The Development of Popular Music in Germany from 1960-1980

Dimitrios Mylis

After the Second World War, popular music in Germany changed the root of music

history and assisted on the creation of new music genres. The end of the war resulted in a

divided two-part Germany, East and West. Popular music developed in interesting ways in both

sides of Germany; the different political ideologies of the two sides though, let popular music to

develop in different ways. The Eastern side attempted to keep the tradition and the classical

culture of Germany, while on the other side of the wall popular music was becoming influenced

by the United States and Britain (Scaruffi, 2002, chapter: The classics, paragraph 1,2 ). Prior to

1960, musical genres such as jazz, classical and hippies were the main styles of music culture in

Germany. Schlager was the most important characteristic of popular music in all of Germany

but particularly in the East; it became more famous in the middle of 1960 and 1970. In 1960s,

the Avant-garde minimalist music was influenced by US artists, thus creating a kind of

psychedelic music (Baker, German Popular Music). In the early 1970s, a new music genre,

called Krautrock or Komische music, changed the music history of Germany and led to new

music genres from the late 1970s and early 1980s (Cope, 1965, p64)

In the 1960s, Germany was not a part of the worlds rock music, but the appearance of

psychedelic music changed the German music scene. By the end of the 1960s, the American and

British culture, as well as the hippie movement had moved rock towards psychedelia, heavy

metal and progressive rock with social and political lyrics. In 1968, the German student

movement, which was inspired by France and Italy, caused a movement towards collective

awareness. These factors led to the first German rock festival in 1968 in Essen, which the

British Press named it Krautrock. The British rock bands used the American rock style in order

to create music for a different type of audience. On the other hand, most German bands instead

of playing rock music, played psychedelic in an attempt to show the relationship between the

already known psychedelic music in combination with the German electronic music. In the

meantime, there was a parallel Krautrock, known as Kosmische music that took its name from

Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, a record producer and author. The main characteristic of Kosmische music

was the recording of keyboard based electronic instrumental music with an emphasis on static

drones (Scaruffi, 2002, A brief summary). In 1970, Popol Vuh became the first band who used

the electronic synthesizer to create music, and a year later many bands followed like Tangerine

Dream and Faust, who were inspired by U.S West Coast rock and psychedelic music. Tangerine

Dreams music was a mixture of literature, paintings, early forms of multimedia, and Faust

received critical acclaim for its innovative approach and established a devoted fan base. Also,

important bands of the first period of Krautrock, which should not be forgotten, were The Amon

Duul with their 68s folk and chaotic jamming, Guru Guru and their strange mix of psych and

bluesy jamming. Furthermore, producers Conny Plank, Dieter Dierks and Rollf Ulrich Kaiser

played a great role in the development of Krautrock (Blache, An introduction to Krautrock,). In

1973, Rolf founded his own label Die Komische Kuriere and few months later Richard

Branson founded The Virgin label, which was largely responsible for the public success of

Tagnerine Dream, Can and Faust. Virgin signed the Faust tapes due to the success of Fausts

So Far album (Blache, An introduction to Krautrock).

The development of the popular music took a similar route in both parts of Germany,

despite the opposing political systems. Even though American and British influences were being

accepted by the youth, this was not the case for all citizens. In West Germany, some people

admired the American technology, but others believed that American culture was inferior to the

German one (Encyclopedia of Popular Music, p187-192). In East Germany, the government

believed that if American culture leaked into the east, it could possibly wear down their

communist government. By the early 1970s, the rock music of West Germany influenced the

East side and assisted in the creation of the East German rock music, known as Ostrock. On this

side of the wall, music was more classical and traditional and often the lyrics were more poetic

with indirect double-meanings, philosophical challenges and most of the time they were in

German. This style of music was known as Schlager and typical tracks were ballads with a

simple catchy melody or light pop tunes. Amongst a number of bands, Karat and The Puhdys

represented Shlager the most on the East side of Germany (Renft, 2006, Bad boy). Karat was

founded in 1974 in Berlin and they gained a strong audience in West Germany when they

published their album Der blaue Planet (The Blue Planet) in 1982, which became one of the

year's top sellers (Baker, German Popular Music). The Puhdys was a veteran band from the East

side and it was the first band who was allowed to tour in West Germany. Due to the communist

political regime of the eastern side, a lot of music bands like Renft, were censored for the content

of their lyrics, and many of these were banned and dissolved (Shingler, Rocking the Wall).

Moreover, some of the most important music bands of the 1970s were Amon Duul and Amon

Duul ll, Kraftwerk, Neu, Ash Ra Tempel and they had a great career outside of Germany.

In the second half of the 1970s, many popular Krautrock bands lost the support of the

public because of the birth of a new generation of the German rock music, known as new

German wave (Neue Deutsche Welle) (Nathaus K, n.d, Pop music promotion). This genre was

influenced by British punk and developed a German version of punk, known to as the new

German dance music. This was the first unique German music and Krautrock was highly

influential on the development of punk. The lyrics were humorous and in German because it had

already been a characteristic of the East German rock music. Nina Hagen from East Germany,

Falco from Austria and Joachim Witt, were successful internationally in this genre. However,

this new genre was quickly dismissed by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the East

side as subversive and a dangerous phenomenon (Shingler, Rocking the Wall). According to

Patricia Simpson in Britain and the United States punk was seen as a response to unemployment,

to middle-class lifestyles, ethics, and privilege, and to cultural boredom (Simpson, 2000, pp.

129-140). Moreover, Punk was mostly an underground movement. Music bands were doing live

performances in their own garages and they were recording their songs themselves (Shingler,

Rocking the Wall). On the other side of the wall, Udo Lindenberg, who was born in West

Germany, was representing Germany most of the time, but it was time for a change (Udo

Lindenberg). Bands such Lake and Karthago, who were representing German Hard Rock music,

gained global recognition with material in English. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the

provocative spirit of British punk transformed into an industrial sound, by a music band in West

Berlin, known as Einsturzende Neubauten. The new sound became a trend and was spread all

over the world and German pioneers of electronic music such as Karlheinz Stockhausen have

had an international influence on Avant-garde and contemporary music. Finally, in the late 1970s

and early 1980s, a band named Scorpions, was the prime movers of Heavy Metal genre, despite

that the band was created in late 1960s, which is characterized by emphatic rhythms, loud

distorted guitars, vigorous vocals and dense bass-and-drum sound (Encyclopedia of Popular

Music, p187-192).

Taking everything under consideration, the history of German music changed radically

when German bands tried to mix their music culture with influences from the U.S. and Britain.

Combined with the German movement and the first rock German festival in Essen in 1968,

resulting in the creation of a new genre, called Krautrock or Komische music. Despite that

Germany was broken in two parts, managed to develop popular music equally well in East and

West side. The use of electronic synthesizer to create music is a term for the world music history

because German electronic music gained global influence and had main role on the foundation of

many music bands and genres (Nathaus, n.d, Pop music promotion). Germany developed its own

music style and achieved to keep its tradition through Schlager (Siegmund, 1972, Schlager in

Deutschland). The German influence in Europe was really evident in 1970s, because of

Krautrock. In England, Brian Eno worked with German musicians of Harmonia and Cluster

bands, and achieved to reach his music into an aquatic ambient style. In France, Richard Pinhas

from Heldon music band, explored electronics, molecular machines in a hypnotic repetitive

mood. In France, Tangerine band published tracks that had similarities with German bands that

were associated with acoustic music. Moreover, in their album Cottonwoodhill (1971), they

made a connection between psychedelic space rock and schizo-bluesy improvisations, which fit

with the most German Krautrock bands. The mix between contemporary music, psychedelic rock,

folk, jazz, avant-garde and experimentation can be described as the classic German sound. After

a decade, young music bands and labels from all over the world brought Krautrock back to life

by composing music with glorious old music heroes and by propelling tribute music bands of

this period (Blache, Introduction to Krautrock).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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