Music of Germany
German popular music of the 20th and 21st century includes the movements of Neue Deutsche Welle (Nena, Hubert Kah, Alphaville), disco (Boney M., Modern Talking, Dschinghis Khan, Milli Vanilli, Bad Boys Blue), metal/rock (Rammstein, Scorpions, Accept, Helloween), punk (Die Ärzte, Böhse Onkelz, Nina Hagen, Die Toten Hosen), pop rock (Sandra, Enigma, Michael Cretu, Herbert Grönemeyer) and indie (Tocotronic).
Across the border in Austria, Arnold Schoenberg innovated a form of twelve-tone music that used rhythm and dissonance instead of traditional melodies and harmonies, while Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht collaborated on some of the great works of German theater, including Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Three-Penny Opera.
Bach established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and adapted rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France.
The Esterházy princes of Vienna, for example, were the patrons of Joseph Haydn, an Austrian who invented the classic format of the string quartet, symphony and sonata.
Beethoven, a student of Haydn's in Vienna, used unusually daring harmonies and rhythm and composed numerous pieces for piano, violin, symphonies, chamber music, string quartets and an opera.
Schubert created a field of artistic, romantic poetry and music called lied; his lieder cycles included Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.
Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
During this period, the Nazi Party embarked on a campaign to rid Germany of so-called degenerate art, which became a catch-all phrase that included music with any link to Jews, Communists, jazz, and anything else thought to be dangerous.
Some figures such as Karl Amadeus Hartmann remained defiantly in Germany during the years of Nazi dominance, continually watchful of how their output might be interpreted by the authorities.
In the 60s and 70s, the Darmstadt New Music Summer School was a major center of European modernism; German composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Hans Werner Henze and non-German ones such as Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio all studied there.
Hans Werner Henze largely dissociated himself from the Darmstadt school in favour of a more lyrical approach, and remains perhaps Germany's most lauded contemporary composer.
Swabian folk music is most popularly represented by acts like Saiten Fell and Firlefanz and the singer-songwriter (and player of the hurdy-gurdy and guitar) Thomas Felder.
While musical preferences are often a feature of youthful rebellion—as the history of rock and roll shows—jazz and especially Swing were particularly offensive to the Nazi hierarchy: not only did they promote sexual permissiveness, but they were also associated with the American enemy and worse, with the African race they considered inferior.
An important part of Schlager is volkstümliche Musik, a Schlager-like interpretation of traditional German folk themes that is very popular in German-speaking countries, especially among the older generation.
Schlager has a wide variety, and the artists with many other styles, for example: Heino, Katja Ebstein, Wolfgang Petry, Guildo Horn, Roland Kaiser, Helene Fischer and many others.
Bill Ramsey, a senior producer at AFN Frankfurt in 1953 who came from Ohio, later became famous as a jazz and Schlager singer in Germany (while remaining almost unknown in the US).
It was arguably the first successful unique German form of Pop music, but was limited in its stylistic devices (funny lyrics and surreal composition and production).
On the other side of the Iron Curtain, these bands tended to be stylistically more conservative than in the West, to have more reserved engineering, and often to include more classical and traditional structures (such as those developed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in their 1920s Berlin theater songs).
Only a few individual songs, such as "Am Fenster" by City and "Über sieben Brücken mußt Du geh'n" by Karat, found wide popularity outside the GDR.
This success was followed by several other bands and artists that led to a new boom of German-language music and a broader acceptance of existing German-language recording artists, such as: Popular anglophone alternative rock and crossover bands from Germany that managed to find success domestic and abroad include Beatsteaks, Donots, Blackmail, Reamonn, Saline Grace, H-Blockx, Itchy Poopzkid, Guano Apes and Die Happy.
Popular bands and performers include Culcha Candela, Dr. Ring-Ding, Gentleman, Hans Söllner, Jan Delay, Mamadee, Milky Chance, Oceana, Patrice, Peter Fox and Seeed.
Notable R&B, Soul and Funk artists include Ayọ, Cassandra Steen, Denyo, Miss Platnum, Nadja Benaissa, Nneka, Söhne Mannheims and Xavier Naidoo.
Whereas hip hop had a peak of success in the early first decade of the 21st century, gangster rap became a controversial part of German music and youth culture just as late as 2004 with Aggro Berlin.
Some of Germany's hip hop artists are: Cro, Kool Savas, Sido, Samy Deluxe, Bushido, Marteria, Eko Fresh, Bonez MC, Gzuz, Samra, Capital Bra, Trettmann, and Afrob.
The European style of power metal, developed in Germany, was popularized by German bands like Blind Guardian, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Freedom Call, Iron Savior, Avantasia, Edguy and Primal Fear gained international recognition.
Notable bands include Subway to Sally, In Extremo, Corvus Corax, Saltatio Mortis and Schandmaul (the last is considered folk rock in Germany).
Most notable artists are Lacrimosa, Lacrimas Profundere, Xmal Deutschland, Das Ich, Deine Lakaien, Illuminate, Untoten, Erben der Schöpfung (from Liechtenstein), No More, Girls Under Glass or Project Pitchfork.
Some other bands like Liaisons Dangereuses, Tyske Ludder, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft and Die Krupps created a style later called Electronic body music.
In recent years, German DJs have found worldwide success in the popular edm genre, most notably Paul Kalkbrenner, Cascada, Felix Jaehn and Robin Schulz.
Other popular and influential German DJs and dance projects include Paul van Dyk, WestBam, DJ Quicksilver, ATB, Ian Pooley, Jam & Spoon, Lexy & K-Paul, Blank & Jones, Sven Väth, Dune, ItaloBrothers, Groove Coverage, Novaspace, International Pony and Anthony Rother.
