Berlin, Detroit, Race and Techno Music
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 9 August 2022
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Tom Smith sets out to research allegations of racism in Berlin’s club scene, he finds himself face to face with his own past in techno’s birthplace: Detroit. Visiting the music distributor Submerge, he considers the legacy of the pioneers Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, the influence of Afro-futurism and the work done in Berlin to popularise techno by figures including Kemal Kurum and Claudia Wahjudi. But the vibrant culture which seeks to be inclusive has been accused of whiteness and the Essay ends with a consideration of the experiences of clubbers depicted in the poetry of Michael Hyperion Küppers.
Tom Smith is a New Generation Thinker who lectures in German at the University of St Andrews. You can find another Essay from him called Masculinity Comrades in Arms recorded at the York Festival of Ideas 2019 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00061m5 and a New Thinking podcast discussion Rubble Culture to techno in postwar Germany https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07srdmh
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC with the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who turn their research into radio.
Producer: Robyn Read
Transcript
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| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
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| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:35.8 | BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:39.5 | Hello, I'm Shahid Abari, and welcome to this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast, |
| 0:44.8 | in which we'll hear an essay from one of the 2019 New Generation thinkers. |
| 0:49.6 | They are early career academics who work with BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council |
| 0:55.6 | on a scheme that turns their research into radio. I was one of the first 10 people chosen for the |
| 1:02.1 | scheme nearly 10 years ago. In this year's essays, you'll hear topics ranging from cleaning, |
| 1:08.1 | clean energy, crime and punishment, and archaeological views of the earth, |
... |
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