Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk (pronounced , German for "power plant") are a German avant-garde musical group who have made significant contributions to the development of electronic music. The band was founded by Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter in 1970, but became widely known as a quartet consisting of Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos alongside the founding members.

Music

After several early experimental albums, their breakthrough came in 1974 (1974 in music) with the Autobahn album and its 22-minute title track (you can hear a sample on the album's page), which was a worldwide hit and demonstrated their increasing reliance on synthesizers and electronics. This was followed by a trio of albums that were to exert a huge influence on popular music — Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977) and the seminal The Man Machine (1978).

Related Topics:
1974 - 1974 in music - Autobahn - Synthesizers - Radio-Activity - 1975 - Trans-Europe Express - 1977 - The Man Machine - 1978

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Kraftwerk's lyrics deal with postwar European urban life and technology — travelling by car on the Autobahn, travelling by train, using home computers and the like. The lyrics are usually very minimal, but reveal both an innocent celebration of, and a knowing caution about, the modern world, as well as playing an integral role in the rhythmic structure of the songs. Many of Kraftwerk's songs express the paradoxical nature of modern urban life — a strong sense of alienation existing side by side with a celebration of the joys of modern technology.

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Kraftwerk were one of the first "pop" acts to record using pure electronic (or electronically processed) instruments and sounds exclusively. Many of the vocals in Kraftwerk songs are processed through a vocoder, or generated using speech synthesis software — a Speak & Spell was used on their 1981 album Computer World. They also pioneered the use of backing tracks that were generated by the electronic sequencing of purely synthetic sounds.

Related Topics:
Vocoder - Speech synthesis - Speak & Spell - Computer World

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Notably, all of their albums from Trans-Europe Express onwards have been recorded in two separate versions: one with German vocals for sale in Germany, and one with English vocals for international sale. The single "Tour de France" featured lyrics in French.

Related Topics:
German - Germany - English - Tour de France - French

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