Underground Resistance was founded explicitly to do everything that established Detroit labels had failed to do

Mills describes how he and Mike Banks surveyed what Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, and Derrick May were doing — licensing music broadly, moving toward more commercial sounds, pursuing major-label deals — and concluded those were the wrong paths. UR was founded on the opposite principles: no broad licensing, constructing their own operating model, maintaining independence. Neither Mills nor Banks had label-running experience, so early mistakes and financial losses were part of the learning curve. The label’s identity was rooted in resistance to commercialisation at a moment when Detroit techno’s originators were being pulled toward mainstream sounds.

Examples

Virgin pressuring Kevin Saunderson for commercial music; Juan Atkins making commercial tracks; Derrick May ‘trying to sing’ — all cited as what UR deliberately rejected.

Assessment

State the three specific failures of established Detroit artists that Mills and Banks identified, and explain how each shaped one UR operational decision.