From Che Sent Fri, Jan 23rd 1998, 17:26
From Che Sent Fri, Jan 23rd 1998, 17:26
On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Philip Evans wrote: > Before Kraftwerk, there was folk music, bachelor-pad exotica, Motown and > the British Invasion. Rock'n'Roll as the beast it was to become was only > beginning to rear it's ugly head. Prog Rock (as in Yes, Genesis, King > Crimson) didn't come about for another couple of years, and Disco didn't > happen until, oh, 4 to 6 years (depending on how you count) after > Kraftwerk's first album. Kraftwerk's original mission was to create a > Germanic, or at least European alternative to all the blues- and folk-based > music current at the time. Prog Rock reared its ugly head in 1969. Tone Float came after that, though for all practical purposes, the 1st Kraftwerk album with any market impact was Autobahn. For that matter, it was the 1st Kraftwerk album to feature synths in a big way. (Remember when Ralf & Florian were mostly guitar & flute, & looked like hippies?) > And no, it didn't come out of nowhere. This gets mentioned over and over > again on this list, but Kraftwerk was merely continuing on a path already > well-trodden by Stockhausen, Satie and other classical pioneers, and was > part of a large movement which also included Tangerine Dream, Can, Van Der > Graaf Generator, and a bunch of other wonky stuff you sometimes find in > used bins in the better hippie stores. It was only in the early 80's that > Kraftwerk looked around them, and discovered that young black kids in the > ghetto (horrors!) had become their true offspring, and incorporated these > kids' bastardizations into their own music. Hence, Tour De France. Can you say "Don't Stop Planet Rock"? Also, The Kraftwerk influence on the Holy Trinity of Detroit (Atkins, May, Saunderson) cannot be understated. Cybotron reeks of Kraftwerk. "Infoworld" by M500 is the best Kraftwerk song not by Kraftwerk. Che