Kraftwerk’s two key members, Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter founded the band in the early 70’s. They started out under the name Organisation and released one album called Tone Float during 1970. Their music at this time was very experimental and considered avant-garde. While they still used real instruments, they had a strong electric presence as well with effects and sounds. The music was very rhythm based and almost tribal in a sense. Due to poor sales, their record company dropped the group.
Florian and Ralf soon changed their name to Kraftwerk and started work on their next two self-titled albums as well as an album named Ralf and Florian. When they released Autobahn in 1974, it was their first release in the U.S. and it quickly became a hit worldwide. This album was their first real attempt at bringing pop music to their experiments. The group was still not using electronics exclusively yet though. The tracks on Autobahn still contained some flute, guitar, and violin although they were heavily processed most of the time. During these early years, Florian, Ralf, and any of the session musicians working with them attempted to portray themselves as scientists in photos and during their live shows. This perception was due to their short haircuts, their suit and tie wardrobes, and their technological themed music.
During the next few albums Kraftwerk’s image, music, and experimental approaches evolve. The group would continue to hold on to little pieces of their pop music style while expanding more on the experimental electronic side of Kraftwerk. Between the albums Radio-Activity in 1975, Trans-Europe Express in 1977, The Man-Machine in 1978, and Computer World in 1981, the group started to use electronics more exclusively than other instruments. They started incorporating more pop style dance rhythms as well as pop style melodies and lyrics. Kraftwerk started to change their appearance through these years as well. They started to portray themselves as robots rather than scientists or even humans. The increasingly electronic music reflected the robotic image very well.
What really makes Kraftwerk so iconic is the number of groups that drew influence from them. Artists such as David Bowie, Devo, Daft Punk, Gary Numan, U2, and many recent hip-hop and electronic acts owe thanks to Kraftwerk for the foundation of club music that they had innovated. Samples from Kraftwerk’s songs have been so frequently used almost everyone in the world has heard a beat or a melody that Kraftwerk had created. Their robotic self image and the futuristic concepts of their albums have been another one of the highly influential aspects of Kraftwerk. After the world caught up to their futuristic vision in the 1980’s, it spread like wild fire. Everyone seemed to dive right into the industrial, electronic computer world that Kraftwerk had innovated years earlier.
Although I had known about Kraftwerk for some time, I had no idea how much they really brought to the musical table. I had never really listened to any of their work until now. While writing this blog, I had listened to every album between Autobahn and Computer World, which some suggest to be the best of the Kraftwerk catalogue. It put a smile on my face to hear such familiar sounds in their original contexts. While I have grown up in the computer world with electronic music surrounding me I had no idea who to really thank until now. Once again, a force I had known nothing about had influenced me. Kraftwerk has risen to be one of my all time favorites and I have the utmost respect for them and their work.
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