It's the middle of the week - Hump Day if you will. Unfortunately for me, I have loads of work to catch up on that I neglected to do prior to Fall Break (imgaine that). One of the lovely assignments battling my procrastinatory tendencies is an Aufsatz; which is German for "essay." I have no idea how many of you speak German, live in Germany, or have ever visited Deutschland but I've decided to infilitrate some sweet German songs into your (undoubtedly) vast libraries. These are by no means huge hits in Germany or sensationally famous artists, but more-or-less the German music I have been introduced to over the past 5 years of learning the language. Enjoy this little bit of culture shock, ja wohl!
Die Prinzen
This band holds a special place in the German sector of my heart. Back in high school my German teacher (aka "The Frau") introduced us to a little German culture by showing the music video for this song. Being unruly clever teenagers, we dissected this video until we were able to make fun of every antic. As fate would have it, The Frau had to leave class for a phone call one day and we were supposed to finish watching the entire tape of "Deutsch Musik" only to replay the song "Millionär" about seven times - laughing harder each time. The song isn't bad by any means, despite being made in the era of synth pop, but the video is so cheesy you HAVE to laugh. Literally, I could write an entire post about this video and the ridiculous gestures and facial expressions the lead singer displays. Die Prinzen come up with some catchy songs - just check out "Deutschland" and "Millionär" for a few examples. Don't forget that ridiculous video while you're down there.
[MP3] Die Prinzen - Millionär
[MP3] Die Prinzen - Deutschland
Herbert Grönemeyer
Another high school flashback overtakes me when Grönemeyer's name is mentioned. From what I can gather, this guy is pretty popular in Germany and is a household name. Despite his somewhat scary appearance, Grönemeyer achieved fame with his smooth voice and (sometimes) awkward beats. "Mensch" is a nifty tune that was well recieved in Germany but his most recent success came with this year's World Cup where Grönemeyer was the man behind FIFA's gloablly infused offical song, "Celebrate The Day."[MP3] Herbert Grönemeyer - Mensch
[MP3] Herbert Grönemeyer - Celebrate The Day
Nena
It's rather hard not to know "99 Red Balloons", even if you're not German. Nena managed to capsulate the glamour of 80's pop with this song and achieved not only German success but global success. To us she may be a "one hit wonder" but to Europe and others she continues to churn out solid pop music throughout her extensive career. She's attractive, sings, and speaks German? Sounds good to me.[MP3] Nena - 99 Luftballon
[MP3] Nena - Liebe Ist
Rammstein
Perhaps the most successful German-to-American crossover act in the history of German music - Rammstein have appeared in movies ranging from Resident Evil to xXx to The Matrix and even the Academy Award Winning Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. They like to call their music "dance metal" and aren't scared to cause a small fire onstage via their live performances. They're not really my type of music but I'd love to catch a show by them especially when Rob Cohen says, "I guess it was in 1997 I was going through Hamburg and I caught their show as they chased each other around with dildos spurting custard, the fire pots and all of that, this is a crazy band; they're very theatrical and exciting, but their music is very, very good and German; it's very interesting in terms of the energy it evokes." [MP3] Rammstein - Mein Teil
[MP3] Rammstein - Du Hast
So there is an etic perspective of German music for everyone to munch on. As I finish this post, I come to stunning realization that I've just procrastinated doing my Aufsatz for another hour and a half. I'll never learn. Dammit!!
25 comments:
what about wir sind helden, or tokio hotel!!!
Your link to 99 Luftballon is actually to Du Hast. That was quite a surprise, thinking I'd get some nice pop, and instead listening to Rammstein
hahahaha.
what a shocker, wow. sorry, i'll take care of it. thanks!
omg, was fuer einen zufall! i've been an aufsaetze machine this week--i just finished one on the gretchentragoedie in goethe's urfaust. thanks for the flashback to high school--Millionaer definitely helped me learn Konjunktiv II!
I can't shake the impression that you have been listening to the wrong radio stations ;)
Wow, you managed to pick some of the most horrid stuff ever to come from my home country (musically, that is...). Though I don't deliberately listen to a lot of German language music (you can't really avoid this living here), I'd recommend to check out Einstürzende Neubauten, Tocotronic, Die Ärzte, Die Toten Hosen, Die Sterne, Trio and Fehlfarben for starters, who all at least sometimes have managed to come up with some unique, catchy and/or downright brilliant tunes and lyrics.
Cheers, Netzhaut (in a German language band himself)
doch doch! if you're going to pick bad music from 10 years ago or older, you've got more Hausaufgabe to do than just your Aufsatz. For example, there's Pur - Abenteuerland (just thinking about that song makes me cringe!), Tic Tac Toe - Ich Find' Dich Scheisse, and Helge Schneider - Katzenklo (a real classic). Then you've got to cover german rap: Die Fantastichen Vier, Roedelheim-Hartreim Projekt... god knows there's more, i just haven't been to Europe in 10 years. lastly, for a decent alternative to Herbert Groenemeyer (overrated), try Rainhard Fendrich.
What about VNV Nation and KMFDM?
Have you heard of Mia or Die Toten Hosen? I've only just found this blog via Hype, but I could send you some mp3s of their music if you're interested?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me you have Die Prizen's 'Mein Beste Freund' or 'Kussen Verbotten' ? Those were MY FAVORITE from high school Deutsch
PS-you should check out Die Fantastischen Vier. My flatmate in Glasgow (while I lived there) introduced me to them. They do Deutsch hip hop kinda.
This post was Geil!!!!!!!!!!!
Danke!!!!!!!
(I need some good German music to listen to as I near my arrival date to start university in Munich. School is completely free over there for international students!)
yeah, i almost posted "die da" and some Toten Hosen too. and i do have those die prinzen songs - so classy. ha!
you are my hero for posting about Die Prinzen. My teacher showed the video for Milionar all the time last year. My exhange student this year was less than enthusiastic about the band though.
this post is sweet.
A newer band from Germany, Winson, if you have time check them out, Auf Die Schnelle tour is a great song. It was recomended by one of the exchange students, and is very Ween esque.
you might be interested in some more, more recent german srtists: there you go:
- kante
- blackmail
- beatsteaks
- scumbucket
- tigerbeat
- tomte
- kettcar
- international pony
- jan delay
- the robocop kraus
- gods of blitz
- blumfeld
- tocotronic
- seeed
I'm from Germany and I love your blog. So I was very happy to see some German Music but there are a lot of bands that are even better, like Madsen or Tomte, Tocotronic and Fotos. You should check them out!
Die Prinzen are hilarious. Thanks for that reminder... :)
Seriously, check out www.voltaire-musik.de ! There are some decent German bands as well (and I'm from Holland!)... Voltaire are really unknown, and have just released their debut "Heute Ist Jeder Tag". Brilliant collection of songs.
Andrea, Rainhard Fendrich is NOT German. It's already bad enough being German, don't make it worse for me by mnaming Austrian creeps when talking about German music.
I agree with what several others said already, you could have picked so many more talented German artists than those....
That was a fun post -- it reminds me of being in high school in Germany. We were at an army school but my sister and I did see Die Toten Hosen open up for U2 in ... like ... 1993 or something. She sent me a great CD of German pop and I still like to rock out to it once in awhile. -z.h.
What Nathaniel, No TATU? I thought that they were pretty much your fav.
thank you for the millionar video, dude. my teacher used to play us the song in high school deutsch klasse, and i had never seen the ridiculous video.
okay, so fendrich is oesterreicher. i didn't say he was german; i just didn't say he was from austria. either way, he's a better songwriter than groenemeyer. if someone was looking for music with english lyrics, would you have a hissy fit over whether the band was from boston, texas, vancouver, kingston, edinburgh, or london?
Hallo, ich komme auch aus Deutschland und lese Dein Blog jeden Tag. Wenn Du deutsche Musik magst, solltest Du Dir unbedingt die "Einstürzenden Neubauten" anhören ( engl. "collapsing new buildings" ?). Das ist eine Band aus Berlin, gegründet 1980, die hauptsächlich Punk und Industrial Musik macht, aber nicht wirklich einzuordnen ist. Hier ist der Link: http://neubauten.org
und hier das Video zu meinem Lieblingssong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TssuSYrxVI
Liebe Gruesse
Tine
http://www.bloghof.net/turbotine
22 comments and not one mentions Malory - the best German band I've ever heard!
you should check out the german indie label waggle daggle
( http://www.waggle-daggle.com/ or http://myspace.com/waggledaggle )
they have got some great groups such as verlen, sonst peter (they also sing german lyrics) and skagen.
you should check out the german indie label waggle daggle
( http://www.waggle-daggle.com/ or http://myspace.com/waggledaggle )
they have got some great groups such as verlen, sonst peter (they also sing german lyrics) and skagen.
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