Man against man (song)

head to head
Rammstein
publication	March 3, 2006
length	3:52
Genre (s)	New German Hardness
Author (s)	Rammstein , Jacob Hellner
Label	Universal Music
album	Rose red

Mann gegen Mann is a song by the German band Rammstein . It is the third and final single from the Rosenrot album and was released on March 3, 2006. Lyrically, the song deals with the subject of homosexuality , but is largely open to interpretation.

song lyrics

The text, which deals with the subject of homosexuality, remains largely ambiguous in its statement. This is entirely intentional, as Paul Landers and Oliver Riedel explain in interviews:

“We definitely didn't intend to write a gay anthem. Of course, how a straight person deals with the issue of homosexual people is a critical issue. Maybe we can help to defuse the word 'gay' and put the negative touch into perspective. "

- Oliver Riedel : Until the heart burns

This ambiguity is achieved through artificial elements, which consist of complex, but open to interpretation linguistic images and allusions, for example: “I take my fate in my hand / My desire is manned” or “There is no link missing in my chain / When pleasure comes from behind pulls "

The first four stanzas create a quasi homosexual utopia with partly subtle but also relatively clear allusions. "Little Prince" is a symbol for the penis , but also for the object of desire in contrast to the queen. It is also an allusion to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry . Singer Till Lindemann uses a deliberately soft singing style that differs from his otherwise masculine singing voice. The refrain, performed much more expressively and aggressively, uses everyday phrases, including the phrase “ like and like to join ”.

"Man against man
My skin belongs to the gentlemen
Man against man
Equal and equal like to join"

- man to man

In the further lyrics of the song, homophobia is also made a topic several times . Negative views of homosexuality are also presented in three two-line lines:

"My gender scolds me as a traitor,
I am the nightmare of all fathers"

- man to man

In between there is the rather negatively connoted exclamation “Gay!”.

Christian Diemer, musicologist and Germanist, subjected both the video and the text to a more in-depth hermeneutic examination and came to the following conclusion:

“The text-based finding indicates that contradicting expressions of opinion of different explicity and diffusiveness are staged, partly in clearly assigned text segments, partly on the micro level of ambiguity and metaphors. (...) There are very different degrees of concreteness and diffusion on the one hand and of affirmation and rejection on the other. "

- Christian Diemer : (In) authentic stagings

music

Man against man consists of a riff , which consists of "a small sex jump at the beginning and a retarding syncopated four-in-three rhythm". The basic riff remains throughout the piece and only changes in the design. Dreamy and playful in the stanzas, constructive in two lines and brutal in the chorus. In addition, there is a synthesizer-dominated interlude. A child's laugh and strings are used as samples .

Music video

The video was made under the direction of Jonas Åkerlund in Atelier II of the Havelstudios in the Berlin-Westend district and was shown for the first time on February 2, 2006 on MTV Germany . With the exception of front singer Till Lindemann , the entire band plays naked behind their musical instruments (guitars, drums and keyboards) or - in some scenes - in tight, skin-colored shorts, which, however, are rarely recognizable due to the camera work and cuts. Lindemann stands behind the microphone and wears short, black latex pants and black overknees with high heels . The video alternately shows the band making music and recordings of naked men.

As the video progresses, Lindemann makes a more and more manic impression and a forked tongue comes out of his mouth. The band members are carried over the men's group by the crowd. Lindemann now appears as a demon surrounded by the men who reach up to him, similar to the picture on the cover of the single. Towards the end, the pace of the song increases and the scenes shown become chaotic. The naked men push each other around and Lindemann pulls his hair out. Meanwhile, he repeatedly shouts "gay".

Initially, the video was broadcast in the regular program. After a month, it was only shown on German television between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., as it was only released from the age of 16. In the release certificate of the FSK from March 17, 2006, however, “Released from twelve years” is certified.

As with the video for Depeche-Mode - Cover Stripped , Rammstein use elements of the National Socialist body cult , especially the Riefenstahl aesthetic, but also ironically rework them. Because in the video, bodies of different skin colors act with and against each other. On one side are combat boots , so to see a military aspect, on the other Lindemann wearing in this video patent leather boots. These opposites support the textual design of the song, which also deliberately moves between aversion and glorification.

Chart placements

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	20th (8 weeks)	8th
Austria (Ö3)	42 (2 weeks)	2
Switzerland (IFPI)	66 (2 weeks)	2
United Kingdom (OCC)	59 (1 week)	1

Web links

• Rammstein - Man Against Man (Official Video)
• Rammstein - Mann gegen Mann (Official Making Of)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from Christian Diemer: (In) authentic stagings of homophilia and homophobia in the music video "Man against Man" by Rammstein . In: Dietrich Helms, Thomas Phelps (Hrsg.): Ware staging. Performance, Marketing, and Authenticity in Popular Music . Transcript, ISBN 978-3-8376-2298-0 , pp. 189 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Text print in the album Rosenrot by Rammstein
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christian Diemer: (In) authentic stagings of homophilia and homophobia in the music video "Man against Man" by Rammstein . In: Dietrich Helms, Thomas Phleps (Hrsg.): Ware staging. Performance, Marketing, and Authenticity in Popular Music . Transcript, ISBN 978-3-8376-2298-0 , pp. 195 ff .
4. ↑ havelstudios.de: References , accessed on September 9, 2017
5. ↑ youtube.com: Rammstein official channel, making-of man against man, sequence from 0:50 min. , accessed September 9, 2017
6. ↑ youtube.com: Rammstein official channel, making-of pussy, original sound Richard Kruspe from 2:28 min. , accessed on 9.9.17
7. ↑ Affenknecht.com: Rammstein - man against man text
8. ↑ ra-forum.com: "Man against man" only after 10 pm?
9. ↑ Release Certificate for man to man . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2006 (PDF; test number: 105 324 V).
10. ↑ Christian Diemer: (In) authentic stagings of homophilia and homophobia in the music video "Man against Man" by Rammstein . In: Dietrich Helms, Thomas Phelps (Hrsg.): Ware staging. Performance, Marketing, and Authenticity in Popular Music . Transcript, ISBN 978-3-8376-2298-0 , pp. 200-206 .
11. ↑ Man against man (Rammstein) in the German charts
12. ↑ australian-charts.com
13. ↑ hitparade.ch
14. ↑ Man against Man (Rammstein) in the British charts