Detroit's Music Scene
March 11, 2024 8:52 AM Subscribe
Motor City's Burning: Detroit from Motown to the Stooges [1h, 2008, BBC] Is a look at the history of Detroit through the lens of music, from John Lee Hooker to Eminem. It's a really interesting scope through which to view this city.
I'm a huge MC5 and Stooges fan and found this a great watch!
posted by AJaffe at 11:10 AM on March 11
posted by AJaffe at 11:10 AM on March 11
Looking forward to seeing this, and hoping it sheds light on an oddity nodded at by Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker: "Detroit has produced three of the most prominent white rap acts of all time: Kid Rock, Eminem, and Insane Clown Posse, the cult-favorite duo. But, despite the fact that Detroit is now more than 80 percent black, the area has never produced a major African-American hip-hop star." (That's from a 2012 profile of Kid Rock & I think it's still true, though I bet J Dilla is better known now than he was then.) Given the range and importance of Black music to come out of Detroit, that's wild to me.
posted by miles per flower at 11:44 AM on March 11
posted by miles per flower at 11:44 AM on March 11
Detroit has produced three of the most prominent white rap acts of all time: Kid Rock, Eminem, and Insane Clown Posse, the cult-favorite duo
The first and third of these are not, actually, from Detroit (a distinction that matters very much locally, as cultural and socioeconomic borders track the city's).
posted by praemunire at 12:30 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]
The first and third of these are not, actually, from Detroit (a distinction that matters very much locally, as cultural and socioeconomic borders track the city's).
posted by praemunire at 12:30 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]
Haven't had time to watch it yet but I'm hoping it doesn't overlook Detroit's techno scene.
I know I should have taken more advantage of the musical culture in Detroit when I lived in SE Michigan but at least I sampled bits and pieces here and there. Back in the early 90s I was living in Ann Arbor and for a few years worked a contract sysadmin job at Ford in Dearborn. For me it was a 40 mile drive to get from home to downtown Detroit to a venue like St. Andrews, a bit closer to get to some of the clubs in suburbs like Ferndale, so I didn't go to a show every weekend, just the ones in which I had a strong interest. I am still saddened by recalling the Monday-morning office-kitchen conversations I had with co-workers from the outer burbs:
Anyway - someone who still lives in that part of the country, please cheer me up by telling me that the Oakland County set don't still see going into Detroit at night as a death sentence. It was always very sad to me.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:34 PM on March 11 [5 favorites]
I know I should have taken more advantage of the musical culture in Detroit when I lived in SE Michigan but at least I sampled bits and pieces here and there. Back in the early 90s I was living in Ann Arbor and for a few years worked a contract sysadmin job at Ford in Dearborn. For me it was a 40 mile drive to get from home to downtown Detroit to a venue like St. Andrews, a bit closer to get to some of the clubs in suburbs like Ferndale, so I didn't go to a show every weekend, just the ones in which I had a strong interest. I am still saddened by recalling the Monday-morning office-kitchen conversations I had with co-workers from the outer burbs:
Coworker: How was your weekend?Eventually I did find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time and was robbed, abducted at gunpoint, and driven away by three men who locked me in the trunk of my car, but that happened not in Detroit but in Ann Arbor, the upper-middle-class college town they saw as safe, so it really didn't fit the narrative they were expecting and in any case is a longer story when told properly.
Me: Fun. I saw a great band at $(venue).
Coworker: (incredulously) You went downtown at night?
Me: (scratching my head, trying to recall if I had forgotten spending time in post-apocalyptic hellscape, but drawing a blank) Yeessss.. As I recall I had a pretty good dinner, too..
Anyway - someone who still lives in that part of the country, please cheer me up by telling me that the Oakland County set don't still see going into Detroit at night as a death sentence. It was always very sad to me.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:34 PM on March 11 [5 favorites]
It's amazing to me that no one's done a documentary on the Electrifying Mojo, the man who most helped me escape what would probably otherwise have been a career as an entirely dreary classical music snob.
posted by praemunire at 12:43 PM on March 11 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 12:43 PM on March 11 [3 favorites]
The first and third of these are not, actually, from Detroit
True, but Romeo is “not Detroit” in a way that’s very different from Oak Park’s “not Detroit”.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 1:05 PM on March 11
True, but Romeo is “not Detroit” in a way that’s very different from Oak Park’s “not Detroit”.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 1:05 PM on March 11
True, but Romeo is “not Detroit” in a way that’s very different from Oak Park’s “not Detroit”.
True, and yet. The gap between Detroit and (Romeo and Oak Park) is, and especially was (*), bigger and along more axes than the gap between Romeo and Oak Park. In my opinion, if your parents were scared to cross Eight Mile Rd. after dark, you don't get to wear Detroit valor, and, back in those days, that was equally true of Oak Park white trash and Romeo white car dealership owners.
(*) Oak Park appears to be experiencing the now well-recognized depressing 21st-century trajectory of the inner-ring suburb right now.
posted by praemunire at 1:20 PM on March 11
True, and yet. The gap between Detroit and (Romeo and Oak Park) is, and especially was (*), bigger and along more axes than the gap between Romeo and Oak Park. In my opinion, if your parents were scared to cross Eight Mile Rd. after dark, you don't get to wear Detroit valor, and, back in those days, that was equally true of Oak Park white trash and Romeo white car dealership owners.
(*) Oak Park appears to be experiencing the now well-recognized depressing 21st-century trajectory of the inner-ring suburb right now.
posted by praemunire at 1:20 PM on March 11
not every rapper seeks the number one title okay I'm lying there but, Mercedes, get some fine music and went on to law school.
posted by clavdivs at 2:08 PM on March 11
posted by clavdivs at 2:08 PM on March 11
But, despite the fact that Detroit is now more than 80 percent black, the area has never produced a major African-American hip-hop star.
This is interesting, but what level of popularity makes someone a "major star?" Like if it is defined as "nationally far more famous than E-40," then basically only NYC and its surroundings, LA and its surroundings, Houston and its surroundings, Atlanta, and Virginia have produced more than one mega-star. Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, these are all cities with large Black populations that have produced few to no rap "major stars" in the sense of household names. You get an MC Hammer or a Kanye West or a Pitbull here and there over the years, but not a long list of household names.
And then even before the currently flowering of Michigan rap acts, Detroit could claim Proof, Obie Trice, Royce da 5'9, Danny Brown, and so on, so while it's not producing stars it is producing popular and stalwart rap acts.
posted by kensington314 at 2:25 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]
This is interesting, but what level of popularity makes someone a "major star?" Like if it is defined as "nationally far more famous than E-40," then basically only NYC and its surroundings, LA and its surroundings, Houston and its surroundings, Atlanta, and Virginia have produced more than one mega-star. Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Dallas, these are all cities with large Black populations that have produced few to no rap "major stars" in the sense of household names. You get an MC Hammer or a Kanye West or a Pitbull here and there over the years, but not a long list of household names.
And then even before the currently flowering of Michigan rap acts, Detroit could claim Proof, Obie Trice, Royce da 5'9, Danny Brown, and so on, so while it's not producing stars it is producing popular and stalwart rap acts.
posted by kensington314 at 2:25 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]
I thought it was interesting that the documentary sort of defined a "Detroit Sound" early on with the blues being more of a drone than a real song structure with changing chords, and then it sort of shows how that Detroit Sound worked across the decades in various ways.
I mean, it's not a super-strong thesis drawn out in the piece, but I felt it was a throughline that I wasn't really expecting.
posted by hippybear at 2:30 PM on March 11
I mean, it's not a super-strong thesis drawn out in the piece, but I felt it was a throughline that I wasn't really expecting.
posted by hippybear at 2:30 PM on March 11
Oh also Big Sean is from Detroit and is a big star, or at least was for a few years.
posted by kensington314 at 2:39 PM on March 11
posted by kensington314 at 2:39 PM on March 11
All that is good and much of it great and some of it utterly transcendental but it simply cannot be complete without the Detroit Cobras
posted by thecincinnatikid at 7:07 PM on March 11
posted by thecincinnatikid at 7:07 PM on March 11
It's amazing to me that no one's done a documentary on the Electrifying Mojo
This has absolutely been on my wish list for my show for years, but it never quite seems to come to fruition. Also, he himself is extremely media-shy and getting quite on in years now. I would love to have a few days with him in a quiet location.
posted by mykescipark at 5:23 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
This has absolutely been on my wish list for my show for years, but it never quite seems to come to fruition. Also, he himself is extremely media-shy and getting quite on in years now. I would love to have a few days with him in a quiet location.
posted by mykescipark at 5:23 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
The rap part was sadly like 90 seconds at the end of the hour. Man am I sorely disappointed.
>Detroit could claim Proof, Obie Trice, Royce da 5'9, Danny Brown, and so on
MC Breed (RIP), and also Bo$$ (RIP). Crazy that they both died of renal failure. Kid Rock and ICP are nowhere on the overall hip hop ledger. A lot of people don't know Black Milk, but he's also from the D and is an incredible producer and rapper.
Top Authority is an unknown group out of Detroit that had a great album I was in love with for a summer, decades ago.
posted by cashman at 3:30 PM on March 14
>Detroit could claim Proof, Obie Trice, Royce da 5'9, Danny Brown, and so on
MC Breed (RIP), and also Bo$$ (RIP). Crazy that they both died of renal failure. Kid Rock and ICP are nowhere on the overall hip hop ledger. A lot of people don't know Black Milk, but he's also from the D and is an incredible producer and rapper.
Top Authority is an unknown group out of Detroit that had a great album I was in love with for a summer, decades ago.
posted by cashman at 3:30 PM on March 14
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posted by mkb at 9:36 AM on March 11 [1 favorite]