Pophörspiel: Popular music in radio art

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

Authors

  • Holger Schulze
We hear glass breaking against the background of a cheap beat and a quirky, repetitive electronic bassline that is somehow theatrical. Farther away, we hear the shouts and sounds of human aggression. Something violent and emotional is happening and, back in the foreground, a smooth and soothing voice – a female news presenter – reports rather unemotionally about this emotional instance behind her: we hear the sound of a world as captured by the administration. It is all quite strange. What are we actually listening to? We are in fact listening to a 7″ single, and we are listening to a political protest. The protest occurred in 1981 in West Berlin, on the Kurfürstendamm, or the ‘Kudamm’ in local argot. The record, on which this boulevard is the main actor in a political performance, is called ‘Berlin Q-Damm 12.4.81’, released by the record label Riskant from Cologne. This label, focusing mostly on industrial and new wave music – and with a fish on chicken legs for its logo – would later include this political protest cum musical composition on the album ‘Der Durchdrungene Mensch/Indianer von Morgen’ (The Permeated Man/Indians of Tomorrow) by Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPerspectives on German Popular Music
EditorsMichael Ahlers, Christoph Jacke
Number of pages7
PublisherTaylor and Francis Inc.
Publication date01.01.2016
Pages67-73
ISBN (print)9781472479624
ISBN (electronic)9781317081739, 9781315600208
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2016