Juan Atkins has died. He helped invent techno music.

Juan Atkins, a godfather of techno music (and one of the originators of the name) who emerged from Detroit’s soul and funk factory to create a thrilling form of electronic dance music that sounded both glacial and sizzling, was found dead Saturday in Mexico City. He was 64 years old.

His talent agents, Greensmith Artists, confirmed the death on social media, but did not cite a cause. A family representative said he died in his hotel room before a performance.

Although Mr. Atkins, a DJ and producer, never reached the Billboard charts, he recorded groundbreaking electronic hits that became dance floor anthems. In the techno world, his influence was undeniable.

“Juan Atkins invented techno, period – he conceived it and named it – and one of the many aspects of it that he pioneered was the use of multiple aliases for different types of work,” Rolling Stone noted in 2022, when it listed his 1985 single “No UFO’s,” released under the synth name Model 500, on its list of the 200 greatest dance songs of all time.

Techno went global and flourished in cities like Berlin and Amsterdam, but Mr. Atkins played a crucial role in making his hometown of Detroit a capital of the genre.

He became known in the early 1980s with Cybotron, a revolutionary electronic group that he formed with Richard Davis, poet, musician and Vietnam War veteran.