Electronic Music in Germany

History of German Electronic Music

German electronic music is a broad musical genre surrounding specific styles such as Electroclash, trance, krautrock schranz and techno. It emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has continued to increase in popularity. Originally a minimalistic style of electronic music, it has developed into psychedelic and prog rock aspects, techno and electronic dance music. This music usually uses polyphonic synthesizers, electronic drums, turntables, and drum machines. The musical elements of German electronic music are very specific to the style and artist. German artists experimented and drove the frontier of electronic music. Despite being isolated and largely working independently, they were driven by a common principle of seceding away from American and British rock, pop, and soul archetypes as well as embracing absolute political and emotional self expression through electronically manipulated sounds. Kraftwerk, a famous German electronic band utilizes metronomic melodies, while another band Faust, maintains minimalism by using one two chords or riffs played at high volumes. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing transitory period of legal uncertainty, growth in the network of illegal techno parties in the east exploded. From unused factories, bunkers, empty sections adjacent to the walls remains, youth fused with techno music to form what is argued the first social reunification of Germany. Without a curfew, Berlin clubs and bars did not close. Queer culture thrived at venues like Metropol and tourists from Europe would fly in to participate in Berlin's explosive rave culture of techno, drugs, and fashion. German electronic music also contributed to the 21st century's globalized trend of electronic dance music and fusion into modern pop. However, electronic music was not just a means of recreation, experimentation, and creativity. It helped heal the spirit between Western and Eastern Berlin. Today people come from all over the world to Berlin to experience the nightlife and experience the culture of electronic music.

Kraftwerk - The Robots

German electronic bands

Kraftwerk is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Rald Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered the innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1974 and Karl Bartos joined in 1975, expanding the band. They developed a self described "robot pop" style that combined electronic music with pop melodies, sparse arrangements, and repetitive rhythms, while adopting a stylized image including wearing matching suits.  In 2014 the Recording Academy honored Kraftwerk with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. They late won the Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Album with their live album 3-D The Catalogue at the 2018 ceremony. They were also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

Tangerine Dream is another German electronic band, founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. Tangerine Dream is considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as "kosmische Musik" (cosmic music).  Among other projects, they helped create the soundtrack for the game "Grand Theft Auto V."

Wolfsheim was a synthpop duo from Hamburg that consisted of Markus Reinhardt and Peter Heppner. They are best known for their singles "The Sparrows and the Nightingales" and "Once in a Lifetime." Their lyrics tend to be melancholic. The band was named after Meyer Wolfsheim, a fictional character from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.

Wolfsheim - Once in a Lifetime

Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

Subgenres of electronic music

Electroclash is a style of music fusing 1980s electro and new wave synthpop with 1990s techno and electronic dance with elements of funk and punk. Electroclash primarily uses keyboards, groove boxes, turntables, and computers to produce its tracks. Electroclash encompasses a music culture that is confident and inspires individualist personalities and sexual freedom. 

Trance is a form of electronic dance music, characterized by high rates of beats per minute (120-160), melodic progressive synths and repetitive rhythms. The typical song structure involves mixed layers developing into a build up, a climax and then a release. Trance is mostly instrumental, although vocals can be mixed in. The "Trance" name may refer to an induced emotional feeling, high, euphoria, or uplifting rush that listeners claim to experience or may indicate an actual trance-like state. A writer for Billboard magazine writes, "Trance music is perhaps best described as a mixture of 70s disco and 60s psychedelia."

Schranz is a style of fast and loopy techno electronic music characterized by harsh abrasive machine-like sounds.  Developed in Germany during the late 1990s to early 2000s. Schranz is usually less melodic and is largely percussion oriented, relying on looped, filtering drum patterns with distorted drums, heavy compression, and "whooshing" cymbal sounds. Dj's use schranz records in clubs to boost the mood and the speed of the individual sets. 

Techno is another style that originated in Germany in the early 1980s. It is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute. Artists may use electronic instruments such as drum machines, sequencers, and synthesizers, as well as digital audio workstations. DJ Talla 2XLC started using the term techno to categorize artists such as New Order, Depeche Mode, and Kraftwerk. DJ Talla founded a techno club that served as a spot for electronic music.

DJ Talla2XLC

German festivals that incorporate electronic music

Germany's annual Love Parade was an electronic dance music festival. The first Love Parade consisted of a couple of vans playing techno music for a crowd of about 300 fans but the event soon grew into a festival that attracted corporate sponsorship. In 1997 the crowd size was estimated at over a million people. However in 2010 organizers ended the event after a tragic stampede killed 21 and injured over 500 people.

Mayday is another electronic music festival that is celebrated in Germany. Young people use this opportunity to party. Their motto is "Tanz in den Mai" (Dance into May).

Work Cited

“Electroclash.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Feb. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroclash. 

“German Electronic Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Oct. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_electronic_music#Cultural_significance. 

“Kraftwerk.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk. 

“The Love Parade.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/The-Love-Parade-1688407. 

Schranz - Music Genre - Rate Your Music. rateyourmusic.com/genre/schranz/.

“Tangerine Dream.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Mar. 2023,                                             en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Dream.

“Techno.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno. 

“Trance Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trance_music. 

“Wolfsheim (Band).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Mar. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfsheim_(band). 

Music and Family

My mom grew up in the 80’s and some of the trending artists at the time were Michael Jackson, Madonna, Queen, Bon Jovi, and more. Her earliest memories of music are from when she was a child and every Sunday before church her grandparents would listen to the hymns on the radio as they ate breakfast and got ready for the day. They would continue to listen to the hymns at church and for the rest of their Sunday. Outside of church her earliest memory of music was specifically the song “Hold On Loosely” by 38 Special in which her parents would play on repeat. Growing up her parents would listen to the popular classic 80’s rock hair bands such as Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Guns N’ Roses, Poison, Kiss, and more. At the time, they would mostly listen to these songs on vinyl. My mom really enjoyed the music her parents listened to growing up and she still rocks out to these 80’s hair bands today. As a teen she enjoyed listening to Michael Jackson, Mötley Crüe, Metallica, and Whitney Houston. My grandma loves to tell the story of how when my mom was a teen she knew all the words to “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone-Loc.

As I mentioned today my mom still enjoys listening to 80’s hair bands which is her go to on her car ride to work. She has around a 45 minute commute to work every morning so she loves utilizing that time to listen to favorite music. She spends most of her time listening to music in the car but she also likes to play music on her new JBL Partybox speaker when she's cleaning up around the house. She enjoys most of today's pop artists such as Rhianna, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, and Eminem. One of her favorite songs is “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve and her favorite line from the song is “You’re a slave to money then you die.” She also really enjoys “SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake. She also still listens to Metallica. She loves “Fade to Black” and “Nothing Else Matters.” For my parents wedding my mom walked down the aisle to “Canon in D” which is a pretty popular song to be played at weddings. They played more fun artists at their wedding such as Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson, and Spice Girls. My moms favorite Michael Jackson song is “Billie Jean.” She also really appreciates a cover of “Billie Jean” performed by David Cook. David Cook rose to fame after winning American Idol in 2008.

Bluegrass

Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The name Bluegrass comes from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Typically a bluegrass band consists of four to seven performers who sing while accompanying themselves on acoustic string instruments. Bluegrass combines elements of old-time mountain music, square dance fiddling, blues, gospel, jazz, and popular music. The instruments used include the fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass, and sometimes the harmonica. Bluegrass vocal harmony features two, three, or four parts often with a dissonant or modal sound in the highest voice, a style described as the "high, lonesome sound." Commonly, the ordering and layering of vocal harmony is called the "stack". A standard stack has a baritone voice at the bottom, the lead in the middle (singing the main melody) and a tenor at the top.

Bill Monroe, born in Rosine, Kentucky is considered "the father of bluegrass music." Bill Monroe and his brother Charlie moved to Chicago as adults where they formed a band known as the Monroe Brothers. This band became one of the most popular acts of the 1930s. In 1938, the brothers split and formed their own bands where Bill adopted the name "Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys" for his band which was named after the nickname for his home state of Kentucky. A large region in central Kentucky was sometimes called the Bluegrass region. After experimenting with various instrumental combinations, Bill settled on mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar, and bass for the core of his band. Bill played the fiddle. Earl Scruggs joined the band in 1945 and played an innovative three-finger picking style on the banjo. Lester Flatt joined the band as the guitarist and lead vocals. Chubby Wise joined playing the fiddle and Howard Watts played the upright bass. Some of their popular songs were Big Mon, Uncle Pen, and Wheel Hoss.

Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt formed their own group called "The Foggy Mountain Boys." They included the resophonic guitar or the "Dobro" in their band. From 1948-1969, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs band was a force in introducing bluegrass music to America though national tv. radio, and other appearances. Scruggs wrote and recorded one of the bluegrass music most famous instrumentals, "The Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which was used in the soundtrack for the movie Bonnie & Clyde. By the 1950s, Monroe began referring to his style of music as "bluegrass music," based on his Kentucky roots. Bluegrass bands began forming all over the country and Bill Monroe became acknowledged as "Father of Bluegrass Music." In May 1997, Bill Monroe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of the profound influence of his style on popular music. He is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. In the 1950s rock and roll began to take over the country and bluegrass performers began to fade in popularity. However, by the 1960s, bluegrass music had become infused with new energy as a part of folk music revival. When younger performers started adding elements of jazz, pop, and rock to the traditional country base, bluegrass became "newgrass." Bluegrass tunes often take the form of narratives on the everyday lives of people in which the music came from. This makes their music more personal and relatable. As a traditionally blue-collar, working-class style of music, bluegrass singers tackle concepts like railroading, coal mining, and systemic oppression. 

Another famous bluegrass singer is Alison Krauss. She was born July 23, 1971 in Champaign, Illinois. At 12 years old she won the Illinois State Fiddling Championship and two years later at 14 she signed a recording contract. In 1990, she won a Grammy Award for her third album, "I've Got That Old Feeling." Her first band "Union Station," included her brother Viktor who played bass. Alison was the lead singer. Their song "Two Highways," in 1989 was Grammy Award nominated for Best Bluegrass Recording. 

The Punch Brothers are another bluegrass band consisting of Chris Thile who plays the mandolin, Gabe Witcher who plays the fiddle, Noam Pikelny playing the banjo, Chris Eldridge playing the guitar, and Paul Kowert who plays bass. Chris Thile formed the band in 2006 to record the album, "How to Grow a Woman from the Ground." The band's name comes from the critical line of an earworm jingle that is the centerpiece of Mark Twain's short story "A Literary Nightmare." Their single "Julep" was nominated for Best American Roots Song at the 2016 Grammy Awards. The album reached top 10 on the rock, folk, and bluegrass charts.  In 2018 they released their 5th album, "All Ashore." According to Chris Thile, the album is "a meditation on committed relationships in the present day, particularly in light of the current unsettled political climate." "All Ashore" was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019.

Work Cited:

“Alison Krauss.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alison-Krauss.

“Bluegrass Music.” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200152684/.

“Bluegrass Music.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegrass_music#Vocals.

History of Bluegrass Music |, https://bluegrassheritage.org/history-of-bluegrass-music/.

“Punch Brothers.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Nov. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_Brothers.

Team, uDiscover. “Alison Krauss.” UDiscover Music, 1 Dec. 2021, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/artist/alison-krauss/.

Victrola. “What Is Bluegrass Music?” Victrola, Victrola, 18 Feb. 2022, https://victrola.com/blogs/articles/what-is-bluegrass-music.

Music & Gender

In the music ensembles that I have been to, I have noticed that the stringed and wind instruments are played by mostly women and percussion instruments are played by mostly men. I’ve never thought about why one gender leans more toward one instrument than another until now. I don't really know how a person goes about choosing their instrument as I don't play one myself but I feel a couple different things would influence your choice of instrument. Things such as media, or your favorite artist, or maybe you just randomly chose that instrument because you thought it was interesting. Most men in the US typically play percussion or brass instruments but why? Back in 1788, when the trumpet was first invented, it was widely played in the military. Drums were also used in the military. Thus, the trumpet and the drums were mostly played by men. It also mattered which instrument made you look more attractive. In the 19th century, it was said that brass instruments made men look more attractive and wind instruments such as the clarinet or the flute make a woman look more attractive or “ladylike.” More popular brass instrument players were also male such as Louis Armstrong who played the trumpet. This would give men more of a reason to want to play the trumpet because they have a male figure to look up to. Only 3% of brass players are women. 

“The foundations for which instruments women and men should play were laid already in the Middle Ages,” says Lise Karin Meling. Making large bodily movements when playing string and wind instruments was not very ladylike. A sound that was too strong and too powerful was not for a woman's modest character. A too strong and powerful sound did not agree with a woman’s modest and mild character. Almost every piano composition written in the nineteenth century is written for women and girls. Sitting at the piano is a more graceful position. In earlier times the guitar was another instrument that was “graceful" for women. In 1783, German philologist and composer Carl Ludwig Junker wrote an essay explaining exactly which instruments were proper for women to play. Female musicians could keep their bodies in graceful, feminine poses while playing. Musically, the critics thought, the guitar was also a perfect instrument for women because it was made for “simple, unpretentious music, most of all in a subordinate role as an accompanying instrument.” Joan Jett has been widely recognized for being the lead woman in her band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and the founder of The Runaways which is an all female band. She is a lead guitarist and known as the “Queen of Rock n Roll.”

Sites used:

https://www.stmaryscalne.org/blogs/why-is-playing-the-trumpet-a-male-dominated-profession/#:~:text=The%20trumpet%20is%20an%20instrument,the%20flute%2C%20piano%20and%20violin.

https://kjonnsforskning.no/en/2016/04/piano-best-suited-instrument-female-body

Music & Me

Hello! My name is Britney Michelle Bogan. I am a current sophomore at Converse and I'm majoring in History with a minor in Secondary education. My plan is to teach high school history. Preferably World/European history because that is my favorite. Fun little fact, all of middle and high school my dream was to go to flight school and become a pilot for commercial airlines. It wasn't until I came to Converse that I was inspired by a professor to go into teaching. I grew up here in Spartanburg with my one older sister who attends Coastal Carolina for graduate school. I have two small rat dogs (chihuahuas) named Scooter and Bella. I have a cat but I’m not actually sure what her name is because everyone calls her something different. 

A current song/artist I like right now is Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine. I love so many of her songs, but this one is my current favorite. She released her debut in 2018 and released her first album in August 2020. She gained a lot of attention when she blew up on tiktok June 2020 with her unreleased song "You ruined the 1975." Lizzy has grown so much since 2020, going from just a couple thousand monthly listeners to now over 7 million. In 2022 she was featured in a single with John Mayor. She also recently released a new single for the soundtrack in the new drama series that just released on the 3rd “Dear Edward.” You can really see the growth in her music from her first released single to her now full albums. Her song “Ceilings” continues to gain more listens everyday reaching 47 million total listens and still growing. 

A song that means a lot to me is Colorblind by Counting Crows. I have a special attachment to this song because it's one of my moms favorite songs and she used to play it all the time when I was growing up. Even today she plays this song all the time and I know it’s a special song she will continue to play years and years from now. It was also the first song I learned to play on the piano because I wanted to be able to play it for her. It just makes me smile and think of my mom whenever I listen to it which is why it’s important to me. It's a song I could listen to a million times and never get sick of. 

Some music I don't really connect with is Taylor Swift's new album "Midnights". Which is a little frustrating because I love Taylor Swift but there wasn't a single song on her new album that I connected with. Maybe it's because I'm too nostalgic and she's branching off into a different type of music. I’ve tried listening to this album a couple of different times thinking maybe a different mood will make me like it. However I always find myself skipping through the songs because I’m not interested in them.