Annual Reviews

At the beginning of each year, our annual music reviews offer a summary of the latest trends in various genres of German music over the past year. What were the developments in electronic music and pop, in jazz or in classical, new and early music in Germany, what was important, what stood out?

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2023
All change for classical music

In 2023 it seemed that many German ensembles seized the opportunity opened up by the classical crisis. New orchestras, new payment models, new experiments with virtual music. From the Bayreuther Festspiele to MaerzMusik: there have rarely been as many new beginnings as we are seeing right now.

Photo (detail): © Bayreuther Festspiele/Enrico Nawrath
Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2022
Power and Crises

After two years of Covid restrictions, 2022 did not deliver on hopes for a sudden return to normal in the classical music scene. A lot of issues came to a head in the classical, early and contemporary music scenes. And politics became definitively inseparable from the arts.

Photo (detail): © Co Merz / Münchner Philharmoniker
Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2021
Reawakening and setbacks

Racism, abuse of power, Covid – 2021 was another year of controversy and profound social debate in the early, new and classical music scene. Hannah Schmidt looks back on some of the main issues and incidents – and how the German classical music scene coped with another pandemic year.

Photo (detail): © Volker Beushausen / Ruhrtriennale 2021

Jazz

Jazz 2023
Creative, self-organised, political, international

German jazz is becoming more international. Languages and styles are intermingling, artist-run spaces are encouraging experimentation and musicians are defying the precarity of their situations – especially in the country’s capital.

Photo (detail): © Oliver Potratz
Jazz 2022
Increasingly vibrant, diverse, young, female & precarious

The German jazz scene is alive and well. Even after two years of Covid, it’s extremely diverse and innovative. On the other hand, despite various state “support packages”, hardly anyone in the scene made it through this dry spell unscathed.

Photo (detail): © MWA @ INI MU/Camillie Blake/Deutscher Jazzpreis
Jazz 2021
German jazz emerges from Covid-induced state of shock

What is our music worth? The 2021 pandemic year called for a strategic mix of productive collaboration, political solidarity, solid networking and innovative individual approaches to jazz.

Photo (detail): © Shutter & Melody

Pop and Electronic Music

Pop and Electronic Music 2023
Nostalgia on the dancefloor

After three years of pandemic and post-pandemic restrictions, Gen Z have stormed the dancefloors in 2023 – sometimes for the first time. This new generation is developing its own rave culture, wildly mixing techniques, sounds and aesthetics from hip hop and electronic music. Thematically, escapism and nostalgia for a vaguely distant past have dominated the most diverse genres of pop cross-generationally.

Photo (detail): © Arkadiy Kreslov
Pop and Electronic Music 2022
No More War!

2022 was a year of contradictions. While at festivals and sold-out stadium concerts it seemed as though everything was back to pre-pandemic normal, smaller-scale gigs and tours galore were called off – owing to insufficient demand. Economically speaking, it was an anxious year, and musically speaking, all the more provocative.

Photo (detail): © Marcel Moos
Pop and Electronic Music 2021
Where’s the booster?

2021 was supposed to be the post- pandemic year for pop music. Such was the prevailing hope as Germany’s Covid-stricken music and event industry embarked on a summer of culture in which, at least for a brief spell, everything seemed almost normal again. But then came the fourth wave.

Photo (detail): © Steinsohn

Annual Reviews

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2023 All change for classical music

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2022 Power and Crises

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2021 Reawakening and setbacks

Jazz

Jazz 2023 Creative, self-organised, political, international

Jazz 2022 Increasingly vibrant, diverse, young, female & precarious

Jazz 2021 German jazz emerges from Covid-induced state of shock

Pop and Electronic Music

Pop and Electronic Music 2023 Nostalgia on the dancefloor

Pop and Electronic Music 2022 No More War!

Pop and Electronic Music 2021 Where’s the booster?

Follow us

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2023
All change for classical music

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2022
Power and Crises

Classical, Contemporary and Early Music 2021
Reawakening and setbacks

Jazz 2023
Creative, self-organised, political, international

Jazz 2022
Increasingly vibrant, diverse, young, female & precarious

Jazz 2021
German jazz emerges from Covid-induced state of shock

Pop and Electronic Music 2023
Nostalgia on the dancefloor

Pop and Electronic Music 2022
No More War!

Pop and Electronic Music 2021
Where’s the booster?