Although German rock music (Deutschrock) didn't come into its own until the late 1960s, it spawned many innovative and influential bands spanning genres such as krautrock, New Wave, heavy metal, punk, and industrial.
Rock and roll itself arose in the United States in the 1940s, and spread across the world beginning in about 1956. There were few German performers at that time, even though American rock was popular in (West) Germany. Rockabilly stars like Bill Haley & His Comets were of particular popularity. The reasons for this lack of German musical innovation were the suppression of "degenerate" forms of music by the Nazis and/or the traumatic effects of the war—while Germany was a center of several forms of modern music before the Nazi era, it had difficulty developing its own music culture after its occupation.
Read more about German Rock: 1960s and 70s: Krautrock, Neue Deutsche Welle, Ostrock, German Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, Hamburger Schule, Neue Deutsche Härte, Medieval Metal
Famous quotes containing the words german and/or rock:
“Some of us prefer Austrian voices risen in song to ugly German threats.”
—Ernest Lehman (b. 1920)
“When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to dance the waltz and foxtrot. But how many of us can dance, or have even heard of the gombe sugu, the mangala, nyang’umumi, kiduo, or lele mama?”
—Julius K. Nyerere (b. 1922)