Kraftwerk was a german electric band that was brought together by Ralf Hutter & Florian Schneider in 1970. The name Kraftwerk means “Power Plant” or “Power Station”. They were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music and are considered pioneers in that field.
Kraftwerk’s distinctive sound is known as very revolutionary and influencial to later bands and music.
Autobahn was released in November 1974 and it was the electronic band’s fourth studio album. The 22minute Autobahn track was edited to about 3minutes for the single release. It is the first of Kraftwerk’s concept albums.
Radio-Activity was released October 1975 and was their fifth studio album. It was also a bilingual album featuring both lyrics in English & German. It was the first entirely self-produced kraftwerk album.
Trans-Europe Express was released in 1977 on Kling Klang Records.
The Man-Machine is the seventh studio album released in May 1978. The song “The Model” was a chart topping single in the UK in 1982. It was the first time Karl Bartos got songwriting credits on a Kraftwerk album.
Computer World released in May 1981 deals with the rise of computers within society. Some say this is when kraftwerk was at their peak of their career. Karl Bartos returns to getting composition credits on this album also. The album sound is now more reliant purely on electronics & vocals. As with all the past albums, there were both German and English versions.
Kraftwerk’s music concepts were pretty amazing; for example, Autobahn’s concept was the huge German highway with no speed limit, Trans-Europe Express was about the train system in Germany, and Computer World was about the rise of the use of computers in the community.
As a listener, some of Kraftwerk’s older works are a little hard for me to listen too. I like the sounds of the Trans-Europe Express and The Man-Machine. As an industry professional I can see Kraftwerk influence in today’s pop music.
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