Krautrock

Lewian wrote: ^ I think that originally the term Krautrock was used in a somewhat derogatory manner (by the anglophone press), and probably applied to everything German and rock with little respect for genre differences (the word "Kraut" says nothing about music). But some in Germany and elsewhere embraced it to refer to the movement you mention, starting to employ some musical criteria as well when it came to classification (Tangerine Dream are not Krautrock now on PA, and probably haven't been listed as Krautrock in many places in the last 40 years; they can be counted into the "movement" though if there ever was a well defined one).

Yes!! Interesting insight on the subject matter!

Yes...logically it could be conceived as an umbrella term..

During the late 60s it began as a movement to make a new Germany. The German youth rebelled against the old Germany..to the extreme measures of burning down buildings in Berlin.

Imagine being a teenager and waking up to the realization that your parents were once Nazis..

They wanted to build a new Germany and they resented the fact that their parents were quiet about Hitler and the Jewish people. They wanted honest answers not lies or resistance to their normal inquisitive nature. A situation that the American youth never dealt with short of your grandparents being slave owners in the South.

The music labeled as Krautrock by a British journalist or DJ, ( can't recall?), contained a wide variety of genres. Electronic Music, Space Rock, Jazz Rock etc and it all ended up being classified under one term.

Back in the 70s I recall people in the states acting confused about Tangerine Dream being labeled part of Krautrock. It probably all fell together under a term because it had not been planned as a marketing process. Because it derived from a movement invented by a rebellious German youth.

Though several Krautrock bands were signed to American record labels such as United Artists, Passport, Billingsgate, Atlantic Records etc....sales were obviously not accommodation to the investment in the U.S. Tangerine Dream had success in soundtracks beginning in the late 70s and throughout the 80s...but short of that most of the German bands seemed unheard of or unwanted in America.

Edited by David_D - January 12 2025 at 09:25