Rock music in Germany
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German rock music (''Deutschrock'') came into its own only by the late 1960s, but spawned many bands spanning genres such as
krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
, Neue Deutsche Welle, heavy metal, punk, and
industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...
. Rock and roll itself arose in the United States in the 1940s, and spread around the world beginning in about 1956. There were few German performers at that time, even though American rock was popular in (West) Germany. Rockabilly stars like
Bill Haley & His Comets Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band founded in 1947 that continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group record ...
were of particular popularity. The reasons for this lack of German musical innovation were the suppression of "degenerate" forms of music by the Nazis and/or the traumatic effects of the war—while Germany was a center of several forms of modern music before the Nazi era, it had difficulty developing its own music culture after the war.


1960s and 1970s: Krautrock

Mostly instrumental, the signature sound of krautrock mixed rock music and "rock band" instrumentation ( guitar,
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...
,
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
s) with electronic instrumentation and textures, often with what would now be described as an
ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...
sensibility. By the end of the 1960s, the American and British counterculture and
hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
movement had moved rock towards
psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
, heavy metal, progressive rock and other styles (from which Scorpions rose to prominence), incorporating, for the first time in popular music, socially and politically incisive lyrics. The 1968 student riots in Germany, France and Italy had created a class of young, intellectual continental listeners, while nuclear weapons, pollution and war inspired protests and activism. Music had taken a turn towards electronic avant-garde in the mid-1950s. These factors all laid the scene for what came to be termed ''krautrock'', which arose at the first major German rock festival in 1968 at Essen. Like their American and British counterparts, German rock musicians played a kind of psychedelia. That same year, 1968, saw the foundation of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab in Berlin by Hans-Joachim Roedelius and
Conrad Schnitzler Conrad "Conny" Schnitzler (17 March 1937 – 4 August 2011) was a prolific German experimental musician associated with West Germany's 1970s krautrock movement. A co-founder of West Berlin's Zodiak Free Arts Lab, he was an early member of Tangeri ...
, which further popularized the psychedelic-rock sound in the German mainstream.


Neue Deutsche Welle

Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) is an outgrowth of British punk rock, post-punk and new wave which appeared in the mid-to late 1970s.


Ostrock

''Ostrock'' refers to rock music scene from the former German Democratic Republic (also known as East Germany), which began at roughly the same time as in the West.


Punk rock

In the early 1980s several bands like Böhse Onkelz,
Die Toten Hosen Die Toten Hosen (literally "The Dead Trousers", figuratively "The Deadbeats") is a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. History The current members of Die Toten Hosen are Campino (Andreas Frege), Kuddel (Andreas von Holst), Vom (Stephe ...
and Die Ärzte originated from the punk scene and later became three of the most commercially successful bands in Germany.


Hamburger Schule

Hamburger Schule (School of Hamburg) is an underground music-movement that started at the late 1980s and was still active until around the mid 1990s.


Neue Deutsche Härte

''(New German Hardness)'' Since the early 1990s bands like Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Wutbürger, KMFDM, Oomph!, Tanzwut,
Liquido Liquido was a German rock band formed in Sinsheim, Germany, in 1996 by four friends: Wolle Maier ( drums, programming), Wolfgang Schrödl (vocals, guitar, keyboard, piano), Stefan Schulte-Holthaus ( bass) and Tim Eiermann (vocals, guitar). The ...
and Megaherz developed this kind of Rock music as a mixture of
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
, heavy metal and electronic music.


Medieval metal

Medieval metal or medieval rock is a subgenre of folk metal that blends hard rock or heavy metal music with medieval folk music. {{DEFAULTSORT:German Rock
Rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
Rock music by country