Five Videos To Introduce You To “Krautrock”
Exploring German Rock of the 70s
In 1985, The Fall released “I Am Damo Suzuki” — an homage to the singer of Can both in title and style. Iggy Pop’s 1977 “Funtime” takes direct inspiration from Klaus Dinger’s drumming on the Neu! song, “Lila Engel.” And the entirety of David Bowie’s “Low,” but especially the infamous and wonderful second half, is steeped in the experimental sounds of 70s Germany.
“Krautrock,” as the music of this period has — not uncontroversially —come to be known, is everywhere in rock history.
The list of artists influenced by the style that I gave above is ridiculously short and incomplete — I could probably go on listing people for ten paragraphs and still leave out dozens. But as is so often the case, influence lives on while origins tend to become obscured over time.
This is a shame because the music is just so damn good.
So, where to start?
Whenever somebody asks what to listen to to get into a genre, it’s always possible to give this classic piece of advice: “Just listen to a few albums and see if you like them.”
As unhelpful as this advice may sound at first, it could be all you need. There is something to be said for going into an experience completely blind, knowing next to no context, just letting the music take you away.
But there are other possibilities, and I want to explore a few of them in the remainder of this article. I have assembled five different videos from YouTube that are meant to cover a wide variety of possible approaches to giving an introduction to “Krautrock.”
My list will start with what is ostensibly a “traditional” documentary (albeit made for youtube), followed by a short interview and an overview video of the genre that is somewhere between video essay and classic lecture format.
The last two examples show what I consider to be exclusive to the online video format — a long conversation between four people over webcam and a video of an enthusiastic fan presenting his record collection. I hope this doesn’t just give you a bit of insight into the wide variety of Krautrock as an approach to music but also possible approaches to talking about and presenting music-related topics on YouTube.
“Under The Influence — Krautrock” by Noisey: The most traditional in terms of format, this short documentary is a dense and thrilling half-hour ride packed with historical context, interviews, and musical examples.
As such, it is perfect for the beginner and leaves you wanting more (in the best possible way). There are two further installments in the “Under The Influence” series — one on New York Hardcore, and one on 2 Tone Ska, both highly recommended.
“Mute Records Daniel Miller’s Top 5 Krautrock Albums” by ClassicAlbumSundays: This is a brief interview with Daniel Miller (a.k.a. “The Normal”), who founded Mute Records in 1978.
Aside from making me want to explore the connections between Krautrock and some Mute Records artists in more detail, this video is full of little anecdotes, observations, and background information by somebody who was actually part of an underground music scene himself. Some of those include the influence of Kraftwerk’s albums on his own music, Faust’s “punk” gesture of sampling a bit of the Stones and Beatles, and how he found in Can what he had originally been looking for in the Grateful Dead.
“Five Albums To Help Get You Into Krautrock” by deep cuts: Situated somewhere between video essay and traditional lecture, this guide is much more than a simple Top 5 list. The video starts off with a refreshingly nuanced discussion of the term “Krautrock” itself before launching into brief reviews of the five albums (actually seven, if you count the ones that are not on the list proper but would still fit).
There’s background information on the historical and cultural setting at the time of the record’s release and the reviewer's personal feelings, giving the entire format a pleasant atmosphere of a “very knowledgeable friend talking to me about music.”
The entire “deep cuts” channel is wonderful; in addition to the “Albums to get you into X” series, there are also guides to specific artists, “Best Album” lists, and a few one-off video essays.
The creator of the channel combines meticulous research into the topics with an infectious passion for music of various genres and levels of popularity, and every single video I watched made me pause multiple times to take notes, read up on some obscure detail or just listen to an album or two before coming back.
There are some other videos on the channel that will allow you to dig deeper into Krautrock, including the “Guide to Brian Eno” (which discusses his records with Cluster) and part 1 of the David Bowie retrospective (in which the last few minutes are dedicated to “Low” and its German influences).
“In The Prog Seat: Our Favorite Krautrock Albums” by Sea Of Tranquility: This one is a bit of a departure from the previous examples both in terms of length and general atmosphere. Clocking in at a breezy 93 minutes, the video perfectly evokes the feeling of being at a pub or café and listening to a group of friends passionately talk about music.
The conversation feels loose and improvised (in the best possible way); all the participants clearly know what they’re talking about and are excited to share their favorite records. The different backgrounds in other genres everybody brings to the table contribute to the dynamic nature of the format and add some variety that you couldn’t get from a documentary or introductory video with only one narrator.
Early on, they introduce various possible ways of conceptualizing “Krautrock” and suggest a distinction between approaches that are more rooted in rock and those that are more heavily electronics-based.
While I’m not sure I would personally separate the two approaches this way, I still consider it to be a helpful distinction — not because it is rigid and consistently applicable (it would be disappointing if any distinction could be like that), but just as an interesting lens through which to view different bands and albums in what is a wonderfully diverse and exciting period of music history.
“My krautrock record collection” by NicoMalcolm: To close out this list, here’s one that’s a little different. I only discovered this channel while researching this article, but I was so swept away by the enthusiasm for the music I saw that I decided to include it immediately.
Below you find the first episode of a series in which the uploader alphabetically goes through an impressively large and varied collection of Krautrock records and shares some general information and personal stories about them.
The sheer amount and variety of records on display is mindblowing, and listening to somebody talk about something with such genuine passion is always a delight. In addition, you get to experience some gorgeous album artwork, and somehow the fact that this is not a slick, over-produced video, in my opinion, actually adds to the atmosphere and elevates this over just looking at the covers after doing a Google search.
And this concludes my overview of “Five Videos To Get You Into Krautrock.” I hope you enjoyed reading it!
Note: I have intentionally limited myself to videos that were made for YouTube and excluded any Krautrock documentaries made for TV or VHS/DVD release (whether or not they may be uploaded to the site). Please let me know if you would be interested in reading a review of some of those more traditional documentaries in the future!
… and if you want to read about the time I listened to a “NEU!” song ten times to feel like Iggy Pop, you can do so here:
