Neue Deutsche Welle - History

History

The history of the Neue Deutsche Welle consists of two major parts. From its beginnings to 1981, the Neue Deutsche Welle was mostly an underground movement with roots in British punk and New Wave music; it quickly developed into an original and distinct style, influenced in no small part by the different sound and rhythm of the German language which many of the bands had adapted from early on.

The main centers of the NDW movement during these years were Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover and Hagen as well as, to a lesser extent, the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region, Limburg an der Lahn and Vienna (Austria).

From about 1980 on, the music industry began noticing the Neue Deutsche Welle; however, due to the idiosyncratic nature of the music, the focus shifted to creating new bands more compatible with the mainstream, rather than promoting existing bands. Many one-hit wonders and short-lived bands appeared and were forgotten again in rapid succession, and the overly broad application of the "NDW" label to these bands as well as to almost any German musicians not using English lyrics, even if their music was apparently not influenced at all by the 'original' NDW (including pure Rock bands like BAP or even Udo Lindenberg) quickly led to the decay of the entire genre when many of the original musicians turned their backs in frustration.

Around 1983/1984, the era of the Neue Deutsche Welle came to an early end, following the oversaturation of the market with what was perceived as stereotypical, manufactured hits.

A revival of interest in the style in the Anglophone world occurred in 2003, with the release of DJ Hell's compilation New Deutsch. The NDW has come to be acknowledged as a forerunner to later developments in dance-punk, electronic body music, and electroclash.

In the 2000s, the term is being used by the Berlin-based rap label Aggro Berlin to describe a supposed new German rap movement that they claim to be a part of. This was the subject of Aggro-signed Fler in his 2005 single Neue Deutsche Welle.

Read more about this topic:  Neue Deutsche Welle

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern liberalism is that the public has got to be marginalized. The general public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd.
    Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)

    In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)