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Pop from Germany

After the US, Japan and Great Britain, Germany is the world’s fourth-largest music market. Whereas pop exports were limited in the 1970s to krautrock, in the 1980s to hard rock and in the 1990s to dance music, “pop from Germany” nowadays appears to function across all kinds of genres and boundaries. Thanks to the Internet, it is becoming increasingly easy to share music internationally, which is also benefiting less well-known and as yet unsigned bands/projects/DJs.

“Pop from Germany” provides information about the latest trends in the pop/rock, hip-hop/soul and global pop/reggae genres and offers further links.

Introduction

Crisis in the music industry: The new volatility

There’s no end in sight to the bad news for the music industry. Growth in digital business has been remarkable, to be sure, but too little to recoup losses. On the other hand, the fact remains that the recorded-music industry is here to stay, and some of the small labels already know how to hold their own in the market.More ...

Photo with kind permission by Frank Ziegert, Abwärts

Love in a void

Every time I hear Germany calling, I find myself parroting Michael Corleone in Godfather III: “Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in.” In 35 years of writing about German music, there hasn’t been a moment when I wasn’t also attempting to escape the gravity trapping me in its orbit. By Chris BohnMore ...

Current Trends

Pop 2012: Of krautrockers, suburban rappers and welfare-line chansonettes

The trend toward made-in-Germany mainstream continues unabated and internationally-geared newcomers are finding an audience across the English Channel.More ...

Chicks on Speed, Roskilde Festival 2003, Photo: Bernd Muller/Redferns

From independent to indie

In the late 1970s, a music movement emerged out of the (free) spirit of post-punk in many Western countries. Independent labels were the logistical heart of the movement. In the decades that followed, indie became a genre unto itself and came to denote a particular lifestyle and style of consumption.More ...