4 German Bands You Should Know

by Maria Davis.

Rock and roll was invented in the United States in the late 1940s. In the 1960s, we had the British invasion which brought a slightly different kind of rock to the country through the music of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and many more bands. Over the years, rock has gone through evolution after evolution, but the foundation of guitars and rollicking beats hasn’t changed much. But while American and British bands have mostly dominated the rock and roll space, Germany has actually produced talented and popular bands for several decades now.

You’re probably already familiar with some of these bands, but you may not have been aware that they were of German origin. This is because many German bands actually record most of their music in English, which is widely spoken in Germany, so the great thing is, you don’t have to learn German to enjoy their music. Check out these four popular German bands. You may just become a fan, if you’re not already.

Scorpions

Formed in 1965 in Hannover, Germany, Scorpions have been stinging fans for 46 years. They just announced in January 2011 they’d be retiring after one last tour to promote their album Sting in the Tail, but they will go down in history as one of the greatest hard rock bands ever. From their inception through the 1970s and into the early ’80s, they grew steadily in popularity.

But in 1984, the band released Love at First Sting, and firmly established themselves as rock stars. The album’s biggest hit, “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” in addition to being the most recognizable song in their catalogue, is included on the list of VH1′s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs at number 18.

Rammstein

The music Rammstein produces was initially so unique when the band formed in 1994, the German press coined a phrase to describe it: Neue Deutsche Härte, which means “new German hardness,” and is a subgenre of industrial metal. Unlike other German bands, most of Rammstein’s songs are performed in German, but the band is known for also performing in Spanish, English, French, and even Russian.

Rammstein has endured controversy and criticism for the band name they chose. The persistent rumor is that the band is named after the August 1988 Ramstein air show disaster where 70 people were killed, and more than 500 injured. Band members have continually denied this, yet they perform a song called “Rammstein,” which heavily alludes to the event.

Tokio Hotel

Yet another subgenre spawned by traditional rock and roll is pop rock, and Tokio Hotel has it down pat. One of the youngest German bands around, it was formed in 2001. After releasing a couple of albums in their native language, Tokio Hotel came out with its first English-language album, Scream, in 2007. Rather than original material, the album consists of translations of songs from their two previous hit albums.

While their English album didn’t impress critics much, fans loved it, and Tokio Hotel won the Best New Artist award at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. They’ve since gone on to win many other awards for their music, and have become one of the most popular bands in Germany, and around the world.

Kraftwerk

While their music is a departure from traditional rock, or even contemporary rock, no article about German bands is complete without a mention of Kraftwerk. Founded in 1970, Kraftwerk (which means power station) was one of the first bandsto create and perform electronic music.

That music has morphed into what today is called techno, and the band members are considered to be pioneers of the genre. Much of their music is produced using synthesizers, electronic organs, electric violins, guitars and flutes, and their minimalist vocals are usually generated via vocoder (voice encoder), or with computer-speech software. After 41 years, Kraftwerk shows no signs of slowing.

Bands like these simply prove that while rock may have originated in the United States, it knows no borders. Some of the best rock comes from far corners of the world, and does something all music is intended to do — brings people together.