GW0708 Cover final copy - German World

“
After the war, the German entertainment
industry was destroyed.The German people
were robbed of their culture, putting an
American head on it. I think we are the first
generation born after the war to shake this off,
and know where to feel American music and
where to feel ourselves.We cannot deny we
are from Germany. ”
Ralf Hütter, Kraftwerk
At any rate, it started with the identical
twins Bill and Tom Kaulitz, born on
September 1, 1989, in Leipzig, who have
played music together since their childhood.
In 2001 at a show in their hometown
Magdeburg they met Gustav Schäfer and
Georg Listing with whom they first founded
the band Devilish. After Bill Kaulitz had
participated in a children’s star search TV
show “Kinder-Star-Search,” the band was
discovered in 2003 by music producer
Peter Hoffmann. Sony BMG signed Tokio
Hotel, and Hoffmann had the band members
take singing and instrument lessons.
But shortly before the release of their first
album, Sony canceled the contract. In
2005, Universal Music Group took heart
and signed Tokio Hotel. Although US critics
commented that during live performances
the music lacked a bit of the studio-produced
quality, in the US the album
“Scream” made it to number 39 on the official
Billboard charts, in Canada even
reaching number six.
Germany’s first electronic pop musicians
Kraftwerk could also be spotted on US
stages this year. They have played a role in
the German and international music scene
for forty years. As the inventors of electronic
pop music and techno who also
helped pave the way for hip hop in
American ghettos, they have already long
since earned their place in music history.
In 1968, Ralf Hütter of Krefeld and Florian
Schneider-Esleben of Düsseldorf found
Organisation, the forerunner to Kraftwerk.
In early 1970, they set up Kling-Klang
Studio and start the music project
Kraftwerk. The first album “Kraftwerk” is
released on the newly founded Philips
label and makes it to number 30 on the
German LP charts. The song “Ruckzuck” is
selected as the theme song for the series
“Kennzeichen D.” In 1973, the album
“Autobahn” is released, which is regarded
as the first electronic pop album. It is first
with “Autobahn” that Kraftwerk receives
gold status in many countries throughout
the world, and the single with the title song
climbs US Billboard charts.
Already shortly after its 1977 release, the
title song of the sixth album “Trans Europe
Express” becomes popular in New York
ghettos and the blueprint for the basic
rhythm of a new music style, hip hop. This
is followed by “Wir sind die Roboter” and
some albums in the eighties when groups
like Depeche Mode and Ultravox are also
clearly influenced by the Kraftwerk sound.
At the start of the 2008 Kraftwerk tour that
ran from April to the end of June with concerts
in the US (Minneapolis, Milwaukee,
Denver and Indio), the band consists of
Hütter, Schmitz and Hilpert as well as
Stefan Pfaffe (video operator). To date,
there is no official response to the question
of whether Schneider will also be
absent from the three concerts in Poland
in September 2008.
Comments on MTV.com
after Tokio Hotel’s stop in
New York on May 5, 2008:
“They are amazing. They showed me that
music doesn't have to be complex and full
of technicalities for it to eat my heart
alive. I prefer the German versions of
their songs, but their music is amazing to
me either way”. – Alisa
“They are certainly the most interesting
up and coming music act in recent years,
but I wish you'd stop referring to their
fans as 14 year old hysterical girls or
tweens. I am in my 30s and not
particularly hysterical”. – Val