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Inner City

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Inner City is the project of the Detroit producer Kevin Saunderson and the singer Paris Grey, formed in 1987. Saunderson was born in Brooklyn in 1964 and grew up in Belleville, a suburb of Detroit. With his school friends Juan Atkins and Derrick May he formed the Belleville Three, the group that stood at the cradle of Detroit techno. With Inner City, Saunderson showed that this new, machine-made music could also work as a pop song.

Music and breakthrough

Big Fun began in 1987 as an instrumental track that Saunderson made while he was still studying. The Chicago house producer Terry Baldwin put him in touch with Paris Grey, who wrote the lyrics. Beneath her warm house vocals runs a tight, mechanical beat from the drum machine, with short synthesizer chords. In 1988 the track appeared on the British compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit and in August of that year was released as a single on 10 Records. It reached number 8 in England and number 1 on the American dance chart. The follow-up Good Life reached number 4 in England. Both songs are on the album Paradise (1989), which reached number 3 in England.

Influence

Inner City was the commercial side of Detroit techno. Where Atkins and May made music mainly for DJs and clubs, Saunderson scored in the hit parade. Under other names he also kept making club records, such as Reese and E-Dancer. The grating, floating bass line of Just Want Another Chance (1988), released as Reese, was imitated so often in jungle and drum and bass in the 1990s that this sound is called the Reese bass.

Listening

Listening tip. In Big Fun, notice the contrast between the voice and the machine: Paris Grey sings smoothly and warmly like a house singer, while the beat beneath stays stiff and angular, with short bursts of synthesizer chords. That is techno from Detroit with a pop singer from the Chicago area on top.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Inner City (band
  2. Wikipedia (en): Kevin Saunderson
  3. Wikipedia (en): Big Fun (Inner City song
  4. metrotimes.com
  5. Wikipedia (en): Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit
  6. splice.com
  7. flypaper.soundfly.com
Categories: ArtistsDetroit techno