"Radioactivity" (German: "Radioaktivität") is a song by the German

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

band

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

. It was released in February 1976 as the only single from their fifth studio album, '' Radio-Activity'' (1975). The song was a commercial success in France and Belgium, but failed to chart in other countries, and thus was not as successful as Kraftwerk's previous hit "

Autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

Composition

The original recording features a

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

bass line playing eighth notes.

Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

signals spelling out ''radioactivity'' are also present, near the beginning of the track and again near the end. The second time the message continues with ''is in the air for you and me''. The song was re-recorded as a radically different version for '' The Mix'' album in 1991 and was issued as a single in an edited form with remixes by

François Kevorkian François Kevorkian (; born 10 January 1954), also known by the stage name François K, is a French DJ, producer, remixer and label owner of Armenian descent and based in the United States of America, who started his career DJing in clubs such ...

and

William Orbit William Mark Wainwright (born 15 December 1956),"William Orbit." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 30. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2000. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 7 May 2017. Available onlinvia ''Encyclopedia.com'' known ...

. The 1991 version drops all references to radio and incorporates additional lyrics with a pointed

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

theme, remaking the central lyrical hook as “stop radioactivity” and also referring to “contaminated population” and mentioning by name

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

Harrisburg Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...

Sellafield Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nucle ...

and

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

Live performances

"Radioactivity" has remained a regular part of Kraftwerk's live sets over the years. On its original performances in 1976, the band tried out an experimental light-beam operated "percussion cage", during which

Wolfgang Flür Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, pat ...

attempted to trigger electronic drum sounds by interrupting light beams using arm gestures. This system frequently failed. The band performed the ''Mix'' version at the "Stop Sellafield" concert in 1992. The song was performed during majority of live performances since 1991. Live versions of "Radioactivity" feature on both English and German versions of the band's 2005 live album '' Minimum-Maximum.'' That live version played between 2002-2011, that mixed 1975 and 1991 versions, included the Sellafield 2 intro (they've used it since 1997, until 2011), where Florian says through a vocoder: "Sellafield 2 will produce 7.5 tons of plutonium every year. 1.5 kilograms of plutonium make a nuclear bomb. Sellafield 2 will release the same amount of radioactivity into the environment as Chernobyl every 4.5 years. One of these radioactive substances "Krypton 85" will cause death and skin cancer" In 2012, Kraftwerk performed the new remix of "Radioactivity" during No Nukes 2012, held in Japan. To commemorate the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which r ...

, Hütter sang alternate lyrics to the song in Japanese. The new lyrics were translated into Japanese language by

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

, and make direct reference to Fukushima. This version of the song also has notable lyric changes such as "Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, ''Fukushima''," as well as calls for the end of Japan's use of nuclear technology. This altered version of the song is also the version Kraftwerk performs live to this day, albeit with the second chorus switching back to the English or German lyrics sung on the ''Mix'' version, depending on where they perform. This version also appears on the band's 2017 live album ''

3-D The Catalogue ''3-D The Catalogue'' () is the second official live album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released on 26 May 2017 on several format iterations, including a deluxe four-disc Blu-ray box set with Dolby Atmos multichannel audi ...

''.

Reception

"Radioactivity" is widely regarded as one of Kraftwerk's best songs. In 2020, ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' ranked the song number five and number two, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Kraftwerk songs. The song influenced

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Meols, Merseyside in 1978 by Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals). Regarded as pioneers of electronic musi ...

's song "

Electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

". Andy McCluskey of OMD describes "Electricity" as "a faster, punkier version of 'Radioactivity' with a chorus".

Appearances in other media

The song appeared in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films ''

Chinese Roulette '' Chinese Roulette '' () is a 1976 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It stars Margit Carstensen, Ulli Lommel, and Anna Karina. The film, a bleak psychological drama, climaxes with a truth-guessing game, which gi ...

'' and ''

Berlin Alexanderplatz ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' () is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar culture, Weimar Republic. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers, the book was named among the top 100 bo ...

'', and the 2010 documentary '' Into Eternity''. The song, as did other songs from '' Radio-Activity'', appeared in the Brazilian telenovela '' Saramandaia''. The song appeared in the season finale of ''

American Horror Story ''American Horror Story'' (''AHS'') is an American horror film, horror anthology series, anthology television series created by Ryan Murphy (producer), Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the Cable television, cable network FX (TV channel), FX. Th ...

'' '' season 11'', as part of a death montage.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Certifications and sales

1991 re-issue

"Radioactivity" was re-issued 1991 as a single from Kraftwerk's remix album '' The Mix'', featuring remixes by

and

. The song's new lyrics turn it into an

protest song, with references to the

Hiroshima bombing On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civil ...

, Three Mile Island (Harrisburg),

, and

Track listing

7-inch single

12-inch single

CD single

Cassette single

Charts

Weekly charts

Fatboy Slim version

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...

covered "Radioactivity" for the closing track of his compilation album '' Late Night Tales: Fatboy Slim''. It featured vocals contributed by a woman from his favorite record store. The song was released as a limited edition 7-inch single.

Track listing

7-inch single

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radioactivity (Song) 1976 singles 1975 songs 1991 singles 1991 songs 2007 singles 2007 songs Electronic songs EMI Records singles Fatboy Slim songs Kraftwerk songs Macaronic songs Protest songs Songs about radio Songs about science Songs written by Emil Schult Songs written by Florian Schneider Songs written by Ralf Hütter Songs written by William Orbit