The Electrifying Mojo

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

The Electrifying Mojo, born Charles Johnson in Little Rock, Arkansas, is an American radio personality and DJ in Detroit. He began his career at local stations in Little Rock, worked at the University of Michigan's radio station after his service in the air force and ended up at the Detroit station WGPR in 1977. Later he was at WJLB and WHYT, in Toledo and at WMXD, and returned to WGPR in the 1990s. Sometimes he also wrote music, under the name C. J. Surge.

Music and breakthrough

His programme ran from 1977 until the mid-1980s and was broadcast on stations aimed at a black audience. Even so, Mojo played a mix of soul, funk, new wave, hip hop and rock. He introduced artists such as Prince, Parliament-Funkadelic, The B-52's and Kraftwerk to the Detroit audience. On JLB he announced the landing of the mothership every evening at ten o'clock. He liked to play records right to the end, without interfering, and sometimes played the music of Prince for hours, including album tracks and B-sides. He also made themed programmes, for example about symphonic music by black composers or about Duke Ellington.

Influence

His influence is found above all in Detroit techno. Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, the three men regarded as the founders of that music, named Mojo as an influence on their development, as did Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills and Carl Craig. What they heard in him was a radio without genre boundaries: European electronics next to American funk. That gave young musicians in an industrial city an open view of what a machine and a groove could achieve together.

Listening

In School of Rock

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

• Mixtape 8: Electronic Music^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Detroit techno GenreIn Belleville near Detroit, Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson grew up with the radio show of The Electrifying Mojo, who played Parliament alongside Kraftwerk.