaker 1: and changed my life. So who better to tell the
Speaker 1: story of twelve of the world's greatest night clubs and
Speaker 1: the boys behind the anthem of freedom, joy and possibility
Speaker 1: ulternate herself. I'll leave you in good hands.
Speaker 2: What Paris felt all those years ago singing to my
Speaker 2: song was how I felt growing up in Baltimore, running
Speaker 2: around the underground dance scene. It was everything to me.
Speaker 2: It was how I found my purpose. So I'm inviting
Speaker 2: you to join me on this night life journey as
Speaker 2: you've never experienced it before. From London Audio, iHeartRadio and
Speaker 2: executive producer of Paris Hilton. This is the history of
Speaker 2: the world's greatest nightclubs. Some of the world's most legendary
Speaker 2: nightclubs were known for the unique community they welcomed, others
Speaker 2: for the cultural movements they started, and some for the
Speaker 2: musicians and DJs they introduced to the world. The best
Speaker 2: nightclubs champion new music, transform lives, and provide an escape
Speaker 2: from life's pressures. One more thing. This is the history
Speaker 2: of some of the world's greatest nightclubs. Thanking of every
Speaker 2: club in the world, but an exploration of the spaces, people,
Speaker 2: and club nights that made a lasting impact on night
Speaker 2: life and music today. I'm your host, Alter Nata. I'm
Speaker 2: a singer, songwriter and musician, and I found my purpose
Speaker 2: in club culture. This is episode one the Music Institute
Speaker 2: in Detroit, Michigan. There's something about dancing in a dimly
Speaker 2: lit room that gives you the power of anonymity. When
Speaker 2: you're moving in time to the music as a single
Speaker 2: body in a sea of people, your self consciousness begins
Speaker 2: to float away. You realize that everyone is so caught
Speaker 2: up in the moment that no one's really paying any
Speaker 2: attention to you. No one is looking into who you
Speaker 2: are outside of those nightclubs, and it's liberating. You can
Speaker 2: leap across the dance floor, sing at the top of
Speaker 2: your lungs, and wear clothes that you'd feel too shy
Speaker 2: to wear during the harsh judging eyes of the daytime.
Speaker 2: Because during the day you have to show up as
Speaker 2: the version of yourself that the world expects you to be,
Speaker 2: but at night you can escape. At least that's how
Speaker 2: Sierra Donovan felt in Detroit in the nineteen eighties. At
Speaker 2: the time, I was a relatively new federal agent working
Speaker 2: criminal investigations. Being an African American woman in law enforcement
Speaker 2: already came with significant challenges, but even more so in
Speaker 2: Detroit because the city's black community had a long fraught
Speaker 2: history of animosity with the police. In nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 2: after decades of entrenched segregation, institutional racism, and police brutality,
Speaker 2: Detroit saw an intense clash between the city's black residents
Speaker 2: and the police department. A local club was hosting a
Speaker 2: welcome home party for two black veterans that had just
Speaker 2: returned from Vietnam when the police shut the party down
Speaker 2: and arrested over eighty people. The act of hostilities sparked
Speaker 2: protests that became violent when the police intervened, leading to
Speaker 2: forty three deaths and more than seven thousand arrests. The
Speaker 2: riots had left a sense of unease and distrust between
Speaker 2: black communities and the cops, and as a black woman,
Speaker 2: Sierra could see and feel that tension in both her
Speaker 2: local community and at her job, I had.
Speaker 3: Started working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Speaker 3: and Explosives. In nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: The city was still trying to heal and recover from
Speaker 2: the nineteen sixty seven riots, but by the eighties Detroit
Speaker 2: had to deal with a new existential crisis. It was
Speaker 2: the Reagan era, and de industrialization had left a lasting
Speaker 2: dent on the city's economy. Detroit was really struggling. Manufacturing
Speaker 2: factories had abandoned American cities like Detroit for cheaper labor elsewhere.
Speaker 2: The neighborhoods they had once brought to life became desolate
Speaker 2: industrial wastelands, and the communities that had relied on those
Speaker 2: jobs struggled with high levels of crime and unemployment.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of violence. There was a lot
Speaker 3: of illegal drug trafficking.
Speaker 2: It really affected the community.
Speaker 3: Our young people, younger people seemed to be lost and
Speaker 3: in the street. There was this epidemic of drugs, heroin
Speaker 3: cocaine and crack cocaine, and it was a pretty sad
Speaker 3: state at that time.
Speaker 2: But despite all the challenges and obstacles in its way,
Speaker 2: Detroit was resilient. The city had always been a force
Speaker 2: to reckon with. It was the home of Motown, after all,
Speaker 2: ushering in a legendary era of black music in the
Speaker 2: midst of the Civil Rights movement, Detroit was no stranger
Speaker 2: to adversity, and like in so many of the cities
Speaker 2: we'll spend nights in during this series, in Detroit, creativity
Speaker 2: was often born out of the desire to find hope
Speaker 2: in the darkness. But back to Sierra. Sierra had a
Speaker 2: pretty intense day job, so when she got home after
Speaker 2: a long day of dealing with that heaviness, she really
Speaker 2: wanted to relax. And luckily she'd made a home for
Speaker 2: herself to do exactly that, in a historical area of
Speaker 2: Detroit known as Palmer Park.
Speaker 3: I lived on a street called Whitmore Plaza, and I
Speaker 3: lived on the first floor beautiful, beautiful apartment buildings that
Speaker 3: were very large, and after long, stressful days at work,
Speaker 3: it was the place she went home to retreat and rest.
Speaker 3: I went to bed early, and I had to get
Speaker 3: up early.
Speaker 2: But then she got some new neighbors. Two young men
Speaker 2: moved into the basement apartment below her. Her routine of
Speaker 2: going to bed early and waking up early was interrupted
Speaker 2: by their late night jams.
Speaker 3: As soon as I would get in bed and I
Speaker 3: fall asleep real good. Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two o'clock
Speaker 3: a m you'd hear this loud music. It was very disruptive.
Speaker 2: Sierra couldn't make out the words or the melody, but
Speaker 2: she could hear the muffled, pounding bass and loud electronic music.
Speaker 2: At first, she tried to ignore the sounds floating up
Speaker 2: from below her, but it went on and on every
Speaker 2: night for days and then weeks, and I just.
Speaker 3: Said enough is enough. So finally I made it downstairs.
Speaker 3: I got my pajamas on bath roll and those pink
Speaker 3: curlers in my hair. Now I had to bang on
Speaker 3: the door. That's how loud the music was. I'm banging
Speaker 3: on the door. So finally, you know, the two young
Speaker 3: men come to the door, open it up.
Speaker 2: Those two young men were Alton Miller and Shae Domier,
Speaker 2: But back then those names didn't mean anything to Sierra.
Speaker 2: They were just the names of the men making way
Speaker 2: too much noise while she was trying to fall asleep.
Speaker 3: I had to cleave with them almost every night to
Speaker 3: turn the music town because I had to go to
Speaker 3: work I never told her what I did for Lily,
Speaker 3: and then it just basically became very confrontational and I
Speaker 3: was irate, and they really acted like they just didn't care.
Speaker 3: They didn't care who I was, they didn't care what
Speaker 3: I had to say, and they basically ignored me.
Speaker 2: It was a cycle. Sierra would try to go to sleep,
Speaker 2: Alton and Shae would start playing loud music, and then
Speaker 2: Sierra would bang on the door asking them to turn
Speaker 2: the music down.
Speaker 3: So that went on for a couple of weeks, and
Speaker 3: then finally I had had it. At this point, I'm
Speaker 3: ready to call the police and take some action.
Speaker 2: Right But eventually Shay and Alton relented and explained why
Speaker 2: they were playing music every night.
Speaker 3: They said, well, we're opening up a club. You're gonna
Speaker 3: love it. Blah blah blah blah blah. That's all you
Speaker 3: need to say to me.
Speaker 4: Is club.
Speaker 2: Something that you need to know about Sierra is that
Speaker 2: while she was a federal agent, Sierra also really loved
Speaker 2: to party.
Speaker 3: I feel like I was born in a bar, in
Speaker 3: a club. I feel that way in my soul. When
Speaker 3: I walk into a club and I see people having
Speaker 3: a good time, I feel we're just doing what is
Speaker 3: innate within us.
Speaker 2: For her and many of us, going to the club
Speaker 2: was a spiritual experience.
Speaker 3: I believe humans are social preaching and music brings people
Speaker 3: together from all walks away. It's love is togetherness, unity
Speaker 3: us loving and accepting each other. So as she stood
Speaker 3: outside their apartment, Sierra was all ears a new club.
Speaker 2: Instantly she was sold. And then they said we're going
Speaker 2: to give you a membership. And the membership to the
Speaker 2: club came with a personalized card, a cream colored rectangle
Speaker 2: with the club's name printed in green at the top
Speaker 2: and Sierra's name handwritten below. It would get her into
Speaker 2: the club for free. So one night, Sierra went to
Speaker 2: downtown Detroit and walked until she reached thirteen fifteen Broadway.
Speaker 2: She walked into the four story shoe store that had
Speaker 2: been renovated and turned into a club with an incredible
Speaker 2: sound system. This was the Music Institute. The club was
Speaker 2: an old industrial building. The factory's full tiles had been
Speaker 2: sanded down and replaced with the dance floor, and in
Speaker 2: the main room there was one strobe light and one
Speaker 2: single smoke machine, but art brought the room to life.
Speaker 2: There were abstract expressionist pieces painted by a local artist
Speaker 2: hung up on the walls, and a mural painted by
Speaker 2: an English artist named Sarah Gregory. A row of clocks
Speaker 2: showing what time it was in London, Paris, and New
Speaker 2: York positioned Detroit as central to the culture. And all
Speaker 2: around the room, the dark walls were covered in poems
Speaker 2: and abstract surreal thoughts hand painted in white. It was
Speaker 2: unlike any club Sierra had ever stepped into before. As
Speaker 2: she walked in, all her thoughts and worries began to
Speaker 2: fade away. The details of what she could see around
Speaker 2: her began to blur, and it didn't matter who she
Speaker 2: was during the day or who anybody else in the
Speaker 2: club was once they hit that dance floor.
Speaker 3: So when I think about, well, why are are clubs
Speaker 3: so important in music, it's what it does to us.
Speaker 3: We forget color, we forget gender, we forget that sense
Speaker 3: of titles.
Speaker 2: At the Music Institute, Sierra was in Sierra Donovan, the
Speaker 2: Federal Agent. She transformed into a dancer.
Speaker 3: Everyone will tell you when Sierra walks in, she has
Speaker 3: one mission. She's on the dance floor.
Speaker 2: The dance floor gave her a sense of anonymity that
Speaker 2: allowed her to just be herself.
Speaker 3: We were a family without even really knowing.
Speaker 4: Who was full.
Speaker 3: Everybody felt accepted. We weren't there judging. Nobody was judging anyone.
Speaker 3: It was just this incredible energy of love. And from
Speaker 3: the time they opened until they closed, I was there
Speaker 3: and I danced. I danced the night away.
Speaker 2: You see, at the Music Institute, it didn't matter who
Speaker 2: you were or what you looked like, because people didn't
Speaker 2: come to hang out with a certain crowd to see
Speaker 2: celebrities or to be noticed by people.
Speaker 3: It was electric, The vibe was electric.
Speaker 2: It was the music that brought people into the club
Speaker 2: because a whole new genre was being created right there
Speaker 2: in Detroit, a new genre that you might now know
Speaker 2: in love by the name of techno. But at the
Speaker 2: time Sierra couldn't describe it. She just knew how it
Speaker 2: made her feel.
Speaker 3: It was like fire, your body being on fire on
Speaker 3: the dance floor, a fire that could not be contained.
Speaker 3: You didn't want nobody to put the energy of your
Speaker 3: fire out. You wanted to dance and dance and dance.
Speaker 2: Sierra had such an incredible experience at the Music Institute
Speaker 2: that she forgave her noisy neighbors.
Speaker 3: I didn't care how loud they played the music at night,
Speaker 3: because what they opened up at that point it was groundbreaking,
Speaker 3: It was trailblazing, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: The groundbreaking new sound that was championed by the Music
Speaker 2: Institute would go on to become one of the most
Speaker 2: important genres in the history of clubbing because techno was
Speaker 2: born in Detroit. This is the story of how a
Speaker 2: downtown Detroit Blade Runner esque nightclub that was only opened
Speaker 2: for eighteen months championed the birth of techno and became
Speaker 2: home to some of the most influential DJs and producers
Speaker 2: of its time. It's about how young black men in
Speaker 2: Detroit pioneered a new sound that would go on to
Speaker 2: revolutionize club culture and inspire a generation to believe that
Speaker 2: anything was possible. Christian Hill is a documentary filmmaker from Detroit.
Speaker 2: He was in high school in the eighties and for him,
Speaker 2: growing up in Detroit was an inspiration. It was beautiful.
Speaker 5: I grew up at a time where, I mean Detroit
Speaker 5: was considered a black city.
Speaker 4: So everybody I knew, from.
Speaker 6: The mayor to the butcher baker and the candlestick maker,
Speaker 6: they all looked like me, you know, and so I
Speaker 6: always had examples of what black excellence looked like, always
Speaker 6: had examples of what life.
Speaker 4: And things could be if you put your mind to it.
Speaker 2: People in Detroit grew up together and formed deep bonds
Speaker 2: with their neighbors and friends by going to and throwing parties.
Speaker 4: I grew up with my aunt's living next door.
Speaker 2: That's Alton Miller, remember him, one of the guys that
Speaker 2: kept Sierra up at night playing music in his apartment
Speaker 2: and yes, one of the founders of the Music Institute.
Speaker 7: So my mom and my aunts they would have these
Speaker 7: very very nice house parties. They would prepare food, they
Speaker 7: would prepare the music.
Speaker 2: Alton's family never missed an opportunity to celebrate.
Speaker 7: And her parties were pretty famous. They would be cars
Speaker 7: parked lining the street from the top of the main
Speaker 7: street all the way down. Can you imagine fifty sixty
Speaker 7: one hundred people inside a two bedroom flat, I mean,
Speaker 7: just imagine.
Speaker 2: Alton grew up in an intergeneration community that really valued music, family,
Speaker 2: and celebration, and it was at those parties that he
Speaker 2: experienced some of his most formative musical memories.
Speaker 4: It was my first experience is in regards to dance
Speaker 4: music and that culture that aspect of people coming together
Speaker 4: and communing with music and food and things like that.
Speaker 2: Listening to music at his family's house parties was different
Speaker 2: to listening to it on the radio.
Speaker 4: My aunts she had a very very good sound system.
Speaker 2: The kind of sound system that shakes the whole.
Speaker 7: Room, so very first time that I experienced, you know,
Speaker 7: that muffled bass sound before you go into a club.
Speaker 4: That just sticks with you.
Speaker 7: It has stuck with me from then all the way
Speaker 7: up until now, just that that It's something about that
Speaker 7: muffled bass sound before you actually get in the club.
Speaker 2: You know, it's the sound of anticipation of knowing you
Speaker 2: were about to step into a night that could change
Speaker 2: your life. And after experiencing that sound for the first
Speaker 2: time at his aunt's house, Alton couldn't help but spend
Speaker 2: his life chasing nights that sounded just like that. When
Speaker 2: he was a teenager, Alton and his friends started going
Speaker 2: out to clubs in Detroit, but they were looking to
Speaker 2: experience more than what their hometown had to offer.
Speaker 7: Upon graduation, between let's say eighty four and eighty five
Speaker 7: eighty six.
Speaker 4: We did a lot of traveling.
Speaker 7: And when I say we, I mean the guys that
Speaker 7: I eventually opened up the Music Institute with George Baker
Speaker 7: shade a mirror when we started traveling in the mid
Speaker 7: eighties to Chicago to FRANKI Knuckles's private parties.
Speaker 4: The Paradise Garage in New York was underground, the Music
Speaker 4: Box was underground.
Speaker 2: It was during their trips to clubs in cities like
Speaker 2: Chicago and New York that Alton, George and Shay cultivated
Speaker 2: their musical taste.
Speaker 7: We were just club kids, you know, going into clubs
Speaker 7: two three o'clock in the morning, coming out the next day,
Speaker 7: just dancing.
Speaker 4: So that was just amazingly beautiful.
Speaker 2: Alton, George and Shay spent those formative years partying across
Speaker 2: the country. They learned about emerging styles of music, They
Speaker 2: kept up with new fashion trends, and saw how much
Speaker 2: more vibrant and spectacular their nights could be. They found
Speaker 2: themselves on the dance floors of some of the legendary
Speaker 2: clubs we'll explore later on in this series, listening to
Speaker 2: new music at Paradise Garage in New York and dancing
Speaker 2: until the morning at Warehouse and the Music Box in Chicago.
Speaker 2: But when the sun came up and they went back
Speaker 2: to Detroit, they realized that they just couldn't find a
Speaker 2: club that compared to what they'd seen during their nights
Speaker 2: partying and other cities across the country. So they went
Speaker 2: back home to Detroit determined to start their own club.
Speaker 3: They had a vision to have an incredible club, incredible music,
Speaker 3: incredible sound, and bringing people together from all walks of life,
Speaker 3: because that's what they saw in Chicago. In New York was.
Speaker 7: Just an old nod to what we had experience in
Speaker 7: that search for the ultimate dance and the ultimate sound
Speaker 7: system and the ultimate party.
Speaker 4: We started doing private parties, private law parties.
Speaker 2: Then after months of searching for a venue, they decided
Speaker 2: to lease a place in downtown Detroit. But back then
Speaker 2: nothing was happening downtown.
Speaker 7: We're talking Detroit in the mid eighties, doom and gloom,
Speaker 7: high unemployed.
Speaker 8: Then at five o'clock in the afternoon after work day,
Speaker 8: downtown Detroit was just like an abandoned city, just nothing.
Speaker 2: It was filled with boarded up stores and abandoned buildings.
Speaker 2: But Alton and his friends saw potential in one of
Speaker 2: the buildings they.
Speaker 4: Toured, thirteen fifteen Broadway.
Speaker 2: It was an old, abandoned four story shoe store. It
Speaker 2: didn't look like much.
Speaker 4: I mean when we opened the door, there was still
Speaker 4: shoes there from the thirties and the forties and the fifties,
Speaker 4: like in the basement.
Speaker 2: But underneath the shoes and boarded up windows was a
Speaker 2: building that would become a sanctuary for Detroit's musicians.
Speaker 4: My name is Alan Oldham. I am originally from Detroit, Michigan.
Speaker 2: Alan was a radio DJ in the eighties when the
Speaker 2: Music Institute first opened up.
Speaker 9: I was doing a radio show at the time and
Speaker 9: it was on WDETFM in Detroit. For most of my
Speaker 9: I was on from midnight to three am on Friday nights.
Speaker 9: So what I would do basically, I would get off
Speaker 9: from my radio show and I drive up Second Avenue
Speaker 9: in Detroit and drive straight to the club. And around
Speaker 9: three am is when it was really beginning to pop.
Speaker 2: The second floor was the heart of the Music Institute.
Speaker 2: It's where the DJ booth lived. From up there, the
Speaker 2: DJs could see the whole dance floor.
Speaker 3: Up there.
Speaker 2: They were like kings performing alchemy. With each new track
Speaker 2: they played, spinning gold on the decks.
Speaker 4: The DJs used to kind of hold court.
Speaker 2: But they weren't untouchable. In fact, if you tried, you
Speaker 2: could get close enough to the booth to watch their
Speaker 2: every move.
Speaker 3: For me, it's a marriage between the DJ and the patron.
Speaker 3: So it's being a close and personal with him because
Speaker 3: for me it's so magical. I like to see the
Speaker 3: DJ because I like to see his technique, his style,
Speaker 3: his skill set.
Speaker 2: For Sierra, it was all about exchanging energy with the DJ.
Speaker 3: DJs will tell you when no one is dancing, they
Speaker 3: feel that they are not moving the needle. You can
Speaker 3: always find me right at the DJ booth dancing up
Speaker 3: close and personal because every time they moved that needle,
Speaker 3: I feel it. I feel their house on the needle.
Speaker 3: I feel what they're doing, and my own energy connects
Speaker 3: with them and I'm letting them know, hey, I feel you,
Speaker 3: I see you because I'm dancing.
Speaker 2: Alan spent all of his time at the Music Institute
Speaker 2: on the dance floor too.
Speaker 4: I was a dancer on the dance floor.
Speaker 2: Everybody was and what people wore to the Music Institute
Speaker 2: reflected that the style was what.
Speaker 4: We in Detroit called dress to sweat.
Speaker 2: Because people can to the Music Institute to dance.
Speaker 4: Everybody was dancing. It wasn't no kind of wallflowers.
Speaker 3: You know, we didn't really have conversation at the Music Institute.
Speaker 3: You stayed on the dance floor and it was packed.
Speaker 2: And that was our mission, and Sierra took her mission
Speaker 2: very seriously. For me, it was being on that dance
Speaker 2: floor and sweating my hair out from the time I
Speaker 2: got there until the time I left. Like there were
Speaker 2: times when I would dance and it felt as if
Speaker 2: no one else was there for me.
Speaker 3: The DJ, the sounds in the dance floor.
Speaker 2: Freedom was the hallmark of the dance floor.
Speaker 3: We were like children in a playground, in a dark
Speaker 3: playground where it was all about the sound the music.
Speaker 3: I would do this dance where I leaped across the room.
Speaker 3: I would start off doing this running right, and then
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I would leap and it was
Speaker 3: as if I was floating in the air.
Speaker 2: I still cannot believe that I could leap that far. Eventually,
Speaker 2: the dancing caught up with her. My arthritis is not
Speaker 2: that serious and my headcats.
Speaker 3: But when I think about a little ache and pain
Speaker 3: that I have in my body, that started with the
Speaker 3: Institute because we dance so hard.
Speaker 2: The Music Institute was the place that welcomed young black
Speaker 2: DJs in and gave them a space to showcase their
Speaker 2: new sound to a pat house, including three DJs that
Speaker 2: would soon pioneer a revolutionary new genre, the Belleville Three.
Speaker 2: You see, these DJs weren't playing the R and B
Speaker 2: music that people were used to. They were experimenting and
Speaker 2: creating a brand new sound, techno, a music genre that
Speaker 2: would go on to be played all around the world.
Speaker 2: While the founders of the Music Institute were being exposed
Speaker 2: to music during their club visits to Chicago and New York,
Speaker 2: there was another group of friends falling in love with
Speaker 2: actually making music.
Speaker 10: This is Juan Atkins, the originator of techno music.
Speaker 2: Wan grew up in Belleville, a city next to Detroit.
Speaker 10: I went to high school in the late seventies and
Speaker 10: I was making music. Add during my high school years
Speaker 10: for me, was just music. Music, all music, sleep, eat,
Speaker 10: breathe music.
Speaker 2: Wan had always loved music, and during his teen years
Speaker 2: he started experimenting with more electronic sounds, and.
Speaker 10: I was making music with a core MS ten synthesizer.
Speaker 10: The cool thing about the core MS ten is that
Speaker 10: you could use white noise and pink noise and manipulate
Speaker 10: the filter to make like hick drum sounds, snare sounds,
Speaker 10: high hat sounds, so you could make a whole drum
Speaker 10: kit just with does sent.
Speaker 2: Influenced by house music and electronic bands like Craftwork, Wand
Speaker 2: started to find his own sound. Detroit was an industrial
Speaker 2: city filled with factories, technology, and machines, and the soundscape
Speaker 2: of the city inspired musicians like Wan to put an
Speaker 2: electronic twist on their music.
Speaker 11: So these sounds didn't sound like the normal instruments that
Speaker 11: we were accustomed to.
Speaker 4: Took the assembly line machinery and made music.
Speaker 2: Out of it, revolutionizing the sound of dance with new technology.
Speaker 2: Techno harkened back to the city's industrial past and tapped
Speaker 2: into a futuristic vision for what it would become.
Speaker 10: Techno music was a futuristic we weren't planned by any woulds.
Speaker 2: A new genre had been born, and Juan Atkins, alongside
Speaker 2: his friends and fellow DJs Kevin Sanderson and Derek May,
Speaker 2: were its founding fathers.
Speaker 10: I met Kevin and Derek in high school. We went
Speaker 10: to a high school called Belleville High School.
Speaker 2: They grew up together and started making music in Belleville,
Speaker 2: so they went on to become known as the Belleville Three,
Speaker 2: the three DJs who gave birth to techno. The most
Speaker 2: legendary nightclubs launched careers. They give musicians a home to
Speaker 2: experiment in a wide open space filled with people who
Speaker 2: just want to dance. And the Music Institute did exactly that.
Speaker 4: But I mean it was our clubs, So this is
Speaker 4: where we cut our team.
Speaker 2: The Music Institute was instrumental to the birth and growth
Speaker 2: of techno because the three of them were all regulars there.
Speaker 2: In fact, Jan, Kevin and Derek all spent time as
Speaker 2: is it in DJs at the club.
Speaker 4: Eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty nine.
Speaker 7: Those guys were pretty much all already doing what they
Speaker 7: were doing. They were already making the music. Some things
Speaker 7: had already been released. Nah, they were making the name
Speaker 7: for themselves.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 8: The sound was being pushed out there, but the Music
Speaker 8: Institute was able to catapult and was a catalyst for
Speaker 8: becoming that.
Speaker 4: So yeah, Music Institute was very, very very integril. I
Speaker 4: think it's biggest legacy was just giving.
Speaker 7: Technol a platform and pushing that sound forward and giving
Speaker 7: those artists a way to have their voices heard through
Speaker 7: their music.
Speaker 2: One and the rest of the Belleville three cut their
Speaker 2: teeth at the Music Institute. It was the place where
Speaker 2: they tried out new songs, honed in their sound, and
Speaker 2: experienced what it was like to play their own songs
Speaker 2: to a crowd.
Speaker 4: They came and saw it full circle from the studio
Speaker 4: to the club.
Speaker 2: Smart as they stood behind the DJ booth, they watched
Speaker 2: people dance to the music they'd spent years making, and
Speaker 2: knowing that with the right song they could get the
Speaker 2: whole room moving. Here Sierra again.
Speaker 3: Those three gentlemen brought such a force when they played.
Speaker 3: They were bold, they were brash, they were confident. These
Speaker 3: young men were setting a chart, blazing a trail that
Speaker 3: I know, darn will that they didn't realize what they
Speaker 3: were doing back then.
Speaker 2: Kevin Sanderson, who was one of the founding members of
Speaker 2: Inner City, went on to score number one hits with
Speaker 2: songs like good Life and Big Fun, which I know
Speaker 2: personally I have danced to a million times and heavily
Speaker 2: influenced my early productions. And Juan Atkins, who was a
Speaker 2: member of Cybertron and released music under the name Model
Speaker 2: five hundred, went on to start his own record label.
Speaker 3: It's been an incredible journey for me to watch these
Speaker 3: young black men evolve the way they did from the
Speaker 3: Music Institute.
Speaker 2: The Music Institute gave them a place to cultivate their
Speaker 2: musical style, an experiment on the way to becoming the
Speaker 2: musicians they are now. But back then they were just
Speaker 2: young black men doing what they loved, and so were
Speaker 2: the clubbers who were dancing in the midst of it all.
Speaker 3: I was just a young woman dancing my heart away
Speaker 3: at the Music Institute. When I got off the work
Speaker 3: and the midnight hour struck, I knew where I was
Speaker 3: going to be on a Friday and a Saturday, and
Speaker 3: that's all that mattered. And it was just love, pure energy,
Speaker 3: you know, floating across the dance floor. The Music Institute
Speaker 3: was only open for eighteen months. Like so many other
Speaker 3: incredible clubs, it was deeply loved, but in the end
Speaker 3: they weren't making enough money to pay the bills. So
Speaker 3: the Music Institute celebrated its final night in November nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty nine. Alan can still remember it vividly.
Speaker 4: It was the most crowded it had ever been. I
Speaker 4: remember Derek was the DJ, and he played Pacific State
Speaker 4: by Itaway State. He played it like two or three
Speaker 4: times during the course of the night. If you know
Speaker 4: the song, I mean it's you know, it's got the
Speaker 4: saxophone parts in it. It's the final night of the club,
Speaker 4: so that means it's kind of a funeral song as well.
Speaker 4: That's what always will hit me.
Speaker 2: The club had only been in their lives for eighteen months,
Speaker 2: but it had really meant something to the clubbers who
Speaker 2: spent so many of their nights there.
Speaker 3: I was there dancing and we all cried when it
Speaker 3: was over. When the lights went out, we cried.
Speaker 2: But while that final song felt like an ending, the
Speaker 2: last night at the Music Institute wasn't a funeral.
Speaker 4: It was one of those things where it's meant to
Speaker 4: just come in and make its impression and influence a generation.
Speaker 5: Without Detroit dance music, I don't see dance music as
Speaker 5: being complete. Techno gives us the completion of what America
Speaker 5: brought to the dance floor.
Speaker 2: Techno was born in Detroit, but there weren't enough people
Speaker 2: telling that story. Christian vowed to keep it alive, so
Speaker 2: he directed a documentary feature about the birth of techno
Speaker 2: called God Said give them drum Machines.
Speaker 11: So just over the years, I had enough AMMO to
Speaker 11: wear by the time I empowered myself to put a
Speaker 11: camera in my hand, that this would be one of
Speaker 11: the first stories that I would be able to tell.
Speaker 2: The richness of growing up in Detroit and being surrounded
Speaker 2: by innovative young black men gave Christian and others like
Speaker 2: him the inspiration to chase their dreams, and the legacy
Speaker 2: of the Music Institute continues to inspire the next generation
Speaker 2: of young detroiters. Here's Sierra again.
Speaker 3: And when I think about our young artists today right
Speaker 3: here in Detroit, whether they're DJs or producers, songwriters, for me,
Speaker 3: what I see is them just following something that's inside
Speaker 3: of them, that's saying, here, this is what you came
Speaker 3: here to do, and when you do that, you're bound
Speaker 3: to be successful. You're bound to be heard, you're bound
Speaker 3: to be known.
Speaker 2: Some of the world's greatest nightclubs are great because of
Speaker 2: the people who went there, the cultural movements they started,
Speaker 2: or the DJs they introduced to the world. By becoming
Speaker 2: a home for three of the pioneering DJs that created techno,
Speaker 2: the Music Institute's musical legacy carries incredible weight, but what
Speaker 2: made the music Institute. Great was that it inspired a
Speaker 2: generation of young black people to believe that they could
Speaker 2: achieve beyond what they could see.
Speaker 4: It was all black kids, you know, it was all
Speaker 4: you know, black men, young black men, and they just
Speaker 4: put all this stuff together. Our DJs, you know, broke
Speaker 4: this music. I'm very proud of that fact.
Speaker 2: In the next episode, we're gonna make our way over
Speaker 2: to New York City to dance Atyria, the iconic club
Speaker 2: where New Yorkers found a place to escape and celebrate
Speaker 2: life in the midst of one of the city's most
Speaker 2: turbulent decades. The History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs is
Speaker 2: produced by Neon HUMMDIA for London Audio and iHeartRadio for
Speaker 2: London Audio. Our executive producers are Paris Hilton, Bruce Robertson
Speaker 2: and Bruce Gersh. The executive producer for Neon Humm is
Speaker 2: Jonathan Hirsh. Our producer is Refiro, Faith Masurua, Navanni Onto
Speaker 2: and Liz Sanchez are our associate produce users. Our series
Speaker 2: producer is Crystal Genesis, Our editor is Stephanie Serrano. Samantha
Speaker 2: Allison is our production manager, and Alexis Martinez is our
Speaker 2: production coordinator. This episode was written by Rufio Faith Masarua
Speaker 2: and fact checked by Katherine Newhen. Theme and original music
Speaker 2: by Asha Ivanovich. Our sound design engineers are Sam Beer
Speaker 2: and Josh Han. I'm your host Alternate Ay and we'll
Speaker 2: see you next time. On the history of the world's
Speaker 2: greatest nightclubs.