New Delhi, Nov. 15 -- I was at The Den, a cosy little bar in Mumbai's Bandra, when my phone pinged with an urgent notification. "Juan Atkins, Detroit techno pioneer, has died," it said. I looked up from my phone and swept my eyes over the bar as the news sank in. Sitting at my table were the co-founders of Dialled In Records, a UK label focused on South Asian music, and members of the Mumbai/Delhi art collective Excise Dept. In the background, veteran DJ Chandu was playing tunes on the decks.

At other tables sat other people whose lives revolved around music: an aspiring pop star here, a dance music producer there, a superfan there. It struck me that everyone in that room owed an immense debt of gratitude to the man who died on 31 Octobe...