Post 6 Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is the epitome of nerdy electronic sounds combined with the most ingenious engineered computer generated audio artistry that has ever been created by humans. It was Ralph Hutter and Florian Schneider who brought into the group Henning Schmitz and Stefan Pfaffe. The latter two were only studio musicians at first. Kraftwerk invented the application of electronic sound for music. They pioneered years of original music that captured the attention of fans, artists, and producers. Some of their albums were more successful with fans, and others with producers or artists, who found new ways to build on their musical discoveries. Kraftwerk sowed seeds of sounds that would be used by a multitude of different genres incorporating electronics into music, from pop to punk, rock to funk. They very strongly influenced David Bowie, Brian Eno, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, and a myriad of others, and even more (indirectly) up to the present day. Half of Germany was Communist and half was free. They successfully marketed the group in both worlds (usually without them knowing it).

The albums released between 1974 and 1981 were first about Europe and travel. The Autobahn album reached number 5 in the U.S. and Canada, and number 4 in the U.K in 1974. It had influences from, and a slight resemblance to, the Beach Boys. It was very strong conceptually as were the next few albums. They contained themes about trains and electronic vocabulary. The albums were focused a little on them being seen as robotic. The Man Machine, the last of this time period was not as strong conceptually. It would also begin to show that they were not man machines and robotic, but more human. *¹ http://www.veoh.com/watch/v17166226D39Jw7dc

There is a cold, rigid feel of some of the music. Their studio was a large warehouse. *² http://www.veoh.com/watch/v17166226D39Jw7dc They created many of their instruments. This was before synthesizers came out. After a few albums they would be begin utilizing the keyboards that had come into existence. The album covers also portrayed this simple cookie cutter look to amplify their concepts for each album, and the band as a whole. Their stage presence was simple, uniform, and robot like.

I have realized that I have some very strong tendencies toward using electronic music in my music creation. I have realized that I have gained most of my influences from Kraftwerk. I have some German in me as well, so I see the similarities in their thought processes. Some of the music I don’t care for much, but I love a lot of it.