WORTE


you are what you perceive teutonic robot kultur schlager-decadance	Pop and Terrorism who we are
Teutonic Robot Kultur Characters of Style looking german: Kraftwerk, the last great modernist group of the twentieth century, as an example how to celebrate one's national clichŽs.

The story of Kraftwerk began just as pop culture was beginning to engage with the wider world on equal terms. At first sight, Ralf HŸtter and Florian Schneider were unlikely recruits to pop's alternative constituency. Both were from comparatively affluent backgrounds, expensively-educated and, indeed, in the midst of formal musical training at a time when pop's enduring mythology - that of raw, untrained talent bracking free from the wrong side of the tracks - was already well-established. Instead of guitars, the pair played organ and flute and though they hung out at concerts, the type of events they preferred were usually sternly avant-garde classical recitals.

During the first two decades of their career, it was often an overlooked fact that Kraftwerk's music contains some overtly political aspects. Though the pristine surfaces voluptuously modern production values of classic albums like The Man Machine and Computer World may be immediatly seductive, they conceal themes which run deeper than the everyday pop conceits of cars and girls.

This, after all, was a group born out of an intellectual, sophisticated background in one of Germany's most cosmopolitan cities: DŸsseldorf. They had been exposed to many of the contemporary artistic climate's most radical theories and would have had more than a nodding acquaintance with the burgeoning counter-culture movement which in Europe had adopted a much more revolutionary tendency than it's american counterpart.

According to one insider, by the time the classic Kraftwerk line-up of HŸtter, Schneider, Bartos and FlŸr had emerged in the early 70's, the atmosphere around the group wasn't dissimilar to that which existed around the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol's Factory. Painters, writers, performance artists, musicians and designers (DŸsseldorf is the fashion capital of Germany) were all part of the loose circle which orbited the band. This was during an immensely exciting period of psychological change in Germany as the first post-war generations struggled to imprint their own identity on mainstream culture. Around DŸsseldorf in particular these changes were also manifested physically - as the national economy moved into its upswing, money funnelled into the city from its surrounding industrial areas banks and financial centres, promoting an unprecendented building programme which transformed the character of the city completely between the late 60's and Germany's eventual post-reunification slump.

Artistic, political and philosophical debate was therefore a common feature of the group's daily experience. Kraftwerk's most obvious political and, at least in terms of pop music, revolutionary act was to make a virtue out of their nationality rather than concealing it under an Anglo-American veneer as most people, specificially the music industry, might have expected. The decision had its roots in a confluence of wider factors, though it's easy to forget that, given the general psyche of post-war Germany, how brave a move it was. Any activity which could be construed in terms of nationalism in any way was still seen as profoundly disturbing and contentious in the context of what was, after all, still fairly recent history. But for HŸtter and Schneider, artistically literate and wellversed in the ways of the avant-garde, this was a sign that they were heading in the right direction. Controversy and outrage have attended the birth of every major artistic development over the last century - from impressionism through Dada and surrealism to abstract expressionism - and certainly some of Kraftwerk's musical heroes at the time, Stockhausen, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Pierre Henry, had attracted their fair share of it. However, a much more fundamental reason existed for the decision not to ape the majority of european groups who adopted pseudo-Anglo-American personalities to get ahead in pop. By using their own language and celebrating their national identity, Kraftwerk were articulating the mood of Germany's post-war generation - it was time to reclaim German culture from the dark shadows of recent history and move foreward...

The story of Kraftwerk began just as pop culture was beginning to engage with the wider world on equal terms. At first sight, Ralf HŸtter and Florian Schneider were unlikely recruits to pop's alternative constituency. Both were from comparatively affluent backgrounds, expensively-educated and, indeed, in the midst of formal musical training at a time when pop's enduring mythology - that of raw, untrained talent bracking free from the wrong side of the tracks - was already well-established. Instead of guitars, the pair played organ and flute and though they hung out at concerts, the type of events they preferred were usually sternly avant-garde classical recitals.
	During the first two decades of their career, it was often an overlooked fact that Kraftwerk's music contains some overtly political aspects. Though the pristine surfaces voluptuously modern production values of classic albums like The Man Machine and Computer World may be immediatly seductive, they conceal themes which run deeper than the everyday pop conceits of cars and girls.
This, after all, was a group born out of an intellectual, sophisticated background in one of Germany's most cosmopolitan cities: DŸsseldorf. They had been exposed to many of the contemporary artistic climate's most radical theories and would have had more than a nodding acquaintance with the burgeoning counter-culture movement which in Europe had adopted a much more revolutionary tendency than it's american counterpart.
	According to one insider, by the time the classic Kraftwerk line-up of HŸtter, Schneider, Bartos and FlŸr had emerged in the early 70's, the atmosphere around the group wasn't dissimilar to that which existed around the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol's Factory. Painters, writers, performance artists, musicians and designers (DŸsseldorf is the fashion capital of Germany) were all part of the loose circle which orbited the band. This was during an immensely exciting period of psychological change in Germany as the first post-war generations struggled to imprint their own identity on mainstream culture. Around DŸsseldorf in particular these changes were also manifested physically - as the national economy moved into its upswing, money funnelled into the city from its surrounding industrial areas banks and financial centres, promoting an unprecendented building programme which transformed the character of the city completely between the late 60's and Germany's eventual post-reunification slump.
Artistic, political and philosophical debate was therefore a common feature of the group's daily experience. Kraftwerk's most obvious political and, at least in terms of pop music, revolutionary act was to make a virtue out of their nationality rather than concealing it under an Anglo-American veneer as most people, specificially the music industry, might have expected. The decision had its roots in a confluence of wider factors, though it's easy to forget that, given the general psyche of post-war Germany, how brave a move it was. Any activity which could be construed in terms of nationalism in any way was still seen as profoundly disturbing and contentious in the context of what was, after all, still fairly recent history. But for HŸtter and Schneider, artistically literate and wellversed in the ways of the avant-garde, this was a sign that they were heading in the right direction. Controversy and outrage have attended the birth of every major artistic development over the last century - from impressionism through Dada and surrealism to abstract expressionism - and certainly some of Kraftwerk's musical heroes at the time, Stockhausen, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Pierre Henry, had attracted their fair share of it. However, a much more fundamental reason existed for the decision not to ape the majority of european groups who adopted pseudo-Anglo-American personalities to get ahead in pop. By using their own language and celebrating their national identity, Kraftwerk were articulating the mood of Germany's post-war generation - it was time to reclaim German culture from the dark shadows of recent history and move foreward...