German rock: the history and legendary performers. Germany is rightly considered the No. 3 rock country in the world of music. There is enough evidence to prove this statement. The land of Schiller and Goethe has given birth to the greatest number of famous rock and heavy metal bands after the unattainable by this parameter USA and Great Britain.
It was here that such musical styles as:
- Kraut rock,
- power metal,
- industrial.
It is in Germany that Europe’s largest open-air rock festivals are held: Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Deichbrand and Wacken Open Air. Finally, in the XXI century, the German language, on the wave of success of modern bands: Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Megaherz, Lacrimosa, Oomph! – has become the second most popular among rockers and metal musicians in many countries around the world.
Rock music under the brand Made in Germany emerged in the mid-1960s under the principal influence of Anglo-Saxon music – rock and roll, rhythm and blues, beat, surf, rockabilly.
As early as the beginning of the next decade, distinctive bands emerged, “diluting” the restraint of British performers and the “bluesiness” of Americans with the “proud Teutonic spirit.
In certain styles, such as progressive rock, a special prog-rock scene was formed in Germany, which later played an important role in the evolution of this music and the formation of related styles, such as alternative rock, postrock and prog-metal.
The birth of German rock
New music entered Germany in the early 1960s and quickly captured the minds of much of the local youth. The point of entry was the port city of Hamburg: the local scene at the time was divided between several famous clubs, with The Beatles themselves performing in some of them.
The first foreign tours of the Liverpool Four and other British bands gave a certain impetus to the Hamburg public’s interest in rock’n’roll and beats. In addition, it was in this city that records by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and other rock ‘n’ roll pioneers, brought back by sailors on transatlantic voyages, were distributed most rapidly.
Curiously enough, this story was repeated in other European countries. The beginnings of rock music in the form of records by American artists reached the Old World through large port cities (Liverpool in England, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Gothenburg in Sweden).
It all started with Beatlemania, contests to identify local The Beatles with the bands The Rattles and The Lords. Then, like mushrooms after the fall rain, numerous amateur bands began to emerge.
At the end of the decade, new styles attracted the interest of professional musicians, leading to the appearance of the first serious bands. Finally, in 1968, the first significant German rock festival took place in Essen.
The names of the artists who took part in it are unlikely to seem familiar to today’s music lovers. Much more valuable for the world rock music as a whole was a movement that emerged in Germany in the late sixties.
The unusual mixture of the standard sound of the bands of that time with the elements and structure of electronic music was called Krautrock. This original direction combined previously unmixed things: the ambient sound of the first synthesizers, pulsating rhythm, instrumental improvisations and a variety of experiments.
In essence, Krautrock resurrected German music culture after the crushing failure of the 12 years of Nazi rule and a certain vacuum that emerged after the end of World War II.
Key figures in crowth-rock were:
- Tangerine Dream;
- Kraftwerk;
- Can;
- Faust;
- Neu! Amon Düül;
- Guru Guru;
- Popol Vuh;
- Yatha Sidhra;
- producers Connie Plank, Dieter Dirks.
This style influenced many artists of electronic and alternative music. Among those who have subsequently noted some continuity of ideas are: Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Laika, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Portishead, Einstürzende Neubauten and others.
In the German charts, starting from 1972 (the album Lonesome Crow), a completely different group reigned. These were the famous Scorpions, known by a number of their songs (Wind of Change, Still Loving You, Send Me an Angel).
From the first record Scorpions deliberately recorded only in English. Photo: wikipedia.org Scorpions band consciously from their very first album recorded only in English.
Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Uli Roth, set themselves ambitious targets – to bring the war-ravaged Germany back into the modern music world and dominate the British and American rock scene.
They succeeded brilliantly after releasing a number of successful albums between 1975 and 1984 – In Trance, Virgin Killer, Taken by Force, Lovedrive, Blackout, and Love at First Sting.
The band, surprisingly, achieved a complete triumph in both America and Japan.
The Eighties: new wave and metal times
The success of Scorpions and the popularity of heavy metal, which replaced traditional hard rock, brought a whole galaxy of new bands from Germany to the world stage. These bands played in different styles, from commercial heavy and power metal – Accept, Helloween, Running Wild, Warlock, to gothic metal, black metal and doom – Pyogenesis, Empyrium, Crematory.
In Germany we also have our own Teutonic Four of thrash metal – Kreator, Tankard, Destruction, Sodom. As opposed to American quartet – Antrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer.
Other popular metal bands from Germany:
- Blind Guardian;
- Gamma Ray;
- Primal Fear;
- Sinner; U.D.O.;
- Mekong Delta;
- Grave Digger.
Another notable musical phenomenon was Neue Deutsche Welle, the new wave. This original mixture of punk, avant-garde, disco and pop music gained a certain popularity in the country in the 1980s.
The first ones – In Extremo, Subway to Sally, Saltatio Mortis, Adorned Brood, Tanzwut – are interesting with modern reworkings of medieval songs and ballads in ancient German and some dead languages.
In the next decade, the German music scene was enriched by various bands and projects in the folk-metal and industrial genres. Photo: Thibault Trillet / pexels.com In the next decade, the German music scene was enriched by various bands and projects in the genres of folk-metal and industrial.
They were particularly successful with live concerts at fairs and historical reconstruction events using pyrotechnics and original period instruments.
German industrial bands such as Eisbrecher, Megaherz, Genocide Organ, Oomph! have achieved international success with their specific composition, characteristic rhythm and provocative lyrics. The top modern German band Rammstein with its charismatic leader Till Lindemann stands out in this list.