24db wrote:However Kraftwerk's idea doesn't stand up at all, when they release English versions of their albums...then the bubble is burst.
I don't say Kraftwerk is trying to support fascist ideology... they don't. Their lyrics are not like that in any way. But I think they are using fascist aesthetics for elevating their recognisability... or maybe it was EMI's marketing idea.
Let me explain what I found so weird about yesterday's documentary, and why I then made the connection to the media's love of Kraftwerk: The first images I saw from "Krautrock" were some swastikas getting shuffled around on a yellowed map. I thought "What the heck is going on here, isn't this supposed to be about Krautrock? Why is the BBC trying to sell Germany's most important recent contribution to music from
that angle to the viewers?" I don't know, you probably must be German for understanding how weird and awkward that looked (to Germans).
I suppose they did it for getting the viewers attention. A BBC documentary about a German subject just HAS to start with swastikas somehow. After all how could the BBC tell an interesting story about Germans without starting off with Germany's fascist past. Doesn't work. Or so that documentary's author thought.
It's all about what "clicks" with the viewer and listener. TD? Roedelius, Rother, Moebius, Schulze? Yawn... oh well, yes... innovative, creative, something for individualists. Not really for the mass- market. Kraftwerk? Now we're talking! Hypnotic, clearly defined structures. Shirts (not brown, but anyway it's a start). Streamlined, uniform appearance. Surrounding themselves with untouchable aloofness... Now that's something that could be marketed as German music!
And then BBC4 finished their "German evening" with this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvIg0pFYaSo
That's how "Minimum Maximum" begins. Red-White-Black. Colours everyone associates with Germany's Nazi past, summoning attention in the same way like the beginning of the "Krautrock" documentary with its WWII map.
They (Kraftwerk/EMI) soaked that music video with subliminal fascist aesthetics, while staying on the safe side of deniability all the time. NOT for saying "fascism is cool, why don't you join?", but for saying "Hi, we're the guys from Germany.
Germany, remember? The country you love to hate. Now let's enjoy some machine beats together." It's all about how to sell something.
Unrelated: I found it fascinating how almost all of Germany's Krautrock musicians seem to have ended up in nice rural surroundings and on farms. Lucky guys.