Drafts by Timor Kaul
Abstract: The publication Electri_city (Esch 2014/ 2016) and a conference with the same title in ... more Abstract: The publication Electri_city (Esch 2014/ 2016) and a conference with the same title in 2015 contribute to establish Düsseldorf as a pop-musical Erinnerungsort (Nora 1990, François/ Schulze 2005), a real or metaphorical ‘place’ where collective memories crystallize (Halbwachs, 2003). This process is supported by the local authorities and media expecting a positive image and economical synergies. The new Erinnerungsort >Düsseldorf< is linked to the well known older ones >Krautrock< and >Kraftwerk< and the city had been declared as “origin” (Flür in Esch 2014: 9) or “Hauptstadt” (capital) of popular electronic music.
Interestingly the appreciation of electronic popular music >Made in Germany< started in Great Britain and has to be seen in the context of an ambivalent “British fixation with Germany” (Witts 2011). The international fame krautrock and Kraftwerk gained by this, had been integrated into a concept of a new patriotic pop-identity after the German reunion (Schneider 2015: 86 ff..). This cultural re-nationalization ignores the historical fact that most protagonists of the German krautrock and punk/new wave counterculture of the 1970s and 80s had been left wing and anti-nationalistic and Kraftwerk’s >Germanness< remained highly ambivalent as well (Albiez/ Lindvig 2011, Cunningham 2011, Kaul 2016).
Especially the metaphorical understanding of the Erinnerungsorte allows to combine this concept with the “Mythologies” Roland Barthes analysed (Barthes 1992 [1957]). The myth works on a semiotic level and tends to naturalize history- it suggests e.g. ’natural’ links between words like >Germany<, >industry<, >Rhine-Ruhr area<, Kraftwerk<, >Düsseldorf< and >electronic music<. The new myth of the “Elektro-Hauptstadt D´Dorf” reduces complex and contingent music historical processes to one simple narrative that is localized at the Kling-Klang-Studio finally: This is the mythical German origin of global electronic popular music.
In his oral pop history Electri_City (Esch 2014, 2016) Rüdiger Esch, former bass player of the ba... more In his oral pop history Electri_City (Esch 2014, 2016) Rüdiger Esch, former bass player of the band Die Krupps, combined snippets from interviews he did with protagonists of Düsseldorf’s music scene during the period from 1968 to 1986. The concept of oral pop history had been established in Germany by Jürgen Teipel (2001) and it surely provides rich data and fruitful insights. But the concept also has to be seen critically from a methodological perspective since it does not present the ’true’ history of scenes as it had been claimed (Denk, Teipel, von Thülen, in: De:Bug 2012).
The author Rüdiger Esch reconstructed the golden era of Düsseldorf’s music scene with the help of contemporary witnesses, but due to his choices and combinations of their reports and statements the final montage of the book remains a historical narrative among others. Also for that reason the myth of Düsseldorf being the “origin” (Flür 2014: 9) or even “capital” of electronic popular music, spread by the publication Electri_City and a conference with the same title in autumn 2015, has to be rejected, since there had been quite similar and other important developments at many other places in Germany, Great Britain, the US and other countries during the 1970s and 80s. Further on the label “Düsseldorf School”, which the subtitle of the English translation of Electri_City (2016) suggests, does not seem to be suitable to subsume bands as different as Kraftwerk, Neu!, La Düsseldorf, Der Plan, DAF, Die Krupps and Propaganda.
The following review had been published by German POP magazine online on 24/8/2015 first.
Electronic Body Music (EBM) contributed to bridge the gap between the genres industrial and techn... more Electronic Body Music (EBM) contributed to bridge the gap between the genres industrial and techno. But it also is an important Übergangsgenre, a genre in transition and a transitional genre in terms of line-up, use of electronic instruments, further production methods and aesthetical and related political ideologies.
Book Reviews by Timor Kaul
Papers by Timor Kaul
Lebenswelt House/ Techno: DJs und ihre Musik is the dissertation project of Timor Kaul, Cologne. ... more Lebenswelt House/ Techno: DJs und ihre Musik is the dissertation project of Timor Kaul, Cologne. The aim of this music-ethnographic project is to reconstruct the "Lebenswelt" related to the genres house and techno with the help of qualitative interviews with DJs.
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Drafts by Timor Kaul
Interestingly the appreciation of electronic popular music >Made in Germany< started in Great Britain and has to be seen in the context of an ambivalent “British fixation with Germany” (Witts 2011). The international fame krautrock and Kraftwerk gained by this, had been integrated into a concept of a new patriotic pop-identity after the German reunion (Schneider 2015: 86 ff..). This cultural re-nationalization ignores the historical fact that most protagonists of the German krautrock and punk/new wave counterculture of the 1970s and 80s had been left wing and anti-nationalistic and Kraftwerk’s >Germanness< remained highly ambivalent as well (Albiez/ Lindvig 2011, Cunningham 2011, Kaul 2016).
Especially the metaphorical understanding of the Erinnerungsorte allows to combine this concept with the “Mythologies” Roland Barthes analysed (Barthes 1992 [1957]). The myth works on a semiotic level and tends to naturalize history- it suggests e.g. ’natural’ links between words like >Germany<, >industry<, >Rhine-Ruhr area<, Kraftwerk<, >Düsseldorf< and >electronic music<. The new myth of the “Elektro-Hauptstadt D´Dorf” reduces complex and contingent music historical processes to one simple narrative that is localized at the Kling-Klang-Studio finally: This is the mythical German origin of global electronic popular music.
The author Rüdiger Esch reconstructed the golden era of Düsseldorf’s music scene with the help of contemporary witnesses, but due to his choices and combinations of their reports and statements the final montage of the book remains a historical narrative among others. Also for that reason the myth of Düsseldorf being the “origin” (Flür 2014: 9) or even “capital” of electronic popular music, spread by the publication Electri_City and a conference with the same title in autumn 2015, has to be rejected, since there had been quite similar and other important developments at many other places in Germany, Great Britain, the US and other countries during the 1970s and 80s. Further on the label “Düsseldorf School”, which the subtitle of the English translation of Electri_City (2016) suggests, does not seem to be suitable to subsume bands as different as Kraftwerk, Neu!, La Düsseldorf, Der Plan, DAF, Die Krupps and Propaganda.
The following review had been published by German POP magazine online on 24/8/2015 first.
Book Reviews by Timor Kaul
Papers by Timor Kaul
Interestingly the appreciation of electronic popular music >Made in Germany< started in Great Britain and has to be seen in the context of an ambivalent “British fixation with Germany” (Witts 2011). The international fame krautrock and Kraftwerk gained by this, had been integrated into a concept of a new patriotic pop-identity after the German reunion (Schneider 2015: 86 ff..). This cultural re-nationalization ignores the historical fact that most protagonists of the German krautrock and punk/new wave counterculture of the 1970s and 80s had been left wing and anti-nationalistic and Kraftwerk’s >Germanness< remained highly ambivalent as well (Albiez/ Lindvig 2011, Cunningham 2011, Kaul 2016).
Especially the metaphorical understanding of the Erinnerungsorte allows to combine this concept with the “Mythologies” Roland Barthes analysed (Barthes 1992 [1957]). The myth works on a semiotic level and tends to naturalize history- it suggests e.g. ’natural’ links between words like >Germany<, >industry<, >Rhine-Ruhr area<, Kraftwerk<, >Düsseldorf< and >electronic music<. The new myth of the “Elektro-Hauptstadt D´Dorf” reduces complex and contingent music historical processes to one simple narrative that is localized at the Kling-Klang-Studio finally: This is the mythical German origin of global electronic popular music.
The author Rüdiger Esch reconstructed the golden era of Düsseldorf’s music scene with the help of contemporary witnesses, but due to his choices and combinations of their reports and statements the final montage of the book remains a historical narrative among others. Also for that reason the myth of Düsseldorf being the “origin” (Flür 2014: 9) or even “capital” of electronic popular music, spread by the publication Electri_City and a conference with the same title in autumn 2015, has to be rejected, since there had been quite similar and other important developments at many other places in Germany, Great Britain, the US and other countries during the 1970s and 80s. Further on the label “Düsseldorf School”, which the subtitle of the English translation of Electri_City (2016) suggests, does not seem to be suitable to subsume bands as different as Kraftwerk, Neu!, La Düsseldorf, Der Plan, DAF, Die Krupps and Propaganda.
The following review had been published by German POP magazine online on 24/8/2015 first.