Belleville High School

01 / The story of this place

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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, three teenagers at Belleville High School, about thirty miles west of Detroit, bonded over Kraftwerk, Parliament-Funkadelic and the B-52s: Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Atkins was the first to buy a synthesizer and began teaching the other two to DJ, and the trio's experiments, carried into Detroit's clubs and radio mixes after graduation, grew into Detroit techno, one of the most influential electronic music movements of the late twentieth century. Decades later the three reunited for international tours billed as The Belleville Three, cementing the suburb's name in dance-music history. The original school building the trio attended has since been replaced; Belleville High School continues to operate today as part of Van Buren Public Schools at a newer campus on West Columbia Avenue.

1. Where Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson met as teenagers
2. The friendship that grew into Detroit techno in the early 1980s
3. The trio later toured internationally as The Belleville Three
4. The original building is gone; a newer campus serves Van Buren Public Schools today