Off the Map

New Obervations about Germany's Musical Tastes

Germany isn’t the techno nation we Americans often assume.

Yes, they listen to more dance music than we do – but so does the rest of the world. We are way behind in that regard (excluding Muslim and other oppressive Governments, of course). Anyways, much of the music, Dance, Hip-Hop or otherwise, has a down tempo emphasis, even to the extent that their Hip-Hop is significantly more relaxed than ours.

Allow me to clarify this with an example: I was working out in the gym at my apartment complex, where we are lucky enough to have a boom box with a tape deck. I had hooked up my iPod to a connector thru the deck and was playing some solid German Hip-Hop (Fettes Brot, for those of you who care) when a couple other residents (Germans) came in and joined me. I offered flexibility regarding the musical choice (Huzzah for 3500 songs on my iPod!), and they suggested we play something more energetic. So I switched to some high-energy dance (Eric Prydz “Call on Me”), only to get a look of disgust. I then flipped thru some random tunes until something caught their fancy – American Hip-Hop (Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”, specifically).

None of the German Hip-Hop I played was suitable for their workout tastes. All too slow. After the incident, I went thru the collection of the mainstream German music I’ve been amassing since arrival here, and noticed trends. The male rock is pretty happy-go-lucky (this excludes German Death Metal!), the female rock is all like the group Anastasia, girls sounding off about life over melody driven, energetic guitars. Dance is mostly ambient and down-tempo. Hip-Hop is more reflective, slower, and has a darker, deeper sound – less yelling too. Most obviously though: 75% of all radio/bar/club music is American or English.

This overwhelming presence of English language has pushed the Germans to rally around their own songs in such a way we don’t see in the States. For example: You’ll be sitting in a bar talking with friends over a good Augstina beer, with everyone else in the joint doing the same. American pop-garbage is playing in the background. But then the song changes. Suddenly the atmosphere is energized! People begin to cheer and you know that it's something in German. The arrival of the chorus triggers a massive sing along! Formerly separate groups of people are unexpectedly united by a song in a common language - a German song standing in stark contrast to the domination before and after by English artists.

Questions for the day:
1) Why is the slower, more reflective style more popular in German made music than American?

2) Is the rallying around songs in German, regardless of the quality, an expression of a national pride that is otherwise taboo in the face of their troubled history (think Nazis)?

posted by Jason @ 8:57 pm