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| Schlager | |
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| Stylistic origins | OriginalSubsequent: |
| Cultural origins | 1950s, West Germany,[1] East Germany and Austria |
| Subgenres | |
| Dansband | |
| Regional scenes | |
| Other topics | |
| Music of Germany | |
Schlager (German:[ˈʃlaːɡɐ], "hit(s)")[2] is a style of Europeanpopular music generally defined by catchy instrumental accompaniments to vocal pieces of pop music with simple, easygoing, and often sentimental lyrics.
Schlager tracks are typically lightpop tunes or sweet,sentimental ballads with simple, catchy melodies. Theirlyrics typically center on love, relationships, and feelings. The northern variant of schlager (notably in Finland) has taken elements from Finnic, Nordic, Slavic, and Eastern Europeanfolk songs, with lyrics tending towardmelancholic andelegiac themes. Musically, schlager bears similarities to styles such aseasy listening.
The style was frequently represented in the early years of theEurovision Song Contest but has now been replaced by other pop music styles.[2]
Schlager is a loanword from German (fromschlagen 'to hit'). It also came into some other languages (such asBulgarian,Danish,Norwegian,Swedish,Dutch,Czech,Croatian,Finnish,Hungarian,Lithuanian,Latvian,Estonian,Serbian,Turkish,Russian,[3]Hebrew, andRomanian,[4] for example), where it retained its meaning of a "(musical) hit".
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The roots of German schlager are old. Originally, the word meant a hit or a strike. The first use of the word applied to music, in its original meaning, was in an opening night critique in the newspaperWiener Fremden-Blatt on 17 February 1867 aboutThe Blue Danube byJohann Strauss II.[5]
One ancestor of schlager music in its current meaning may be the operetta, which was highly popular in the early twentieth century. In the 1920s and 1930s, theComedian Harmonists andRudi Schuricke laid the foundations for this new music.[6] Well-known schlager singers of the 1940s, 50s and early 60s includeLale Andersen,Freddy Quinn,Ivo Robić, Gerhard Wendland,Caterina Valente,Margot Eskens andConny Froboess. Schlager reached a peak of popularity in Germany and Austria in the 1960s (featuringPeter Alexander andRoy Black) and the early 1970s. From the mid-1990s through the early 2000s, schlager also saw an extensive revival in Germany by, for example,Guildo Horn,[2]Dieter Thomas Kuhn,Michelle, andPetra Perle.Dance clubs would play a stretch of schlager titles during the course of an evening, and numerous new bands were formed specialising in 1970s schlagercover versions and newer material.
Some Germans view schlager as their country music, and American country and Tex-Mex music are both major elements in schlager culture. ("Is This the Way to Amarillo" is regularly played in schlager contexts, usually in the English-language original.)
Between 1975 and 1981, German-style schlager becamedisco-oriented, in many ways merging with the mainstream disco music of the time. Singers such as Marianne Rosenberg recorded both schlager and disco hits. The song "Moskau" by German bandDschinghis Khan was one of the earliest modern, dance-based schlager, again showing how schlager of the 1970s and early 1980s merged with mainstream disco andEuro-disco. Dschinghis Khan, while primarily a Euro-disco band, also played disco-influenced schlager.
Popular schlager singers includeMichael Holm,Roland Kaiser,Hansi Hinterseer,Jürgen Drews,Andrea Berg,Heintje Simons,Helene Fischer,Nicole,Claudia Jung,Andrea Jürgens,Michelle,Kristina Bach,Marianne Rosenberg,Simone Stelzer,Daniela Alfinito,Semino Rossi,Vicky Leandros,Leonard,DJ Ötzi,Andreas Gabalier and more recently,Beatrice Egli andThomas Anders.[7]
InHamburg in the 2010s, Schlager fans still gathered annually by the hundreds of thousands,[8] dressing in 1970s clothing for streetparades called "Schlager Move". The Schlager Move designation is also used for a number of smaller schlager music parties in several major German cities throughout the year.[9] (This revival is sometimes associated withkitsch andcamp.) In the meantime, private radio has brought Schlager back to the radio. Schlager Radio is a station that broadcasts its program terrestrially in Germany via transmission towers on both FM andDAB+.[10]
Stylistically, schlager continues to influence German "party pop" or "party-schlager" (e.g. "Layla", 2022):[11] that is, music most often heard inaprès-ski bars andMajorcan massdiscos. Contemporary schlager is often mingled withVolkstümliche Musik. If it is not part of an ironic kitsch revival, a taste for both styles of music is commonly associated with folksy pubs, fun fairs, and bowling league venues. In the English-speaking world, the most popular group to have included elements of schlager in their style is probablyABBA, a band that mixed traditional Swedish music, schlager, and pop-rock to create their own sound.[12]
Media related toSchlager at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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