Mark Reeder: The Man who Punked the Iron Curtain

Figure 1. Mark Reeder in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Divided Berlin (1980s). Source: B Book: Lust and Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989, 2017, Archiv der Jugendkulturen. Photo used with permission from Mark Reeder.

The punk connection between East and West Germany was largely due to the actions of one man: Mark Reeder. Born in Manchester in 1958, the musical scene of this English industrial hub captivated Reeder. In 1979, Reeder left Britain for West Berlin to chase the sound emanating from this divided city.[1] Once in West Berlin, he became entranced by the rawness of the former capital, prompting a desire to learn more about its people and the music they played on this walled-off island. His journey led him to enter the Berlin music scene and become not only a part of it, but a leading figure of sound and culture. He worked with prominent bands and artists like Die Toten Hosen, Nena, and Joy Division/New Order among others. During the 1980s, Reeder enabled East Germans to experience western punk rock music. Upon the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany in 1990, he helped support the genre of techno by pioneering trance techno music and playing gigs in abandoned factories in former East Berlin (Figure 1). Continue reading

Rezensions-Forum: Popgeschichte in Ost & West (Rez.)

sehepunkte Forum Popgeschichte (22 (2022) 2“In der Geschichtswissenschaft zeigt eine ganze Reihe von Neuerscheinungen  an, dass sich seit frühen, teils in der Protest-, Alltags- und Konsumgeschichte wurzelnden Pionierstudien [1] auch in der Zeitgeschichtsschreibung Pop als neues Feld etabliert hat. [2] […] Nun vertieft und erweitert gleich ein ganzer Schwung neuer Monografien und Sammelbände das Forschungsfeld empirisch.”

Das Forum “Popgeschichte in Ost und West” (Ausgabe 02/22) stellt diese Bücher vor:

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CfP: «Trans-Europe Express: Verbreitung populärer Musik in Westeuropa – durant les ‹ longues › années 1960» (deutsch/français)

Pour trouvez une version française de cet article cf. si-dessous.

Call for Papers: Trans-Europe-Express. Verbreitung populärer Musik in Westeuropa während der “langen” 1960er Jahre 

Die Geschichte populärer Musik in Westeuropa (Chanson, Schlager, Pop, Rock, Jazz …) wurde bisher je nach Ländern, Disziplinen und Forschungsperspektiven unterschiedlich intensiv behandelt. Während die Geschichte der populären Musik in Großbritannien ein fester Bestandteil der historischen Forschung ist und in Deutschland immer mehr an Bedeutung gewinnt, steckt sie in Frankreich, Italien, Spanien und anderen europäischen Ländern noch in den Kinderschuhen. Zugleich aber ist populäre Musik hochrelevant für die Analyse europäischer Gesellschaften, insbesondere für den Zeitraum, der uns hier interessiert: die „langen“ 1960er Jahre.
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New publication: Made in Germany – Studies in Popular Music

Made in Germany - Cover

Seibt, Oliver, Martin Ringsmut, and David-Emil Wickström, eds. 2020. Made in Germany – Studies in Popular Music. Routledge Global Popular Music Series. New York, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN: 9780815391784.

Made in Germany: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of contemporary German popular music. Each essay, written by a leading scholar of German music, covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of popular music in Germany and provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music in Germany, followed by essays organized into the following thematic sections:

  • Historical Spotlights
  • Globally German
  • Also “Made in Germany”
  • Explicitly German and
  • Reluctantly German.

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Special Issue “Popular Music History”: Narrating Popular Music History of the GDR: A Critical Reflection of Approaches, Sources and Methods (CfA, Deadline: January 29, 2021)

Background

Histories of German popular music generally focus on examples of West German music which were commercially successful and/or are considered to be aesthetically and musically ground-breaking. Bands such as Kraftwerk, Can, Neu! or the Scorpions are the subject of many academic as well as non-academic publications, and they are considered as canonical as genres such as Krautrock or Neue Deutsche Welle. East German musicians or movements, on the other hand, tend to be overlooked, as do specific artistic forms of expression which were developed in response to authoritarian leadership in the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR). The examination of a relationship between the GDR and the arts is almost altogether absent from a pan-German popular music history. Continue reading

The cold German: The thermo-aesthetics of Kraftwerk. On the Obituaries on Florian Schneider

Florian Schneider Robot

Nothing is more German than Kraftwerk, not even Germans themselves. Kraftwerk has long since risen to national myth, with significant help from English-speaking writers with a certain affinity for everything German. The obituaries that appeared after the recent death of founding member Florian Schneider resemble the usual pieces written about the group. All emphasize the numerous popular references to the band and the influence their sounds, beats and melodies have had on the music world: from David Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy” and “V2 Schneider” (1977) to the Kraftwerk samples in the early hip hop and techno tracks of Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” (1982) and Cybotron’s “Clear” (1983) and the work of Daft Punk and Coldplay. What they do not mention, however, is that Florian Schneider, together with his long-time partner Ralf Hütter, managed to create an image that would prove to be Germany’s most internationally successful pop export: the cold German.

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