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Germany claims some of the most renowned composers, singers, producers and performers of the world. Germany is the largest music market in Europe, and third largest in the world.[1]
Germanclassical music is one of the most performed in the world; German composers include some of the most accomplished, influential, and popular in history, among themGeorg Friedrich Händel,Johann Sebastian Bach,Ludwig van Beethoven,Carl Maria von Weber,Felix Mendelssohn,Robert Schumann,Richard Wagner,Johannes Brahms andRichard Strauss, many of whom were among the composers who created the field ofGerman opera.
German popular music of the 20th and 21st century includes the movements ofNeue Deutsche Welle,disco,metal/rock,pop rock, andindie. Germanelectronic music gained global influence, withKraftwerk andTangerine Dream being pioneer groups in this genre.[2][3] Theelectro andtechno scene is internationally popular.
Germany hosts many large rockmusic festivals. TheRock am Ring and Rock im Park festival is among the largest in the world. Since around 1990, the new-old German capitalBerlin has developed a diverse music and entertainment industry.
The beginning of what is now considered German music could be traced back to the 12th-century compositions of mystic abbessHildegard of Bingen, who wrote a variety ofhymns and other kinds ofChristian music.
After Latin-language religious music had dominated for centuries, in the 12th century to the 14th centuries, Minnesinger (love poets), singing in German, spread across Germany. Minnesinger were aristocrats, traveling from court to court, who had become musicians, and their work left behind a vast body of literature,Minnelieder. The following two centuries saw the Minnesinger replaced by middle-classMeistersinger, who were often master craftsmen in their main profession, whose music was much more formalized and rule-based than that of the Minnesinger. Minnesinger and Meistersinger could be considered parallels of Frenchtroubadours andtrouvère.
Among the Minnesinger, Hermann, amonk fromSalzburg, deserves special note. He incorporated folk styles from the Alpine regions in his compositions. He made some primitive forays intopolyphony as well.Walther von der Vogelweide andReinmar von Hagenau are probably the most famous minnesingers from this period.
Germans have played a leading role in the development ofclassical music. Many of the best classical musicians such as Bach, Händel, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, or Schoenberg (a lineage labeled the "German Stem" byIgor Stravinsky) were German. At the beginning of the 15th century, German classical music was revolutionized byOswald von Wolkenstein, who travelled across Europe learning about classical traditions, spending time in countries like France and Italy. He brought back some techniques and styles to his homeland, and within a hundred years, Germany had begun producing composers renowned across the continent. Among the first of these composers was the organistConrad Paumann. The largest summer festival for classical music in Germany is theSchleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
Beginning in the 16th century,polyphony, or the intertwining of multiplemelodies, arrived in Germany.Protestant chorales predominated; in contrast to Catholic music, chorale was vibrant and energetic. Composers includedDieterich Buxtehude,Heinrich Schütz andMartin Luther, leader of theProtestant Reformation. Luther happened to accompany his sunghymns with a lute, later recreated as thewaldzither that became anational instrument of Germany in the 20th century.[4]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart'sDie Zauberflöte (1791) is usually said to be the beginning of Germanopera. An earlier starting date for German opera, however, could beHeinrich Schütz'sDafne from 1627. Schütz is said to be the first great German composer beforeJohann Sebastian Bach, and was a major figure in 17th-century music.
In the 19th century, two figures were paramount in German opera:Carl Maria von Weber andRichard Wagner. Wagner introduced devices like theLeitmotiv, a musical theme which recurs for important characters or ideas. Wagner (and Weber) based his operas of German history and folklore, most importantly including theRing of the Nibelung (1874). Into the 20th century, opera composers includedRichard Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier) andEngelbert Humperdinck, who wrote operas meant for young audiences. Across the border in Austria,Arnold Schoenberg innovated a form of twelve-tone music that usedrhythm anddissonance instead of traditional melodies and harmonies, whileKurt Weill andBertolt Brecht collaborated on some of the great works of German theater, includingRise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny andThe Three-Penny Opera.
Following the war, German composers likeKarlheinz Stockhausen andHans Werner Henze began experimentingelectronic sounds in classical music.
Germany is also very well known for its many subsidisedopera houses, such asSemperoper,Munich State Theatre and theBayreuth Festspielhaus.
Baroque music, which was the first music to usetonality in the modern sense, is also known for itsornamentation and artistic use ofcounterpoint. It originated in Northern Italy at the end of the 16th century, and the style migrated quickly to Germany, which was one of the most active centers of early Baroque music. Early German Baroque composers includedHeinrich Schütz,Michael Praetorius,Johann Hermann Schein, andSamuel Scheidt. The culmination of the Baroque era was undoubtedly in the works ofJohann Sebastian Bach andGeorg Friedrich Händel in the first half of the 18th century. Bach established German styles through his skill incounterpoint,harmonic andmotivic organisation, and adapted rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. Bach wrote numerous works, includingpreludes,cantatas,fugues,concertos for harpsichord, violin and wind, orchestral suites, theBrandenburg Concertos,St Matthew Passion,St John Passion and theChristmas Oratorio. Händel was a cosmopolitan composer that wrote music for virtually every genre of his time. His most famous works include the orchestral suitesWater Music,Music for the Royal Fireworks and the oratorioMessiah.Another important composer wasGeorg Philipp Telemann, one of the most prolific musicians in history.
By the middle of the 18th century, the cities ofVienna,Dresden, Berlin andMannheim had become the center for orchestral music. TheEsterházy princes of Vienna, for example, were the patrons ofJoseph Haydn, an Austrian who invented the classic format of thestring quartet,symphony andsonata. Later that century, Vienna'sWolfgang Amadeus Mozart emerged, mixing German and Italian traditions into his own style. Mozart was a prolific and influential composer who composed over 600works, many acknowledged as pinnacles ofsymphonic,concertante,chamber,operatic, andchoral music. He is among the most popular ofclassical composers, and his influence on subsequent Westernart music is profound;Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart.
The following century saw two major German composers come to fame early—Ludwig van Beethoven andFranz Schubert. Beethoven, a student of Haydn's in Vienna, used unusually daringharmonies andrhythm and composed numerous pieces forpiano,violin,symphonies,chamber music,string quartets and anopera. Schubert created a field of artistic, romantic poetry and music calledlied; his lieder cycles includedDie schöne Müllerin andWinterreise.[5]
Franz Schubert was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainlyLieder), seven completesymphonies, sacred music,operas,incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. He is ranked among the greatest composers of the lateClassical era and earlyRomantic era.
Early in the 19th century, a composer by the name ofRichard Wagner was born. He was a "Musician of the Future" who disliked the strict traditionalist styles of music. He is credited with developingleitmotivs which were simple recurring themes found in his operas.
Carl Maria von Weber was acomposer,conductor,pianist,guitarist[6] andcritic, one of the first significant composers of theRomantic school. HisoperasDer Freischütz,Euryanthe andOberon greatly influenced the development of the Romantic opera in Germany.Felix Mendelssohn was a composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the earlyRomantic period. He was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist. He wrotesymphonies,concerti,oratorios, piano music andchamber music.Robert Schumann was a composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of theRomantic era. Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; manyLieder (songs for voice and piano); foursymphonies; an opera; and other orchestral,choral, andchamber works.Johannes Brahms honored the music pioneered by Mozart and Beethoven and advanced his music into aRomantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody.
The later 19th century saw Vienna continue its elevated position in European classical music, as well as a burst of popularity with Viennesewaltzes. These were composed by people likeJohann Strauss the Younger.Richard Strauss was a leading composer of the lateRomantic and earlymodern eras. He is known for hisoperas, which includeDer Rosenkavalier andSalome; hislieder, especially hisFour Last Songs; and histone poems. Strauss, along withGustav Mahler, represents the late flowering ofGerman Romanticism afterRichard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties oforchestration are combined with an advancedharmonic style.
The first half of 20th century saw a split between German and Austrian music. In Vienna,Arnold Schoenberg and his pupilsAlban Berg andAnton Webern moved along an increasingly avant-garde path, pioneeringatonal music in 1909 andtwelve-tone music in 1923. Meanwhile, composers in Berlin took a more populist route, from the cabaret-like socialist operas ofKurt Weill to theGebrauchsmusik ofPaul Hindemith. In Munich there was alsoCarl Orff, who was influenced by the FrenchImpressionist composerClaude Debussy. He began to use colorful, unusual combinations of instruments in hisorchestration. His most popular work isCarmina Burana.
Many composers emigrated to the United States when theNazi Party came to power, including Schoenberg, Hindemith, andErich Korngold. During this period, the Nazi Party embarked on a campaign to rid Germany of so-calleddegenerate art, which became a catch-all phrase that included music with any link to Jews, Communists, jazz, and anything else thought to be dangerous. Some figures such asKarl Amadeus Hartmann remained defiantly in Germany during the years of Nazi dominance, continually watchful of how their output might be interpreted by the authorities.
After the defeat ofNazi Germany, musicians were also subjected to the Allied policy ofdenazification. But here, the supposed non-political nature of music was able to excuse many, includingWilhelm Furtwängler andHerbert von Karajan (who had actually joined the Nazi Party in 1933). They both claimed to have concentrated mainly on music and to have ignored politics, but also to have conducted pieces in ways that were meant to be "gestures of defiance."[7]
In West Germany in the second half of the 20th century, German and Austrian music was largely dominated by the avant-garde. In the 60s and 70s, theDarmstadt New Music Summer School was a major center of European modernism; German composers such asKarlheinz Stockhausen andHans Werner Henze and non-German ones such asPierre Boulez andLuciano Berio all studied there. In contrast, composers inEast Germany were advised to avoid the avant-garde and to compose music in keeping with the tenets ofSocialist Realism.[8] Music written in this style was supposed to advance party politics as well as be more accessible to all.[9]Hanns Eisler andErnst Hermann Meyer were among the most famous of the first generation of GDR composers.
More recently, composers such asHelmut Lachenmann andOlga Neuwirth have extensively explored the possibilities ofextended techniques. Hans Werner Henze largely dissociated himself from the Darmstadt school in favour of a more lyrical approach, and remains perhaps Germany's most lauded contemporary composer. Although he had lived outside the country since the 1950s and until his death in 2012, he remained influenced by the Germanic musical tradition.
Germany has many unique regions with their own folk traditions of music and dance. Much of the 20th century saw German culture appropriated for the ruling powers (who fought "foreign" music at the same time).
In both East and West Germany, folk songs called "volkslieder" were taught to children; these were popular, sunny and optimistic, and had little relation to authentic German folk traditions. Inspired by American and Englishroots revivals, Germany underwent many of the same changes following the 1968 student revolution in West Germany, and new songs, featuring political activism and realistic joy, sadness and passion, were written and performed on the burgeoning folk scene. In East Germany, the same process did not begin until the mid-70s, where some folk musicians began incorporating revolutionary ideas in coded songs.
Popular folk songs included emigration songs from the 19th century,work songs and songs of apprentices, as well as democracy-oriented folk songs collected in the 1950s byWolfgang Steinitz. Beginning in 1970, theFestival des politischen Liedes, an East German festival focusing on political songs, was held annually and organized (until 1980) by theFDJ (East German youth association). Musicians from up to thirty countries would participate, and, for many East Germans, it was the only exposure possible to foreign music. Among foreign musicians at the festival, some were quite renowned, includingInti-Illimani (Chile),Billy Bragg (England),Dick Gaughan (Scotland),Mercedes Sosa (Argentina) andPete Seeger (United States), while German performers included, from both East and West, Oktoberklub,Wacholder andHannes Wader.
Oom-pah is a kind of music played by thebrass bands; it is associated withbeer halls.
Bavarian folk music is likely the best known outside of Germany.Yodeling andschuhplattler dancers are among the stereotyped images of German folk life, though these are only found today in the southernmost areas. Bavarian folk music has played a role in theAlpine New Wave, and produced several pioneeringworld music groups that fuse traditional Bavarian sounds with foreign styles.
Around the turn of the 20th century, across Europe and especially in Bavaria, many people became concerned about a loss of cultural traditions. This idea was connected to theHeimatschutz movement, which sought to protect regional identities and boundaries. What is considered Bavarian folk music in modern Germany is not the same as what Bavarian folk music was in the early 20th century; like any kind of folk or popular music, styles and traditions have evolved over time, giving birth to new forms of music.
The popularity of theVolkssänger (people's singer) in Bavaria began in the 1880s, and continued in earnest until the 1920s. Shows consisting of duets, ensemble songs, humor and parodies were popular, but the format began changing significantly following World War I.Bally Prell, the "Beauty Queen ofSchneizlreuth", was emblematic of this change. She was an attractivetenor who sanglieder,chanson andopera andoperetta.
Swabian folk music is most popularly represented by acts like Saiten Fell and Firlefanz and the singer-songwriter (and player of thehurdy-gurdy andguitar) Thomas Felder.
Some Christmas carols familiar in English are translations of German Christmas songs (Weihnachtslieder). PastoralWeihnachtslieder are sometimes calledHirtenlieder (shepherd songs). Three well-known examples are "O Tannenbaum" ("O Christmas Tree"), from a German folksong arranged byErnst Anschütz; "Silent Night" ("Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht"), by the AustriansFranz Xaver Gruber andJoseph Mohr; and "Still, still, still", an Austrian folksong also from the Salzburg region, based on an 1819 melody by Süss, with the original words, slightly changed over time and location, by G. Götsch.[10]
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Between World War I and World War II, German music branched out to form new, more liberal and independent styles.
The first form of Germanpop music is said to becabaret, which arose during theWeimar Republic in the 1920s as the sensual music of late-night clubs.Marlene Dietrich and Margo Lion were among the most famous performers of the period, and became associated with both humorous satire and liberal ideas.
The strict regimentation of youth culture inNazi Germany through theHitler Youth led to the emergence of several underground protest movements, through which adolescents were able better to exert their independence.
One of these consisted mainly of upper middle class youths, who based their protest on their musical preferences, rejecting the völkisch music propagated by the Party in place of American jazz forms, especiallySwing. While musical preferences are often a feature of youthful rebellion—as the history of rock and roll shows—jazz and especially Swing were particularly offensive to the Nazi hierarchy: not only did they promote sexual permissiveness, but they were also associated with the American enemy and worse, with the African race they considered inferior.On the other hand,Joseph Goebbels assembled some of the now jobless musicians from Germany and conquered countries into a big band calledCharlie and His Orchestra.
After World War II, German pop music was greatly influenced by music from USA and Great Britain. Apart from Schlager and Liedermacher, it is necessary to distinguish between pop music inWest Germany and pop music inEast Germany which developed in different directions. Pop music from West Germany was often heard in East Germany, had more variety and is still present today, while East German music has had little influence.
In West Germany, English-languagepop music became more and more important, and today most songs on the radio are English. Nevertheless, there is great diversity in German language pop music. There is also original English-language pop music from Germany, some having international success (for instance theScorpions andJames Last), but little with enduring broad success in Germany itself. There was very little English pop music from East Germany.
Germany has also had a thriving English-language pop scene since the end of the war, with several European and US acts topping the charts. However, Germans and German-oriented musicians have been successful as well. In the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century such European pop acts were popular as well as artists such asSarah Connor,No Angels andMonrose who performed various types of mainstream pop in English. Many of these acts have had success all over Europe and Asia.
Schlager is a kind of vocal pop music, frequently in the form of sentimentalballads sung in German, popularized by singers such asGitte Hænning andRex Gildo in the 1960s, though not without a wide range within the style (Modern Schlager, Schlager-Gold,Volksmusik resp. "volkstümlicher Schlager"[clarification needed]). Schlager/Volksmusik[clarification needed] is strictly separated from international pop music and is only played on special format radio stations (sometimes mixed with internationalOldies).
An important part of Schlager isvolkstümliche Musik, a Schlager-like interpretation of traditional German folk themes that is very popular in German-speaking countries, especially among the older generation.
Schlager has a wide variety, and the artists with many other styles, for example:Heino,Katja Ebstein,Wolfgang Petry,Guildo Horn,Roland Kaiser,Helene Fischer and many others.
Liedermacher (Songwriter) has sophisticated lyrics and is sung with minimal instrumentation, for instance only with acoustic guitar. Some songs are very political in nature. This is related to American Folk/Americana and FrenchChanson styles.
Famous West German Liedermacher areReinhard Mey,Klaus Hoffmann,Hannes Wader andKonstantin Wecker. A famous East German Liedermacher wasWolf Biermann.Herman van Veen from the Netherlands was also very popular in Germany. Several Liedermacher artists also record special albums for children.
The US military radio stationAmerican Forces Network (AFN) had a great impact on German postwar culture, starting withAFN Munich in July 1945, which was formative for the further development of German rock and jazz culture.Bill Ramsey, a senior producer atAFN Frankfurt in 1953 who came fromOhio, later became famous as a jazz and Schlager singer in Germany (while remaining almost unknown in the US).
Prior to the late 1960s however, rock music in Germany was a negligible part of theschlager genre covered by interpreters such asPeter Kraus andTed Herold, who played rock 'n' roll standards by Little Richard or Bill Haley, sometimes translated into German.
Genuine German rock first appeared around 1968, just as thehippiecountercultural explosion was peaking in the US and UK. At the time, the German musical avant-garde had been experimenting withelectronic music for more than a decade, and the first German rock bands fusedpsychedelic rock from abroad with electronic sounds. The next few years saw the formation of a group of bands that came to be known asKrautrock orKosmische Musik groups; these includedAmon Düül, who later became the world music pioneersDissidenten,Tangerine Dream,Popol Vuh,Can,Neu! andFaust.
Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) is an outgrowth of Britishpunk rock andnew wave which appeared in the mid-to late 1970s. It was arguably the first successful unique German form of Pop music, but was limited in its stylistic devices (funny lyrics and surreal composition and production). Though it was a huge success in Germany itself in the 1980s, this was not long-lasting mostly due to over-commercialization. Some artists became famous internationally likeNena,Trio,Falco (from Austria) andJoachim Witt.
In the 1980s and 1990s most German-language popular music was sung by male solo artists. Very popular singers areUdo Jürgens,Udo Lindenberg,Herbert Grönemeyer,Marius Müller-Westernhagen,Peter Maffay andBAP.
Udo Jürgens has maintained a large following since the late 60s and still sold out entire soccer stadiums during concerts in 2012.Grönemeyer also has managed to maintain his success up to today. Maffay developed from Schlager to rock and has a large but delimited fan base—he is seldom played on the radio. BAP, who sing inKölsch, the dialect of their hometownCologne, enjoy success nationwide.
Hamburger Schule (School of Hamburg) is an underground music-movement that started in the late 1980s and was still active till around the mid-1990s. It has similar traditions asNeue Deutsche Welle and mixed all that withpunk,grunge and experimentalpop music. Hamburger Schule includes intellectual lyrics with postmodern theories and social criticism. Important artists areBlumfeld,Die Sterne,Die Goldenen Zitronen andTocotronic.
By the early 1970s, experimental West German rock styles had crossed the border intoEast Germany and influenced the creation of an East German rock movement referred to asOstrock. On the other side of theIron Curtain, these bands tended to be stylistically more conservative than in the West, to have more reserved engineering, and often to include more classical and traditional structures (such as those developed byKurt Weill andBertolt Brecht in their 1920s Berlin theater songs). These groups often featured poetic lyrics loaded with indirect double-meanings and deeply philosophical challenges to the status quo. As such, they were a style ofKrautrock. The best-known of these bands wereThe Puhdys,Karat,City,Stern-Combo Meißen andSilly.
Only a few individual songs, such as "Am Fenster" byCity and "Über sieben Brücken mußt Du geh'n" byKarat, found wide popularity outside theGDR. There was also a wide diversity of underground bands. Out of this scene later grew the internationally successful bandRammstein.
In the 1990s, German-language groups had only limited popularity, and only a few artists managed to be played on the radio, for exampleNena,Herbert Grönemeyer,Marius Müller-Westernhagen,Die Ärzte,Rammstein,Rosenstolz orDie Prinzen.
In the mid-2000s the German bandWir sind Helden found success with a new style of German-languagepop-rock. This success was followed by several other bands and artists that led to a new boom of German-language music and a broader acceptance of existing German-language recording artists.
In the late 1980s (prior toreunification) and the 1990s,Synthpop andEurodance became popular throughout Germany. Often, different styles were mixed in between these to attract a broad variety of audiences.
Hip hop in Germany arrived in the early 1980s, andgraffiti andbreakdancing became well-known quickly, even in socialistEast Germany.[11] German hip hop "started out as a transnational youth subculture.[12][13] The commercial success started in 1992 with the hit "Die Da" fromDie Fantastischen Vier fromStuttgart. TheRödelheim Hartreim Projekt tried to establish a "gangster" rap. An early influential group wasAdvanced Chemistry includingTorch. They sparked an interest in speaking out for the immigrants and used rap as a way to defend themselves.[14][15]Fettes Brot from Hamburg, has been successful since their beginning. They sing about funny topics, such as infidelity and boasting about their prowess with women. Whereas hip hop had a peak of success in the early first decade of the 21st century,gangster rap became a controversial part of German music and youth culture just as late as 2004 withAggro Berlin.
Punk music in Germany has a long and diverse history. When bands like theSex Pistols andThe Clash became popular in West Germany, a number of Punk bands were formed, which led to the creation of a German punk scene. Among the first wave of bands were Male, fromDüsseldorf, founded in 1976, PVC, fromWest Berlin, andBig Balls and the Great White Idiot, fromHamburg. Early German punk groups were heavily influenced by UK bands, often writing their lyrics in English. The main difference is that German punk bands had not yet become political.
Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s there were new movements within the German punk scene, led by labels likeZickZack Records, from Hamburg. It was during this period that the termNeue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) was first coined by Alfred Hilsberg. Many of these bands played experimentalpost-punk, often using synthesizers and computers. Among them wereThe Nina Hagen Band, as well asFehlfarben andAbwärts, from Hamburg. Both are still active, though they have changed their style several times. Other bands played a more aggressive style of punk rock with a clear leftist political direction influenced by earlier political rock bands likeTon Steine Scherben[16] - bands likeSlime,[17]Toxoplasma, orVorkriegsjugend[18][19] are still relevant in the German punk scene. There is a still existing scene with many only locally known independent bands that confine themselves from the bigger and more popular groups (that are often branded as "Kommerzpunk").[20]
Punkrock was outlawed in the GDR. Bands like Schleim-Keim or L'Attentat were observed and persecuted by theStasi and could not perform in the public.[21] Music was produced in underground and exchanged on Tape, an attempt to release a split-vinyl of "Schleimkeim" and "Zwitschermaschine" failed since the latter was undercut by government agents.[22]
Nonpolitical punkrock that is also listened to by skinheads is termed asOi!. Thematically, Oi! songs are often about alcohol, relations, and/or violence. While some Oi! Bands like "Loikaemie" did antifascist songs, there are many cases with an affliction toneonazis, with fluid borders toward right-extremist rockmusic ("Rechtsrock") within the Oi!-Scene.[23]
There are few German language bands who managed to be successful for a longer period. The best known are the punk bandsDie Ärzte andDie Toten Hosen. Both were formed in the early 1980s but have very different approaches to punk. As successful as those two bands in number of sales and number one albums but much lesser accepted by the public and normally not played by German media because of their affiliation with right-wing politics but with a huge fan community were the Oi!-BandBöhse Onkelz.[24]
Germany has a long and strong history withheavy metal. It is considered by many[who?][weasel words] to be one of Europe's heaviest contributors to the scene.[citation needed] The genre is quite popular and mainstream within the country. Earlyhard rock/heavy metal was brought to German soil with the success ofScorpions andAccept. Germany is today known for its large metal festivals includingWacken Open Air andSummer Breeze Open Air.
Germany has a strong tradition ofspeed metal andpower metal, withHelloween considered the “fathers of power metal”.[25] Other early speed metal bands includeRunning Wild,Grave Digger,Rage, and to some extentWarlock andStormwitch. The European style of power metal, developed in Germany, was popularized by German bands likeBlind Guardian,Gamma Ray,Freedom Call,Iron Savior,Avantasia,Edguy andPrimal Fear gained international recognition. In many cases these bands initially started out playing speed metal, but later switched to power metal. More recently, a new generation of power metal-influenced bands likeMasterplan,Orden Ogan,Kissin' Dynamite andPowerwolf is becoming more and more popular in Germany and abroad.
Running Wild are also considered a pioneer of thepirate metal genre with the release of their 1987 albumUnder Jolly Roger, which was one of the first pirate-themed heavy metal albums.
Three local variants of metal subgenres exist in Germany. TheTeutonic thrash metal scene is represented by such groups asKreator,Sodom,Destruction,Tankard andExumer.Medieval metal, incorporates German traditional music withindustrial metal. Notable bands includeSubway to Sally,In Extremo,Corvus Corax,Saltatio Mortis andSchandmaul (the last is consideredfolk rock in Germany).
Germany has been a major host of the post-hardcore and metalcore scene in which various festivals and tours were in which bands from all over the world played in.Rock am Ring is held at theNürburgring race track inNürburg,Rhineland-Palatinate while its counterpart,Rock im Park, is held at theZeppelinfeld inNuremberg,Bavaria.Full Force, another huge event, hosts shows between the end of June and at the start of July inLöbnitz,Saxony. In Hamburg, theElbriot is held annually while over inCuxhaven, theDeichbrand takes place between July and August. During the summer, theSummer Breeze Open Air festival takes place inDinkelsbühl, Bavaria. InWacken,Schleswig-Holstein, theWacken Open Air festival is held during the first weekend of August. Germany is also the birthplace of the European-wideImpericon Never Say Die! Tour that is held in the Spring all over Europe. Impericon also based their retail store in Leipzig.
Neue Deutsche Härte (engl. "New German Hardness") is a term for an extremely popular German variant ofIndustrial metal. It combines the common sound of metal with elements of gothic and industrial music as well as electronic samples and is mostly sung in German. It is known for morbid and provocative lyrical themes and over-the-top stage shows often featuring fire, pyrotechnic, stunts and other special effects. It draws its audience from both themetal andgoth scene. Some bands, especiallyRammstein andOomph! have gained mainstream success and, despite their lyrics being mostly in German, have also found success in non-German-speaking countries. Other famous artists includeStahlhammer (from Austria),Megaherz,Unheilig,Eisbrecher,Tanzwut, andJoachim Witt.
Medieval metal or medieval rock is a subgenre of folk metal that blends hard rock or heavy metal music with medieval folk music. Medieval metal is mostly restricted to Germany where it is known as Mittelalter-Metal or Mittelalter-Rock. The genre emerged from the middle of the 1990s with contributions fromSubway to Sally,In Extremo,Schandmaul andWolgemut. The style is characterised by the prominent use of a wide variety of traditional folk and medieval instruments.
Germany is the home of a vivid Goth scene, and has a large scene of musicians from the spectrum who are typically known asGoth musicians. Most notable artists areLacrimosa,Lacrimas Profundere,Xmal Deutschland,Das Ich,Deine Lakaien,Illuminate,Untoten,Erben der Schöpfung (from Liechtenstein),No More,Girls Under Glass orProject Pitchfork.Leipzig is home of the largest event of thissubculture worldwide called theWave-Gotik-Treffen, regularly hosting 25,000 attendants. The WGT is closely followed by the annualM'era Luna festival inHildesheim.
Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (engl. "New German Death Art") is a German death-obsessedDark Wave style of music that blendsDeath rock,German Rock,Gothic Rock, andneo-classical music with German philosophical texts and a theatrical stage show. It is restricted to Germany where it emerged in the early 1990s from bands such asDas Ich,Lacrimosa,Relatives Menschsein andGoethes Erben. Many NDT artists are known for their use ofClassical Latin.
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Germany has the largest electronic music scene in the world[citation needed] and has a long tradition in and influence on almost all genres of electronic music. The bandKraftwerk was one of the first bands in the world to make music entirely on electronic equipment, and the bandTangerine Dream is often credited as being among the originators and primary influences of the "Berlin School" of electronic music, which would later influencetrance music. Some other bands likeLiaisons Dangereuses,Tyske Ludder,Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft andDie Krupps created a style later calledElectronic body music. Recently a few electronica artists have become successful in the mainstream, such asMonika Kruse,Marusha,Blümchen andMIA. Artists on the cutting edge of German-language techno includeKlee. BothEinstürzende Neubauten (collapsing new buildings, translated literally) andKMFDM (no pity for the majority, translated literally) are considered by many industrial and electronic music fans as the godfathers of their genre. Their sounds developed the modern styles of groups such as NIN, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, and New Order. Einstürzende Neubauten can be recognized by their Prince-esque logo, which has been subliminally fused into several mainstream American movies (such as a tattoo in the movie Bug, directed by William Friedkin, starring Harry Connick Jr.). KMFDM has released many songs in English, making them more accessible to their huge American and worldwide audience.
In the 1990s, Germany was one of the most successful contributors to theEurodance genre, with notable German-based acts includingReal McCoy,Snap!,Culture Beat,La Bouche,Captain Jack,Captain Hollywood Project,Fun Factory,Masterboy andHaddaway.
Trance music is a style of electronic music that originated in Germany in the very late 1980s and early 1990s, upon German unification. Following the development of trance music in Germany, manyTrance genres stemmed from the original trance music and most trance genres developed in Germany, most notably "Anthem trance" or also called "uplifting" or "epic" trance,progressive trance, and "Ambient trance".
Klezmer is a musical Jewish genre that consists of mainly instrumental songs. In Germany, Klezmer expanded significantly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the mid-1980s.[28] As Klezmer was expanding, so was the Yiddish folk movement, and the two genres became intertwined to a certain extent. In the 1980s while Klezmer was seeing tremendous growth, many Jews in Eastern Europe turned to Klezmer as a means of understanding their communist backgrounds and showing their remembrance to those who experienced theHolocaust. Once Klezmer groups started to tour outside of Europe in the 1980s, Americans gained immediate interest in the music genre.Henry Sapoznik created the first American Klezmer band, known as Kapelye, which toured all around Europe.[28] The spread of Americans playing Klezmer brought a new tone to the genre which captured large audiences. Most American groups who played Klezmer added a hint of American rock into their performances, which was different from the traditional sound of Klezmer in Eastern Europe. It was uncomfortable at first for many of the American Klezmer bands to play in Germany because of the trauma that had occurred there. Despite Germany's background, the American Klezmer groups knew Germany was a place they had to play because of Klezmer's popularity there. Over time, Klezmer's audience expanded in Germany and the American Klezmer bands were able to adjust.
Giora Feidman is arguably one of the most influential Klezmer musicians.[citation needed] Feidman created a new perspective for Klezmer, and shared a new ideology for how the music genre could be viewed and appreciated. Feidman gained a large amount of popularity from his work on the musical play,Ghetto, which associated him and his style with the Holocaust.[28] He brought a new theme to Klezmer music which focused on the remembrance of the Holocaust, and a way of "healing" the trauma caused by the Holocaust. Feidman turned Klezmer into a form of personal expression, in which he tried to unite all people (especially the Jews and Germans) and all things through Klezmer.[28] He completely shifted the ideology of Klezmer and explained how Klezmer is in everything, it is even a way to get in touch with religion and communicate with God.[28] However, some people believe Feidman took his ideology too far and turned Klezmer into something that it never intended to become.[citation needed]
During the 1980s Klezmer underwent significant transformation, and by the middle-late 1990s Klezmer experienced a new wave of change. Klezmer became a name for many different trends far from where it originated. Klezmer was known as a political statement, a method of healing, amateur musicians getting together and playing music, a way to reconnect with lost traditions.[28]
Es ist eine unbedingte Notwendigkeit, dass der Deutsche zu seinen Liedern auch ein echt deutsches Begleitinstrument besitzt. Wie der Spanier seine Gitarre (fälschlich Laute genannt), der Italiener seine Mandoline, der Engländer das Banjo, der Russe die Balalaika usw. sein Nationalinstrument nennt, so sollte der Deutsche seine Laute, die Waldzither, welche schon von Dr. Martin Luther auf der Wartburg im Thüringer Walde (daher der Name Waldzither) gepflegt wurde, zu seinem Nationalinstrument machen. – Liederheft von C. H. Böhm (Hamburg, March 1919)
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