Juan Atkins, the originator of techno music and a founding member of the electronic music group Cybotron, has died at the age of 64.
Atkins’ talent agency Greensmith Artists confirmed the DJ and producer’s death on social media. Resident Advisor reports that Atkins was found unresponsive in his hotel room prior to his performance Saturday in Mexico City. Atkins was declared dead at the hospital soon after.
Born in the Motor City and raised in nearby Belleville, Michigan, Atkins became synonymous with techno music alongside fellow classmates Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, the “Belleville Three” who are credited as the architects of Detroit Techno, which fused the house music playing in Chicago and the electronic music of bands like Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra.
After initially first performing as a DJ, Atkins formed the electronic music group Cybotron with college classmate Rik Davis in 1980. The duo released one album together, the influential 1983 LP Enter, before splitting up in 1985.
Atkins next formed his own record label, Metroplex, as well as began recording under the moniker Model 500. It was under that name that Atkins released his 1985 single “No UFO’s,” a track credited with bringing Detroit techno across the Atlantic when it inspired the U.K. compilation Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit.
“Juan Atkins invented techno, full stop — he conceived it and named it — and one of its many aspects that he pioneered was the use of multiple aliases for different types of work,” Rolling Stone wrote in 2025 when “No UFO’s” landed on our list of the 200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time.
“Lush and insistent, ‘No UFO’s,’ the first Model 500 12-inch, set the template for the Detroit approach. ‘They make these synthesizers and keyboards with functions that allow you to get as close to a human feel as they possibly can,’ [Atkins said in 1997. ‘I think this is the beauty of Detroit, we were able to put that emotion into our music.’”
“The term ‘techno’ got exploited. I mean, even now, techno in Germany is different from techno in Spain. Here in Detroit everybody loved the music,” Atkins told Rolling Stone in 2024. “Nobody knew that it was techno music. Especially the Black kids in Detroit. All they knew was that this was a new sound. And whatever it was, whatever the frequency makeup was, it just pushed a button somewhere. When it got to Europe, Europe had to give it some kind of title.”
Atkins continued to record under the Model 500 moniker over the next three decades, as well as the aliases Infiniti (for his minimalist techno work, highlighted on the 1998 album Skynet), Audio Tech, and his own name.
Atkins also released albums with fellow electronic music artist like Moritz von Oswald (as Borderland) and toured with May and Saunderson as The Belleville Three in the 2010s.
“Heartbreaking news today. My brother Juan Atkins has passed away,” Saunderson wrote on social media Sunday. “Juan was the originator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included. I’ll never forget how he showed me how to finish my first record, Triangle of Love. That meant a lot to me then, and it still does today.”
Saunderson continued, “We shared a journey that changed music forever, and I’ll always be grateful for his friendship, guidance and everything he gave to our scene.”
“A great DJ is a leader. A mediocre DJ is a follower,” Atkins told Rolling Stone in 2024. “That’s what I try in DJ’ing and making music and presenting music. The public attention span is pretty short, and people are always interested in what’s next. Not so much what happened yesterday. Not so much what’s happening right now. But what’s next?”
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