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Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad music genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated in the Berlin School of electronic music and among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early , while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music. Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II and Harmonia.
The term "krautrock" was popularised by British music journalists as a humorous umbrella-label for the diverse German scene, and although many such artists disliked the term, it is no longer considered controversial by German artists in the 21st century. Despite this, English-language authors remain critical of it. The movement was partly born out of the radical student protests of 1968, as German youth rebelled against their country's legacy in World War II and sought a popular music distinct from traditional German music and American pop. The period contributed to the development of ambient music and techno, and influenced subsequent genres such as post-punk, new-age music, and post-rock.
Some common musical features exhibited by krautrock artists include:
Despite a common approach and generational attitude among artists, the New Statesman argues that "in truth, no two Krautrock acts sound remotely alike. Compare the dreamy synthesiser washes of Tangerine Dream with the alien noise music collages of Faust or the psychedelic funk of Can." However, a common feature is the "motorik" beat: the 4/4 beat often used by drummers associated with krautrock, characterised by a kick drum-heavy, pulsating groove, that created a forward-flowing feel. The motorik beat was used by Can in the song "Mother Sky", by Neu! on their debut album, and by Kraftwerk in the song "Autobahn" on their album of the same name, later being adopted by other krautrock bands. It has been widely used in many different styles of music beyond krautrock. According to XLR8R, the term krautrock is often used by critics to signify the "mesmerizing motorik rhythms pioneered by Can and Neu!", but contested that "they represent merely a tiny fraction of the music that emerged from Germany during krautrock's Golden Age".
Core influences on these German artists included avant-garde composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley, and artists such as Frank Zappa (the Mothers of Invention), the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart and the Beatles, with the latter's " Tomorrow Never Knows" being noted for its "proto-krautrock groove".
Hapshash and the Coloured Coat's debut album " Featuring the Human Host And The Heavy Metal Kids" (1967) was later regarded as being influential on the early works of Amon Düül, the student commune Kommune 1, and other pioneers of German krautrock.Freeman, Steve; Freeman, Alan (1996). Crack in the Cosmic Egg: Encyclopedia of Krautrock, Kosmische Musik and Other Progressive, Experimental and Electronic Musics from Germany Audion Publications Raggett, Ned "" allmusic Retrieved 2010-10-24Shirley, Ian (2007) Can Rock and Roll Save the World?: An Illustrated History of Music and Comics (pp.45–46) Wembley: SAF Subsequently, the Monks and Silver Apples were described by the Guardian as precursors to krautrock, with the latter being compared to Can and an early krautrock "motorik" beat noted in the music of the Monks as well as the Godz's "Soon the Moon" and "Permanent Green Light".
A significant influence was the work of American minimal music such as Riley, Tony Conrad, and La Monte Young, as well as the late '60s albums of jazz musician Miles Davis, particularly his jazz fusion work on In a Silent Way (1969). The influence of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown on krautrock musicians was also notable. Some artists drew on ideas from 20th century classical music and musique concrète, particularly composer Stockhausen (with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied), and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960s and 1970s (mainly the free jazz pieces by Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler). Moving away from the patterns of song structure and melody of much rock music in America and Britain, some in the movement were drawn to a more mechanical and Electronic music sound.
The term was originally used by Virgin records in 1972. Various sources claim that "krautrock" was originally a humorous term coined in the early 1970s, either by British disc jockey John Peel or by the UK music newspaper Melody Maker, in which experimental German bands found an early and enthusiastic following.'Krautrock – Cosmic Rock and its Legacy' by David Stubbs, Erik Davis, Michel Faber and various contributing authors. Published 2009 by Black Dog Publishing Limited, London The first use of the term however, was found in a full-page advertisement from Popo Music Management and Bacillus Records promoting German Rock in the UK, in April 1971. The music emerging in Germany was first covered extensively in three concurrent issues of the UK music paper New Musical Express in the month of December 1972, by journalist Ian MacDonald.Macdonald, I. (December 1972). Krautrock: Germany calling #1, #2 and #3. London, UK: New Musical Express.
Its musicians tended to reject the name "krautrock". This was also the case for "kosmische Musik". Musicologist Julian Cope, in his book Krautrocksampler, says "krautrock is a subjective British phenomenon", based on the way the music was received in the UK rather than on the actual West German music scene out of which it grew. For instance, while one of the main groups originally tagged as krautrock, Faust, recorded a seminal 12-minute track they titled "Faust IV", they would later distance themselves from the term, saying: "When the English people started talking about krautrock, we thought they were just taking the piss... and when you hear the so-called 'krautrock renaissance', it makes me think everything we did was for nothing."
The term "kosmische Musik" was coined by Edgar Froese and later used by record producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser as a marketing name for bands such as Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze. The following year, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's Ohr Records used the term when he released the compilation Kosmische Musik (1972) featuring tracks by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, and Popol Vuh. Kaiser eventually began referring to the style as "cosmic rock" to signify that the music belonged in a rock idiom. German producer Conny Plank was a central figure in the kosmische sound, emphasizing texture, sound effects, and tape-based editing techniques. Plank oversaw kosmische recordings such as Kraftwerk's Autobahn, Neu!'s Neu! 75, and Cluster's Zuckerzeit.
Several of these artists would later distance themselves from the term. Other names for the style, and for sub-genres were "Berlin School" and "Dusseldorf School", both of which are recognised and actively contributed to by artists such as Node, Martin Sturtzer, Propaganda, Kraftwerk, Tannheuser and Fritz Mayr, from the 1980s through to the present day. The style would later lead to the development of new-age music, with which it shared several characteristics. It would also exert lasting influence on subsequent electronic music and avant-garde rock.
Krautrock has been cited as an influence by post-punk artists such as Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pere Ubu, the Fall, Public Image Ltd, Wire, Gang of Four, the Pop Group, Cabaret Voltaire, Killing Joke, Swell Maps, This Heat, the Feelies, Chrome, Blurt, Six Finger Satellite as well as post-rock artists Stereolab and Mogwai.
Modern bands, such as Osees, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Guerilla Toss, DIIV, and Minami Deutsch have been described as krautrock, or have noted krautrock as influential on their styles.
Bibliography
Characteristics
Krautrock has been described as a broad genre encompassing varied approaches, but commonly drawing on psychedelia, avant-garde collage, electronic sounds, and rock music, while typically featuring "improvisation and hypnotic, rhythms." Los Angeles Magazine summarized the genre as "American psychedelica meets icy Germanic detachment." Melody Maker described the style as "where the over-reaching ambition and untethered freakitude of late '60s acid rock is checked and galvanised by a proto-punk minimalism ... music of immense scale that miraculously avoided prog-rock's bombastics." AllMusic described it as expanding on the territory associated with art rock and progressive rock, but diverging from the American and British groups' emphasis on jazz and classical music elements in favor of "a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll."
Origins and influences
Krautrock emerged in West Germany during the 1960s and early 1970s. The music was partially inspired by broad cultural developments such as the revolutionary 1968 German student movement, with many young people having both political and aesthetic concerns. Youth rebelled against both dominant American influence and conservative German entertainment such as schlager music, seeking to liberate themselves from Germany's Nazi legacy in World War II and create a new popular culture. Dieter Moebius, of the bands Cluster and Harmonia, noted that "we were a lot of the times on the streets instead of studying. As young people we were not very proud to be German ... we were all tired of listening to bad German music and imitations of American music. Something had to happen." The movement saw artists merge elements of varied genres such as psychedelic rock, avant-garde forms of electronic music, funk rhythm, jazz improvisation and ethnic music styles, typically reflecting a "genuine sense of awe and wonder".
Etymology
Until around 1973, the word Deutsch-Rock ("German Rock") was used to refer to the new groups from West Germany. Other names thrown around by the British and American music press were "Teutonic rock", "Überrock" and "Götterdämmer rock". West Germany's music press initially used Krautrock as a pejorative, but the term lost its stigma after the music gained success in Britain. The term derives from the ethnic slur "kraut". "Kraut" in German can refer to herbs, weeds, and drugs.
Kosmische Musik
Kosmische Musik ("cosmic music") is a term which came into regular use before "krautrock" and was preferred by some German artists who disliked the English label; today, it is often used synonymously with krautrock. More specifically, it may describe 1970s German electronic music which uses synthesizers and incorporates themes related to space or otherworldliness; it is also used as a German analogue to the English term "space rock". The style was often instrumental and characterized by "spacy", ambient music soundscapes. Artists used synthesizers such as the EMS VCS 3 and Moog Modular, as well as sound processing effects and tape-based approaches. They often rejected rock music conventions, and instead drew on "serious" electronic compositions.
Legacy and influence
Krautrock has proved to be highly influential on a succession of other musical styles and developments. Early contemporary enthusiasts outside Germany included Hawkwind and in particular Dave Brock who supposedly penned the sleeve notes for the British edition of Neu!'s first album. Faust's budget release The Faust Tapes has been cited as a formative teenage influence by several musicians growing up in the early 1970s such as Julian Cope, who has always cited krautrock as an influence, and wrote the book Krautrocksampler on the subject. Krautrock was a significant influence on Simple Minds albums Real To Real Cacophony (1979) and Empires and Dance (1980), as well as on artists such as Brian Eno, Gary Numan and Ultravox.Sean Albiez, David Pattie Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop 2011, page 146-157 The genre also had a strong influence on David Bowie's Station to Station (1976) and the experimentation it inspired led to his 'Berlin Trilogy'.Buckley (2000): pp. 275–277.Pegg (2004): pp. 205–206.
See also
Citations
David Buckley (2025). 075350457X, Virgin. 075350457X
Andy Wilson (2025). 095506645X, Andy Wilson. 095506645X
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