German rock

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Deutschrock is a term for German-language rock music that appeared as an independent genre of music with bands like your children and Ton Steine ​​Scherben for the first time in a subcultural environment around 1970 and reached the musical mainstream with Udo Lindenberg in the mid- 1970s . The term has been subject to various changes over time, some of which have also been used as a genre designation. There is therefore no precise description of German rock as such. The only thing they have in common is the German language and the rather rocky orientation of the performers, although this is not always sufficient as an inclusion criterion and pop performers are occasionally included.

definition

In contrast to Krautrock , which describes English-speaking German groups with often psychedelic, long-winded songs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, German rock is characterized by a stronger rock and blues orientation , shorter songs (2 to 5 minutes) and more direct lyrics. In an additional definition, Deutschrock describes the entirety of the corresponding music scene whose bands sing in German.

history

At the end of the 1960s, German bands no longer only “copied” American or British beats, but created their own style, characterized by long improvisations, a heavy sound, experimental sounds and, above all, the spirit of a new attitude towards life. The Essener Songtage 1968 are considered the debut of an independent German rock music. The first West German representatives were the English singing Amon Düül (later individual musicians from this formation were commercially successful as Münchener Freiheit ), Guru Guru , Can , Organization (later Kraftwerk ), Embryo , Tangerine Dream , Percewood's Onagram , on the East German side Reinhard Lakomy , Puhdys , Panta Rhei (later Karat ), Petra Zieger , Klaus Renft Combo , etc. There were also your children from Nuremberg, who for the first time intoned German lyrics to rock music and thus emerged as the first "German rockers" in the true sense, as well as Murphy from Hanover in this genre who later made a name for themselves as Combo Colossale at the time of the NDW.

While the new tones only met with approval from critics and a few avant-gardists at home, Tangerine Dream , Klaus Schulze , Wallenstein , Agitation Free gained star status in France and Italy. Others such as Amon Düül, Epitaph or Can were invited to tour in England. Kraftwerk were the first Germans with a top ten album in the USA.

The commercialization of German rock began with Udo Lindenberg and Wallenstein's title Charline , which was the first German rock song to be featured in the Tagesschau . Deutschrock had left the underground in the mid-1970s and reached the commercial level; the major labels invested in German rock music. Metronome founded the Brain label, Phonogram the Zebra label, Bellaphon launched Bacillus , Intercord started with fried eggs - all labels exclusively for German rock / Krautrock.

The transition between German and Krautrock became increasingly fluid. Bands like Novalis and Karat served both genres to a certain extent. There were points of contact with progressive rock, hard rock, jazz rock and folk. A Marius Müller-Westernhagen , on the other hand, was looking for the transition from German rock music to pop, similar to Udo Lindenberg. Another special feature was the group Ougenweide , which for the first time combined German-language rock music with medieval folklore elements ( medieval rock ).

1980s

In the late 1970s, influences from punk and new wave were added. West German bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten , Interzone , Spliff and BAP set a more rocky counter-trend with the advent of the NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) (although the Neue Deutsche Welle initially defined itself as rock music with the minimalism pop resulting from punk and electronics). The Nina Hagen Band , which was influenced by punk and later became Spliff, as well as the Cologne Zeltinger Band and the Hanoverian Combo Colossale can also be attributed to German rock. In the late 1980s , a new generation of German rock emerged with bands such as Böhse Onkelz , Die Ärzte , Die Toten Hosen and many others, who often relate to punk rock and Oi! leaned on.

In the course of the 1980s - also as a result of the immense international success of the NDW - there was a real German rock boom in Germany and beyond, which was to bring both the existing and many new bands unique successes (some of which continue to this day stop). Herbert Grönemeyer , Wolf Maahn , Heinz Rudolf Kunze , Klaus Lage and many other artists appeared on the scene and gave German rock a new, trendy note. Pop singers like Peter Maffay , Juliane Werding and Gitte became "rockier". Regional greats (such as BAP, the Rodgau Monotones , the Spider Murphy Gang or Schwoißfuaß ) and musicians from Austria (such as Wolfgang Ambros ) with German-speaking dialect rock were also able to establish themselves. In the course of the general commercialization of German-language pop music, the former clay-stone-shards frontman Rio Reiser also made a "second career". Marius Müller-Westernhagen was also able to build on old successes at the end of the decade after a long dry spell and even surpassed them. The highlight of this boom was the German contribution to the Live Aid concert in 1985: the band for Africa with the rock ballad Nackt im Wind (which, however, also included representatives from Schlager, Pop and NDW).

At the end of the decade, German reunification gave the music scene new impetus, and some long-standing GDR bands were "rediscovered" in the West.

1990s

In the 1990s, German rock became more differentiated. The mix of different musical styles had softened the demarcation from other genres - from metal, house and techno to folkloric influences to songwriting and hits. For example, the previously English singing band Element of Crime from Berlin combined rock with chanson, while Stefan Stoppok from Essen combined rock with blues and folk. German hip-hop became socially acceptable and took up “rock elements” in its further development (an early example was the Megavier cooperation ). Other bands such as B. Selig represented grunge . Such a Surge became the most famous German-speaking representatives of rap-rock .

Since the late 1980s, the bands of the so-called Hamburg School , whose main characteristics are demanding to intellectual texts, which often convey a politically very left-wing view of the world, had a certain influence on the development of German rock . Among them, Blumfeld , Die Sterne and Tocotronic achieved the greatest popularity.

From the mid-90s, the Neue Deutsche experienced hardship from bands like Oomph! and Rammstein a strong surge in popularity. In contrast to most other varieties of German-speaking rock, this music, rooted in heavy metal , punk and industrial as well as clear influences from the black scene , was significantly harder and darker and often attracted attention through morbid and provocative texts as well as effective and provocative stage shows and music videos .

With the rise of the multicultural society, music in German-speaking countries also became more eclectic - a lot sounded like it was before and yet new. Furthermore, in this decade one experienced “rock groups from the retort” for the first time, in other words: band projects put together by music labels on the basis of castings.

Developments since the 2000s

From the 2000s the term “German rock” developed into two diverging scenes. On the one hand, "German rock" today means everything that is German-speaking and can be included under the genre term rock. This means on the one hand primarily pop-rock bands such as Tokio Hotel , Juli , Revolverheld , Killerpilze or Silbermond , which achieved considerable success in the mid-2000s and thus caused a new boom in German-language music, but on the other hand they also operate more strongly in the independent sector Bands like Wir sind Helden , Sportfreunde Stiller and Madsen or the Hamburger School bands that have been active since the 1980s.

In addition, the term German rock is also used for bands in the style of the Böhsen Onkelz , whose musical roots lie primarily in Oi! Punk . In order to distinguish it from the other definition of the term, it is sometimes referred to as "New German Rock". After the Böhsen Onkelz was dissolved in 2005, stylistically similar bands (e.g. bar terrorists ) gained popularity. Among the better-known representatives are the South Tyrolean bands Frei, Wild and Untouchbar . Many bands from the punk and skinhead scene also jumped on this bandwagon, such as Toxpack , KrawallBrüder , Betontod or Kärholz . There are also points of contact with the icebreaker or Megaherz for the black scene . Most of the bands in this definition of German rock are politically more of the right-wing and conservative spectrum , with some bands, in particular the Böhsen Onkelz and Frei.Wild, often being accused of being right-wing extremists despite their distancing . Nevertheless, German rock is not to be confused with the openly right-wing radical right- wing rock . There are also exceptions such as the more left-wing bands Broilers or Berliner Weisse , which largely do not feel part of the German rock genre.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b eclipsed feature: The history of German rock | eclipsed Rock Magazine. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b What is German rock? In: Lexicon of Music - Instruments, Genres, Events. September 22, 2011, accessed on October 17, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ Kai Kolwitz: German rock in the eighties: Nothing to laugh about . In: Spiegel Online . September 15, 2008 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 17, 2019]).
  4. ↑ a b Thorsten Hindrichs: Heimattreue patriots and the land of idiots - Frei.Wild and the new German rock scene . In: Dietrich Helms, Thomas Phleps (Hrsg.): Typisch deutsch? Transcript Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8394-2846-7 , pp. 155-160 . (accessed via De Gruyter Online)
  5. ↑ Deutschrock - laut.de - Genre. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b The world of symbols-> Music-> German rock / New German rock / Böhse Onkelz / Frei.Wild-> The world of symbols. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  7. ^ Bayerischer Rundfunk Stefan Sommer: The new German rock: Angry music for angry men by angry men . March 19, 2018 ( br.de [accessed October 17, 2019]).