Krautrock: German Music in the Seventies

2016 | Music & Dance

Krautrock is a catch-all term for the music of various white Germanrock groups of the 1970s that blended influences of African Americanand Anglo-American music with the experimental and electronic musicof European composers. Groups such as Can, Popol Vuh, Faust, andTangerine Dream arose out of the German student movement of 1968 andconnected leftist political activism with experimental rock music and,later, electronic sounds. Since the 1970s, American and British populargenres such as indie, post-rock, techno, and hip hop have drawn heavilyon krautrock, ironically reversing a flow of influence krautrock originallyset out to disrupt. Among other topics, individual chapters of the book focus on theredefinition of German identity in the music of Kraftwerk, Can, andNeu!; on community and conflict in the music of Amon Duul, Faust,and Ton Steine Scherben; on "cosmic music" and New Age; and onDonna Summer's and David Bowie's connections to Germany.

Ratherthan providing a purely musicological or historical account, Krautrockdiscusses the music as being constructed through performance andarticulated through various forms of expressive culture, includingcommunal living, spirituality, and sound.

Ulrich Adelt (Author)