Die anderen Bands (, "the other bands") is a term combining alternative music bands of 1980s GDR (
East Germany
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
). They shared a more or less open criticism of their country's political system, and a high degree of creativity which was lacking from the more established music scene of East Germany. Many members of these bands played significant parts during the time of political change ''
Wende'' in 1989. The bands came from a broad range of musical genres, especially
Punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
,
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
,
New Wave,
Indie and
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 ...
.
Radio DJ Lutz Schramm introduced the other bands to a wider audience in his show Parocktikum on East Germany's youth radio station DT 64 (now Sputnik/MDR). In 1988 the East German record label
AMIGA
Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
released a sampler called "Kleeblatt Nr. 23 - Die anderen Bands". A year later another sampler was released, named after the radio show their music was first aired in: "Parocktikum". Having been limited to self-produced records and (sometimes illegal) gigs, both the radio show and the samplers offered a great opportunity for alternative bands to promote their material. The old system prevented free performances, only bands with an "
Einstufung" (rating) were able to have an official approved gig. From 1990 on several samplers with alternative bands from the former GDR were released. Most of the bands are now defunct, but some like Dekadance, Freygang and Herbst in Peking still exist. Other musicians have found fame in new bands such as Rammstein, whose band members have formerly been in
Feeling B and
First Arsch
Bands
*
Dekadance
*
Dritte Wahl
*
Feeling B
*
First Arsch
*
Herbst in Peking
*
Die Skeptiker
Sources
* Ronald Galenza, Heinz Havemeister (eds.): ''„Wir wollen immer artig sein…“ Punk, New Wave, Hiphop und Independent-Szene in der DDR von 1980 bis 1990''. (2nd revised and expanded edition, including a virtually complete discography of all recordings of alternative DDR bands on state and independent labels) Schwarzkopf und Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2005
*Alexander Pehlemann, Ronald Galenza (eds.): ''Spannung. Leistung. Widerstand. Magnetbanduntergrund. DDR 1979–1990''. Verbrecher Verlag, Berlin 2006
*Mirko M. Hall, Seth Howes, Cyrus M. Shahan: ''Beyond No Future: Cultures of German Punk''. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2016
*Juliane Fürst, Josie McLellan: ''Dropping out of Socialism: The Creation of Alternative Spheres in the Soviet Bloc''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016
External links
:''(mostly in German)''
* http://www.die-anderen-bands.de
* http://podcast.parocktikum.de
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070604023056/http://www.generationpunk.de/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070328211016/http://www.aggeige.de/ (AG Geige)
* http://www.dekadance.de (Dekadance)
* http://www.die-art.de (Die Art)
* http://www.freygangband.de (Freygang)
* http://archiv.digitalcraft.org/is-berlin/isb/_awolter/HIP/STERN.html (Herbst in Peking)
* http://www.kirsche-co.de/ (Kirsche & Co.)
* http://www.muellstation.de/ (Müllstation)
* http://www.sandow.de/ (Sandow)
* http://www.dieskeptiker.com/ (Die Skeptiker)
* http://happystraps.de (Happy Straps)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Die Anderen Bands
German styles of music