We Called It "Progressive"

I started spinning records in 1985. I was a little guy coming up in the game. In Detroit, we were spinning this music that we did not know the genre of. My boy Cecil Shepherd and Terrence Parker said "This music is called Progressive music". Big Jeff on Archdale and Tyrone Smith on Harlow, both DJs, said the same thing "This is called Progressive Music". When we went to Buyrite Records and asked for Progressive, "The Don", Jeff Woodward would go to the wall where there were imports and like labels that bore the music we called "Progressive". We later learned that what we were calling progressive was a miriad of genres ranging from Italo Disco, Miami Free Style, Electro, Pop, and what were the first few House records to make it across I-94 into our local record shops (Chauncey's, Professionals, Buyrite, Damonds, Kingsworld, Detroit Audio, among others). it also included what would be the first Detroit Techno records, but we didn't know that......We Called it Progressive.