ghettotech

Former Detroit music journalist for the Detroit Metro Times, Hobey Echlin describes ghettotech as a genre that combines "techno's fast beats with rap's call-and-response."{{Cite book|title=Heaven was Detroit|last=Echlin|first=Hobey|publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=2016|isbn=9780814341223|editor-last=Liebler|editor-first=M.L.|location=Detroit|pages=368|chapter=Inner-City Blues: The Story of Detroit Techno}} It features four-on-the-floor rhythms and is usually faster than most other dance music genres, at roughly 145 to 160 BPM. Vocals are often repetitive, crude, and pornographic. As DJ Godfather puts it, "the beats are really gritty, really raw, nothing polished."{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGFpF6vCV18 |title=XLR8R TV Episode 13: Detroit Ghettotech |date=2007-08-14 |last=XLR8R |access-date=2024-11-22 |via=YouTube}}

Ghettotech was born as a DJing style in the late 1980s, inspired by the eclecticism of The Electrifying Mojo and the fast-paced mixing and turntablism of Jeff "The Wizard" Mills. DJs would mix multiple genres including jungle, ghetto house, hip hop, R&B, electro and Detroit techno.{{Cite web|title=Ghettotech: An Oral History|url=https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/05/ghettotech-oral-history|access-date=2021-01-11|website=daily.redbullmusicacademy.com|language=en}} The music of 2 Live Crew is also cited as influential to the genre.

A Detroit ghettotech style of dancing is called the jit. This dance style relies heavily on fast footwork combinations, drops, spins and improvisations. The roots of jit date back to Detroit jitterbugs in the 1970s.{{Cite web

| url = https://www.vice.com/en/article/detroit-jit-jitterbugs-documentary-stringz/

| title = 2 Jit 2 Quit: In Search of Detroit's Street Dance Culture Past and Present

| website = NOISEY

| access-date = 2016-02-25

| date = 2014-05-28

}} Chicago's equivalent dance style is Juke, where the focus is on footwork dating back to the late 1980s.{{Cite thesis|title="Straight Up Detroit Shit": Genre, Authenticity, and Appropriation in Detroit Ghettotech|url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10?p10_etd_subid=48746&clear=10#abstract-files|publisher=Bowling Green State University|date=2007|language=en|first=Gavin C.|last=Mueller}}

File:Detroit Electronic Music Festival 2002 main stage after dark.jpg, Ghettotech has been able to maintain a regional staple for the event and proves to be persistent in its appearances.]]

Ghettotech was an integral part of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, an annual event. At this festival, Ghettotech serves to be between the techno and hip-hop scenes respectively and allow this younger audience into a side of electronic music not previously capable. This introduction of techno in a conventionally hip-hop centered festival allowed for otherwise unseen experiences for the festival-goers and allowed for more diverse experiences {{Cite web |date=2025-01-07 |title=Making Movement Music Festival A Family Affair |url=https://1051thebounce.com/2025/01/07/movement-festival-a-family-affair/ |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=1051thebounce.com |language=en}}and an in to a different branch of music entirely. As a genre, Ghettotech also proves to show the ability of genres to be ever-changing and the impact that location{{Cite web |date=2023-04-14 |title=Ghettotech: A Detroit Love Story |url=https://officemagazine.net/ghettotech-detroit-love-story |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=Office Magazine |language=en}} can make on a genre as a whole as also seen through Swing, Ragtime, and countless others that thrived on regional popularity.

• Twilight 76
• Databass
• Electrofunk
• Jefferson Ave
• Motor City Electro Company
• Intuit-Solar
• 666aline

{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Michigan|Music}}

• [http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/ghettotech-the-bluffers-guide.htm "Ghettotech, The Bluffer's Guide"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609043657/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/ghettotech-the-bluffers-guide.htm |date=2009-06-09 }} article at Stylus Magazine.
• [http://www.globaldarkness.com/articles/ghettotech1.htm "Ghettotech"] article at Global Darkness.
• [https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/29390472/ghetto-tech-ethan-brown "Ghetto tech"] by Ethan Brown article.
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7yoEAAAAMBAJ&q=dj%2520assault%2520ghetto&pg=PA75 |title=CMJ New Music Monthly |date=December 2000 |publisher=CMJ Network, Inc. |language=en}}

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Category:Music of Detroit

Category:Music of Chicago

Category:Bass (sound)

Category:House music genres