(bright music) - It is really odd in a sense that like this music that was, you know, inspired by like Kraftwerk, and George Clinton and the whole Parliament-Funkadelic and Prince was really was shouldn't have worked here.

Really did.

- Yeah.

- You know, I'm actually happened to be friends with Ralph Hooter from Kraftwerk, and he actually told me, he's like, we did not set out to make dance music.

- Yeah.

- They were just playing with synthesizers and drum machines.

- Making noise.

- Yeah, they were just making noise.

And they were like shocked when Mojo started playing it.

And then there was the city in the U.S.

who was like, just all about it and like dancing to it and making it happen.

And that was Detroit.

- Yeah.

- You know, so it was kind of an anomaly, but thank God, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

And those roots, because now it's so much bigger, right?

It's everywhere.

It literally is all over the world.

- Mm-hmm.

- But those roots are important.

And that's what you're trying to, I think, really celebrate and commemorate in the idea of this museum.

And that's really important to us here.

- Exactly.

So, you know, the idea that this musical genre that was created here by African American teenagers has impacted the world in ways that we still are trying to process.

- Yeah, right.

- You go other places in the world and Detroit is literally a genre of Detroit tech.

There was a genre of music.

- Right, right.

- You go in a record store, there's a Detroit tech section, and we are now, you know, 40 years later recognizing that we need to capture stories.

We need to highlight folks.

We need to make sure that we as a city are protecting that legacy.

- Yeah.

- While paying, you know, homage to what's happening now.

And they're preparing for the future, right?

So the Museum of Detroit, electronic Music, AKA modem seeks to do all of that.

- Yeah.

- Right?

We want to make sure that we honor and preserve the history.

There's a lot of people still in this city, who don't necessarily know that Detroit was created here.

- That we did all of this.

- Or the Detroit was created.

- Yeah.

- And that the branches of those roots have seeped through all the electronic music.

So, you know, our impact on hip hop event.

- Yeah.

- You know, when you talk about a producer like J Dilla.

- Yeah, right.

- One of his electronic music songs, one of his techo songs called Plastic Dreams was like huge around the world.

Right, like one of the biggest songs ever, right?

But he was also one of the most revered hip hop producers.

- Yes.

- On the planet.

- Yes.

- His mentor and the person who taught him what to do was Amp Fiddler.

- Yeah, right.

- Who also crossed those lines.

Right?

- Mm-hmm.

- So that's why for me it was important to say that it was electronic music so that we could cover all of that.

- We can get everything.

- We could get everything.

- Yeah.

- And so it really, really is important, I think, to have a physical institution, a physical place where DPS students can come and see pictures and learn history, and say, oh, my God, those people look like me.

- Yeah, right.

- You know?

- Right.

- And this happened where I'm growing up.

- Yeah, and it happened, this guy was from my neighborhood.

- Yeah, right.

- And so I could potentially do that too.

You know, certainly folks like, you know, Juan Atkins, Rik Davis, you know, when they created Cybotron, were not doing it to have a legacy four years later.

- Right, right.

- You know, they were just being created.

- And you never think about that.

You're just thinking about, Hey, this sounds interesting.

- Yes.

And it was a creative outlet.

- I can make this noise, go with this other noise.

- Exactly.

- Now I got a beat, and- - Exactly.

- I mean, it's an incredible sort of genre and that in terms of the creative force behind it, right?

- 100%.

You know these cats were quite a few, at least at the beginning, we were actually really trained musicians.

- Yes.

- You know, playing bass or guitar or drums.

And when this new technology came out, this was like, oh, wait, let's play around with this.

They still had the the musical knowhow.

- Yeah.

- But really wanted to try interpret it a little differently.

So they really weren't experimenting.

- Yeah.

- And creating something that really they didn't have a basis for, right?

This was like they wanted to sound like.

- Right.

- Somebody else.

- Right.

- They were creating something that was really different and new, but that happened to be something that people, especially in their generation, resonated.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Right?

It resonated with them.

- Yeah.

- And so, I mean, again, when you think about not a happy accident, I don't wanna say it was an accident, but when you really think about like what really happened back then, it was super creative.

- [Stephen] Yes.

- It was underground.

And it was something that again, I think spoke to the African American youth in the city of Detroit.

- Yeah.

- In a way that other stuff was not.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, we're still looking for a place for the museum.

Talk about timeline.

- We are actively looking for sponsors and foundational support.

- Yeah.

- Actually hoping that the city will support it in ways.

But we are looking for a new location.

We were part of the a project that got canceled.

- Yeah.

- Or pause.

- Yeah.

- And so we are looking for perhaps a place that is more central, that maybe makes a bit more sense, right?