Derrick May

One of techno music's key founders, Derrick May was born in Detroit in 1963 and began early in his life to explore electronic music. Along with his Belleville, Michigan high school friends Juan Atkins

One of techno music's key founders, Derrick May was born in Detroit in 1963 and began early in his life to explore electronic music. Along with his Belleville, Michigan high school friends Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson -- commonly known as the Belleville Three -- May is credited with developing the futuristic variation on house music that would be dubbed "techno" by Atkins.

May's career started in 1987 with the release of a record called "Nude Photo", which helped kickstart the Detroit techno music scene. A year later he was following it with what was to become one of house music's classic anthems, the seminal "Strings Of Life".