Krautrock
Krautrock (also called kosmische Musik, German for "cosmic music"[9][10][11]) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[10] It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources.[12] Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers,[13][12] while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music.[14] Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II and Harmonia.[5]
Krautrock
- Kosmische Musik
- elektronische Musik
- Teutonic rock
Late 1960s, West Germany
The term "krautrock" was popularized by British music journalists as a humorous umbrella-label for the diverse German scene,[15] and although many so-labeled artists disliked the term,[16] it is no longer considered controversial by German artists in the 21st century, although English-language authors remain critical of it.[17] The movement was partly born out of the radical student protests of 1968,[18] as German youth rebelled against their country's legacy in World War II and sought a popular music distinct from traditional German music and American pop.[10] The period contributed to the development of ambient music and techno,[8] and influenced subsequent genres such as post-punk, new-age music, and post-rock.[5][19]
Krautrock has been described as a broad genre encompassing varied approaches,[10][20] but commonly drawing on psychedelia, avant-garde collage, electronic sounds, and rock music, while typically featuring "improvisation and hypnotic, minimalistic rhythms."[12] Los Angeles Magazine summarized the genre as "American psychedelica meets icy Germanic detachment."[21] Melody Maker described the style as "where the over-reaching ambition and untethered freakitude of late '60s acid rock is checked and galvanised by a proto-punk minimalism ... music of immense scale that miraculously avoided prog-rock's bombastics.”[5] AllMusic described it as expanding on the territory associated with art rock and progressive rock, but diverging from the American and British groups' emphasis on jazz and classical elements in favor of "a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll."[13]
Some common musical features exhibited by krautrock artists include:
Despite a common approach and generational attitude among artists, the New Statesman argues that "in truth, no two Krautrock acts sound remotely alike. Compare the dreamy synthesiser washes of Tangerine Dream with the alien noise collages of Faust or the psychedelic funk of Can."[28] However, a common feature is the "motorik" beat: the 4/4 beat often used by drummers associated with krautrock,[26] characterised by a kick drum-heavy, pulsating groove, that created a forward-flowing feel.[26] The motorik beat was used by Can in the song "Mother Sky", by Neu! on their debut album, and by Kraftwerk in the song "Autobahn" on their album of the same name,[29] later being adopted by other krautrock bands. It has been widely used in many different styles of music beyond krautrock.[30] According to XLR8R, the term krautrock is often used by critics to signify the "mesmerizing motorik rhythms pioneered by Can and Neu!", but contested that "they represent merely a tiny fraction of the music that emerged from Germany during krautrock's Golden Age".[15]
Etymology[edit]
Until around 1973, the word Deutsch-Rock ("German Rock") was used to refer to the new groups from West Germany.[35] Other names thrown around by the British and American music press were "Teutonic rock", "Überrock"[36] and "Götterdämmer rock".[37] West Germany's music press initially used Krautrock as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain.[37] The term derives from the ethnic slur "kraut". "Kraut" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs.[37]
The term was originally used by Virgin records in 1972.[38] Various sources claim that "krautrock" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s, either by British disc jockey John Peel[39] or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker, in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following.[40] The first use of the term however, was found in a full-page advertisement from Popo Music Management and Bacillus Records promoting German Rock in the UK, in April 1971.[41] The music emerging in Germany was first covered extensively in three concurrent issues of the UK music paper New Musical Express in the month of December 1972, by journalist Ian MacDonald.[42]
Its musicians tended to reject the name "krautrock".[43][37] This was also the case for "kosmische Musik".[37] Musicologist Julian Cope, in his book Krautrocksampler, says "krautrock is a subjective British phenomenon", based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew.[44] For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled "Krautrock", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: "When the English people started talking about krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss... and when you hear the so-called 'krautrock renaissance', it makes me think everything we did was for nothing."[14]