tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post7643097964601088209..comments2024-02-28T17:50:10.303+00:00Comments on LUCID FRENZY JUNIOR: A STARTER'S GUIDE TO KRAUTROCKGavin Burrowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-69561446771713782232014-07-03T19:26:27.198+01:002014-07-03T19:26:27.198+01:00Though this comment has been left by a clearcut tr...Though this comment has been left by a clearcut troll, I do find the etymology of the name Krautrock an interesting one. <br /><br />Firstly, while German nationality scarcely places anyone in an underprivileged group, it needs acknowledging that British society often exhibits a quite staggering degree of anti-German xenophobia. So to query the term isn't an inherently absurd thing to do. Even when a troll says it.<br /><br />The origins of the term are actually more complex and entangled than is sometimes acknowledged. It is true that the (not my) British press did most to popularise the term. Yet for example the original Amon Duul titled a track from their first album <i>'Mama Duul and the Sauerkraut Band Strike Up',</i> back in 1969. <br /><br />One of the most striking features of this music was its insistence on making American rock music its own, for example in the way vocals would be delivered in German cadences. (Even if often actually sung in English.) At the same time, one of the big drivers of the music scene was the contemporary political scene. And the German student movement was informed at least in part by being the post-war generation, keen to draw a line from those who had come before them. (Actually the line probably looked more like a barricade.) If it's true rock music is built out of generation gaps, Germany then had a pretty hefty generation gap to be going on with. It was a generation who looked forwards or outwards, as an active alternative to taking any inherent pride in German identity. An ironic, detached term for that identity probably suited them. (And that's partly why I think the less iconoclastic side of the scene, bands like Popol Vuh, are better described as kosmische.)<br /><br />Further, I think there's an oxymoronic quality to the name which is something the bands were keen to play up. Even when they didn't identify with the name, which they mostly didn't, they had that spirit. Germans were supposed to be orderly, careful and diligent. They weren't supposed to rock out at all, let alone be the ones ripping up the rulebook of music. And using a more derogatory term for 'German' further emphasised all of that.<br /><br />In short, it was a stereotype they were keen to play up in order to explode. Faust for example were often disciplined and deranged in the very same moment. One time I saw them, they took to barking orders at the audience through megaphones.<br /><br />So, while I don't think I would have invented the term myself, it does in many ways reflect a lot of things going on in that era. Yes, it was chiefly popularised by lazy British music hacks going in for easy stereotypes. But then it was those music hacks who saw the whole spread of bands as a scene, something we now take for granted.<br /><br />And I think the term is widely acknowledged as such. Have you ever heard anyone describe Neubaten or Atari Teenage Riot as 'krautrock'? Of course not! Because the shoe doesn't fit them. They came out of a different scene in a different era.<br /><br />(Further trolling will, incidentally, be deleted. If you consider what's here to be boring then go and read something else.)Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-20859247992641999132014-07-03T11:13:46.414+01:002014-07-03T11:13:46.414+01:00I think the term "kraut" is very racist....I think the term "kraut" is very racist. I know you didn't invent the term, it was created by your sensitive British press (we see phone hacking scandals in the news, wahr?) but anyone who continues to use it is part of the problem. Also your post was very long and boring.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com