Juan Atkins, one of the pioneers of Detroit techno and a huge influence on dance music more widely, has died aged 64.
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Atkins → die → 64
His agency, Greensmith Artists, confirmed the news to the dance music website Resident Advisor, saying that Atkins was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Mexico City prior to a performance there, and was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital.
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Atkins → confirm → hospital
Atkins created a gleaming, mechanistic form of electronic music, first as part of the duo Cybotron and then under the alias Model 500, that could command a dancefloor while also evoking sci-fi fantasias.
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that → create → fantasias
He was the first person to use the term “techno” in tandem with this hard electronic style, pre-empting an entire genre that now stands as one of the pillars of dance culture.
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that → use → culture
Born in Detroit in 1962, Atkins later moved with his family to the rural Michigan suburb of Belleville.
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Atkins → bear → Belleville
“I just wasn’t used to going to school on a yellow bus and living on a dirt road,” he told the Guardian in 2024.
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he → go → 2024
But it was here that he met Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, two junior high schoolmates with whom he formed the Belleville Three, a trio of like-minded musicians sitting at the vanguard of electronic music.
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he → meet → music
Still in high school and utilising increasingly affordable hardware such as the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the Korg MS-10 synthesiser, Atkins formed Cybotron with Richard Davis.
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Atkins → utilise → Davis
“I had a class called future studies, about the transition from an industrial society to a technological society,” Atkins told the Guardian in 2014.
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Atkins → have → 2014
“I just applied a lot of those principles to my music-making.”
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I → apply → making
Equally in thrall to Kraftwerk and Jimi Hendrix, Cybotron’s propulsive yet psychedelic tracks, such as Cosmic Cars and Clear, became dancefloor staples.
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tracks → become → Cars
The duo split in 1985, with Davis drawn more towards rock music.
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Davis → split → music
“I think that was where he wanted to be, in that album-orientated rock [scene],” Atkins later said.
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Atkins → think → scene
Atkins went solo as Model 500, creating other foundational dance tracks such as No UFO’s and The Chase.
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Atkins → go → UFO
In 1985, he also founded his own record label, Metroplex, to release his work.
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he → found → work
Over the years, it also put out material by artists including Anthony Shakir and DJ Bone.
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it → put → Shakir
Throughout the 1980s and beyond, Atkins evoked not just techno-utopian visions, but also more troubling and politicised ones.
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Atkins → evoke → visions
“I make social statements.
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I → make → statements
My lyrics are supposed to make you think about something other than shaking your booty on the dancefloor and falling in love,” he told the Guardian in 2024.
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he → suppose → 2024
By the early 1990s, the techno scene he helped inspire had flourished, and Atkins further finessed his sound with the uptempo project Infiniti later in the decade.
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Atkins → help → decade
The 2000s were less productive in terms of releases, but he formed the duo Borderland with another techno icon, Moritz Von Oswald, releasing two albums in 2013 and 2016.
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he → form → 2013
In 2023, Atkins reformed Cybotron, releasing new music and performing live.
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Atkins → reform → music
By this point, Atkins’s influence had extended far beyond techno, with dozens of artists sampling Clear alone.
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dozens → extend → Clear
Missy Elliott made it the backbone of her track Lose Control, which reached No 3 on the US Billboard chart in 2005.
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which → make → 2005
Saunderson was among those paying tribute to Atkins on Sunday, calling him “a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included”.
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myself → pay → us
The Aporia
