Krautrock

The tradition & historical record

Krautrock (originally known as kosmische Musik, German for "cosmic music") is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Artists blend elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers, while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music. 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. The term "krautrock" was popularised by British music journalists as a pejorative umbrella-label for the diverse German scene, and although many such artists disliked the term, it subsequently fell into standard usage. Some German and English-language authors remain critical of it. The movement was partly born out of the radical student protests of 1968, 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. The style is sometimes conflated with the more electronic kosmische Musik style that developed in tandem with more rock-influenced acts. ¹

Until around 1973, the word Deutsch-Rock ("German Rock") was used to refer to the new groups from West Germany. Other names thrown around by the British and American music press were "Teutonic rock", "Überrock" and "Götterdämmer rock". The British music press initially used Krautrock as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain. The term derives from the ethnic slur "kraut". "Kraut" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs. The term was originally used by Virgin records in 1972. Various sources claim that "krautrock" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s, either by British disc jockey John Peel or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker, in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following. 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. 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. Its musicians tended to reject the name "krautrock". This was also the case for "kosmische Musik". 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. For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track entitled "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... ¹

Krautrock has been described as a broad genre encompassing varied approaches, but commonly drawing on psychedelia, avant-garde collage, electronic sounds, and rock music, while typically featuring "improvisation and hypnotic, minimalistic rhythms." Los Angeles Magazine summarized the genre as "American psychedelica meets icy Germanic detachment." 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." 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." Some common musical features exhibited by krautrock artists include: ¹

A blend of elements from psychedelic rock with electronic music or avant-garde sources Extended improvisation Hypnotic or minimalistic rhythms, including the common 4/4 "motorik" beat pattern Emphasis on long-form repetition, texture, and drone elements rather than song structure Use of synthesizers and musique concrète techniques A movement away from rock's traditional rhythm & blues roots Despite a common approach and generational attitude among artists, the New Statesman argues that "in truth, no two Krautrock acts sound remotely alike. ¹

Krautrock emerged in West Germany during the 1960s and early 1970s. The music was partially inspired by broad cultural developments such as the revolutionary 1968 German student movement, with many young people having both political and aesthetic concerns. Youth rebelled against both dominant American influence and conservative German entertainment such as schlager music, seeking to liberate themselves from Germany's Nazi legacy in World War II and create a new popular culture. Dieter Moebius, of the bands Cluster and Harmonia, noted that "we were a lot of the times on the streets instead of studying. As young people we were not very proud to be German we were all tired of listening to bad German music and imitations of American music. Something had to happen." ¹

The movement saw artists merge elements of varied genres such as psychedelic rock, avant-garde forms of electronic music, funk rhythm, jazz improvisation and "ethnic" music styles, typically reflecting a "genuine sense of awe and wonder". A core influence on these German artists were rock acts such as Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart and the Beatles. Hapshash and the Coloured Coat's debut album Featuring the Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids (1967) was later regarded as being influential on the early works of Amon Düül, the student commune Kommune 1, and other pioneers of German krautrock. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown on krautrock musicians was also notable. Another significant influence was the work of avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Terry Riley, Tony Conrad, and La Monte Young, as well as the late '60s albums of jazz musician Miles Davis, particularly his jazz fusion work on In a Silent Way (1969). ¹

The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" has been noted for its "proto-krautrock groove". American groups Silver Apples and the Monks were both described by the Guardian as precursors to krautrock, with the former being compared to Can and latter making early use of a "motorik" beat. At the time, the Monks had coined the term "Über-beat" to describe their style, music critic Robert Christgau would later use the phrase "Überrock" to describe krautrock acts. The Godz's "Soon the Moon" and "Permanent Green Light" were also noted as precursors. ¹

Krautr… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Krautrock”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Krautrock is genre of music that originated in Germany in the late 1960s, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 19 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²