Kraftwerk – How They Changed Music

This week I have been studying and listening up on the electronic music pioneers, Kraftwerk. For most of Kraftwerk’s career, particularly at the beginning, their music was years ahead of the times. During the early years of their career, they branded themselves on showing the world the good side of Germany. They developed strong concepts that they would use for the entirety of their albums, which were inspired from some of the innovations that Germany gave to the world like the Autobahn. Kraftwerk’s image for their music was almost scientific – their instruments at the time almost required you to be an electronics engineer. They dressed in clean shirts with ties and were almost distant to the point where they want the music to speak for itself. In time, they even got to the point where they had robots on stage “performing” instead of themselves. In order to get into the spotlight of popular music though they had to get a bit drastic and embraced some of the darker past of Germany. For their record, The Man Machine their cover featured the group dressed in red with ties starring off into the distance, which give off the impression of communistic Germany. This caused a spark in the community and got people talking, which in turn brought in more listeners. After this endeavor, the band continued to drift away from the public eye, but continued to release albums.

Kraftwerk’s release of Autobahn in 1974 was their first concept album to gather interest from listeners. It drew inspiration from Germany’s own Autobahn, which was one of the innovations that Germany brought into the world. Their next release in 1975 was Radio-Activity. It was the first album that Kraftwerk self produced and holds its own strong concept: nuclear radiation and the radio. In 1977, Kraftwerk released what eventually became diehard Kraftwerk fan’s favorite album, Trans-Europe Express. You can somewhat gather the concept of this album based on its title: trains. It featured “train-esque” rhythms and was one of the first of Kraftwerk’s ventures in more melodic electronic music. The 1978 release of The Man Machine was Kraftwerk’s jump into the public eye. Diehard Kraftwerk fans say that The Man Machine was their “sellout”, but nonetheless, it is the album that made Kraftwerk’s career. It was a much more bolder album. The cover features Kraftwerk dressed in red, which was a big change from their previous grey suits on Trans-Europe Express, and it talked about having communistic overtones, which is what got people talking about the album. After having much success with The Man Machine, in 1981 Kraftwerk got back to their roots with Computer World. Computer World’s niche was a take on the belief that electronic music required larger than life instruments, but in reality, you can make it with something the size of a handheld calculator.

Through Kraftwerk’s career, we’ve watched them grow and push the limits of what we thought was sonically possible and pioneered a genre that today is one of the most popular and ever-growing. One of the biggest influences that Kraftwerk had on pioneering the electronic music was their pursuits of concept albums. Most of their albums featured specific concepts and turned these everyday images that most people don’t think twice about into a sonic landscape. This crafting of landscapes is one of the most important traits in electronic music today. But perhaps Kraftwerk’s biggest contribution to pioneering this genre, however intentional or unintentional, was to let the music speak for themselves. For pretty much all of Kraftwerk’s career they more or less dressed up as scientist with their grey suits and ties. Not exactly the image you have come to mind when listening to Trans-Europe Express. Another factor that lead to this was their simplistic stage presence. They were never flashy on stage and almost seemed distant. They even had robots performing for them at one point. This is a trait that I feel like has carried through the electronic music scene: it’s about the music and not the act.

Not being a huge electronic music fan, I find it hard to relate to Kraftwerk’s music. But there is no denying what they’ve done for the genre and for music as a whole. In a time where no one could even conceive the idea of electronic music, they made it happen and in time created the genre themselves. And it’s this idea that makes acts great: they find something that has ever been done before and put everything they have into it until it catches fire and spreads. In a time and place where it seems like everything that could be done musically, has been done, it makes this sort of task seem impossible. But that’s music. You can never predict it and you just have to be open to see the inspiration and take full advantage when it hits.