Techno is a form of electronic dance music that had its early beginnigs in the second half of the 1970's in Western Europe, particulary in Germany, the Netherlands and France. Later it became prominent in Detroit, Michigan during the mid-1980s with influences from Chicago house, electro, New Wave, funk and futuristic fiction themes that were prevalent and relative to modern culture during the end of the Cold War in industrial America at that time. Following the initial success of Detroit techno as a musical culture — at the very least on a regional level — an expanded and related subset of genres in the 1990s emerged globally.
The term "techno" is derived from the word technology. Music journalists and fans of the genre are generally selective in their use of the term, careful not to conflate it with related but distinct genres, such as house, trance and hardcore. At the same time, "techno" is commonly confused with general terms such as electronic music and dance music. Techno is characterized by heavy use of percussion and a minimal amount of melody.