Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter, Drexciya, Mike Banks, James Pennington and Robert Hood. Artists like Terrence Parker and his lead vocalist, Nicole Gregory, set the tone for Detroit's piano techno house sound.

The three individuals most closely associated with the birth of Detroit techno as a genre are Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, also known as the "Belleville Three". The three, who were high school friends from Belleville, Michigan, created electronic music tracks in their basement(s). Derrick May once described Detroit techno music as being a "complete mistake ... like George Clinton and Kraftwerk caught in an elevator, with only a sequencer to keep them company."

While attending Washtenaw Community College, Atkins met Rick Davis and formed Cybotron with him. Their first single "Alleys of Your Mind", recorded on their Deep Space label in 1981, sold 15,000 copies, and the success of two follow-up singles, "Cosmic Cars" and "Clear", led the California-based label Fantasy to sign the duo and release their album, Enter. After Cybotron split due to creative differences, Atkins began recording as Model 500 on his own label, Metroplex, in 1985. His landmark single, "No UFO's", soon arrived. Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and Robert Hood also recorded on Metroplex. May said that the suburban setting afforded a different setting in which to experience the music. "We perceived the music differently than you would if you encountered it in dance clubs. We'd sit back with the lights off and listen to records by Bootsy and Yellow Magic Orchestra. We never took it as just entertainment, we took it as a serious philosophy," recalls May.

The three teenage friends bonded while listening to an eclectic mix of music: Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Bootsy, Parliament, Prince, Depeche Mode, and The B-52's. Juan Atkins was inspired to buy a synthesizer after hearing Parliament. Atkins was also the first in the group to take up turntablism, teaching May and Saunderson how to DJ.

Under the name Deep Space Soundworks, Atkins and May began to DJ on Detroit's party circuit. By 1981, Mojo was playing the record mixes recorded by the Belleville Three, who were also branching out to work with other musicians. The trio traveled to Chicago to investigate the house music scene there, particularly the Chicago DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles. House was a natural progression from disco music, so that the trio began to formulate the synthesis of this dance music with the mechanical sounds of groups like Kraftwerk, in a way that reflected post-industrialist Detroit. An obsession with the future and its machines is reflected in much of their music, because, according to Atkins, Detroit is the most advanced in the transition away from industrialism.

Juan Atkins has been lauded as the "Godfather of Techno" (or "Originator"), while Derrick May is thought of as the "Innovator" and Kevin Saunderson is often referred to as the "Elevator"

What distinguishes Detroit Techno from its European variants is the way it more directly works the interface of funk and futurism ... but the desire to play up the genre's futuristic side often means the second half of the equation gets dropped.

One of Techno’s innovators, Juan Atkins, references how P-funk, also known as Parliament-Funkadelic, was one of the first musical groups to influence his techno/futuristic sound and aesthetic (for example the group's Mothership Connection stage-prop and album along with their unique cover art on other albums). The founding of Techno, being partially rooted in the intergalactic visions of funk, speaks to arguments from Schaub’s work that “‘Techno also represented an idealistic vision of music and a future culture that could exist free from the limitations, prejudice, and preconceptions that the Detroit urban environment manifested.” In this context, Techno strives not to fixate on gatekeeping the genre for Black people. Instead, its objective was to illuminate the role of music, vibrations, industrial sounds, and club culture to unify all people under the possession of techno music.