A Sense of Doubt blog post #2463 - How Kraftwerk Made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Musical Monday for 2111.15
Just a share today about one of my favorite bands.
Happy to see them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their immense influence on our modern musical landscape and all those who play in it.
https://www.openculture.com/2021/11/how-kraftwerk-made-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame.html
How Kraftwerk Made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The word “seminal” does a lot of work in expressions like “seminal band/album/track, etc.” Yes, it’s an adjective denoting “majorly influential,” even “essential.” It’s also an adjective relating directly to the male reproductive system. The conceptual use of the term does not necessarily exclude women, who can perfectly well be said to “seed” artistic movements. But it does suggest that creativity is an inherently masculine act. To take a broader view, we could say that art is non-binary; it includes all of the generative principles involved in the act of creation, including gestation, birthing, and nurturing new art forms.
In this vein, we might call German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk a “seminal matrix” of musical activity, an economy of creative work led by two fathers — Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter — who midwived a techno/electro revolution, and — indirectly — through early spin-off projects like NEU!, an experimental post-punk/New Wave revolution.
The best known of the “Krautrock” bands to emerge in the 1970s, early versions of Kraftwerk included in its ranks German producer Conny Plank (unofficially) as well as drummer Klaus Dinger, and guitarist Michael Rother, both of whom went on to play in the aforementioned NEU! and “seminal” avant-garde bands like Harmonia and La Düsseldorf.
In its early, anarchic phase, “Kraftwerk’s music neither referenced nor evoked the robotic,” writes Simon Reynolds at NPR. “They started, in the final years of the 1960s, as post-psychedelic progressives — long hair and all. (Watch their first recorded gig in 1970 here.) In 1968, Hütter and Schneider met at the Academy of Arts in Remscheid, near Düsseldorf, where they studied piano and flute, respectively. Sharing an interest in improvisation and avant-garde electronics, as well as a fondness for The Velvet Underground, the Doors and the multimedia provocations of Fluxus, they joined with three other musicians and recorded the album Tone Float under the name Organisation.”
This early avant-garde phase continued for a time, but once Dinger and Rother left and were replaced by Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos, Kraftwerk began its unlikely climb up the charts, and into the hands of remixers and DJs everywhere, with 1975’s Autobahn. “That is the point at which they went from a krautrock curio to a world-historical force,” Reynolds writes, “when the single edit of the 24-minute title track became an international hit in 1975.” The song retains some instrumental elements from the band’s previous incarnations — “twinkling guitar and wafting flute feature alongside synth pulses and drum machine.”
But the melding of man and machine was well underway. “Crucially, it was music stripped of individualized inflection and personality” — not only were Kraftwerk beyond 70s gender stereotypes, they were charting the course for the post-human before the term had any currency. “We go beyond the individual feel,” Schneider told Sounds magazine. “We are more like vehicles, a part of our mensch machine, our man-machine. Sometimes we play the music, sometimes the music plays us, sometimes… it plays.” Kraftwerk may have played German stereotypes for humor in music videos and live performances, but their detachment was no act — their approach from the late 1970’s onward was entirely the opposite of rock and roll’s self (indulgent)-expression.
Why, then, does Kraftwerk belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Just inducted this year, their presence is truly indisputable. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say, as the Hall of Fame does, that they “are the foundation upon which all synthesizer-based rock and electronic dance music is built…. Kraftwerk’s influence can be heard in the work of David Bowie and Brian Eno, the synth-pop of Depeche Mode, the electronic-rock integration of U2, the ‘robot rock’ of Daft Punk, the production techniques of Kanye West, and in countless EDM and dubstep artists.”
This is just to name a tiny sampling of the musicians influenced by the perfectionistic German foursome. The case can and has been made that for the sheer breadth of their influence, Kraftwerk is more important than even the Beatles to the history of popular music, for rather than mastering and transforming the music of the 20th century’s first half, they invented the rock and roll of the future. See many more classic Kraftwerk videos at this YouTube channel.
Related Content:
The Psychedelic Animated Video for Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” from 1979
Kraftwerk’s First Concert: The Beginning of the Endlessly Influential Band (1970)
The Case for Why Kraftwerk May Be the Most Influential Band Since the Beatles
Kraftwerk’s “The Robots” Performed by German First Graders in Adorable Cardboard Robot Outfits
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
Kraftwerk are the foundation upon which all synthesizer-based rock and electronic dance music is built. Founded in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, the group was part of a new wave of musicians in Germany exploring the intersection of rock & roll and the avant-garde. Working from their self-made Kling Klang Studio they conceived and produced all the band’s music. After three early experimental releases, their fourth album Autobahn (1974) established the beginning of something new. The 22-minute title track took the listener on an electronic musical journey and represented an innovative use of technology through its amalgamation of synthesizers, vocals and vocoders, traditional instrumentation, and elaborate multitrack recording. Kraftwerk’s 1977 album Trans-Europe Express established their presentation as a synthesized quartet, and the title track featured some of the funkiest grooves and synthetic sounds ever put on wax. New York City’s burgeoning hip-hop community quickly latched on to the album, and DJ Afrika Bambaataa based his hip-hop classic “Planet Rock” (1982) on Kraftwerk’s melodies beats.
The following years secured Kraftwerk’s place as both musical innovators and master songwriters. The albums The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981) and Techno Pop (1986) demonstrated Kraftwerk’s prescient powers of prediction, presenting a future founded in technological innovations years before it was a reality. The band established the blueprint for modern electronic music (including Chicago house and Detroit techno) – without them it simply would not exist. Kraftwerk have been sampled widely, from New Order’s use of “Uranium” in their masterpiece “Blue Monday,” to artists as varied as JAY-Z, “Always Be My Sunshine,” and Coldplay, “Talk.”
Kraftwerk’s influence can be heard in the work of David Bowie and Brian Eno, the synth-pop of Depeche Mode, the electronic-rock integration of U2, the “robot rock” of Daft Punk, the production techniques of Kanye West, and in countless EDM and dubstep artists. Kraftwerk are entirely unique – they have produced Number One chart success with their song “The Model,” and were invited to perform for a series of multi-media 3-D performances of their catalogue albums 12345678 at the Museum of Modern Art NYC and the Tate Modern London with their famous robots in recognition of their contributions to avant-garde art. Kraftwerk have been, and will always be, “Music Non-Stop.”
Selected discography: “Ruckzuck,” Kraftwerk (1970) • “Tanzmusik,” Ralf und Florian (1973) • “Autobahn,” Autobahn (1974) • “Showroom Dummies,” “Trans-Europe Express,” Trans-Europe Express (1977) • “The Robots,” “Neon Lights,” The Man-Machine (1978) • “Pocket Calculator,” “Computer Love,” Computer World (1981) • “Techno Pop,” “Musique Non-Stop,” Electric Café (1986) • “Radioactivity,” The Mix (1991) • “Aéro Dynamik,” “Tour de France,” Tour de France Soundtracks (2003)
Inductees: Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider, Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flür
Influences: The Beach Boys, The Velvet Underground, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Legacies: David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Daft Punk
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2111.15 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2327 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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