Electronic Music Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is an electronic band from Germany that played and immensely promoted electronic music. Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider formed Kraftwerk in 1970 combining driving, repetitive rhythms, catchy melodies with minimalistic and strictly used electronic instrumentation. Kraftwerk simplified lyrics are sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk image was stiff and robotic.The members of the band wore suits or matching shirt and ties for their album pictures and live performances. Kraftwerk music tells a story or focuses on the theme of each of their albums. 

The album Autobahn from Kraftwerk released in 1974 and was produced by Conny Plank, The Beach Boys for their surfer theme inspired Kraftwerk Autobahn road travel theme. Kraftwerk released Radio-Activity in 1975 The theme for Radio-Activity was Nuclear energy and the radio that is also when Kling Klang Studios became a fully functional recording studio. In 1977 Kraftwerk released Trans-Europe Express and the theme of this album was the deep divisions in Europe and free expression. The track with the same name as the album Trans-Europe Express rhythm and beat was meant to emulate a train, even though the Trans-Europe Express track was creative as a industry professional but as far as charts it was a flop. The album Man Machine released in 1978 and was the first album released from Kraftwerk to link a sequencer to a drum machine, based on the music the theme of this album seemed to be machines and robots.

Kraftwerk has a tremendous impact on electronic music and has influenced many bands over the decades. One characteristic of Kraftwerk that earned them the position of the biggest influence in electronic music is their use of only electronic instrumentation,the synthesizers, drums, piano, vocals everything for them was electronic.Another important characteristic of Kraftwerk is their use of simple themes for almost every album, when you listen to Kraftwerk music you actually hear and understand the theme they have chosen.

Asa listener of Kraftwerk I felt like half the time I was listening to an electronic instrumental with a very creative theme.As a industry professional I found Kraftwerk to be very influential catchy and unique that clearly represents their style of music. I felt every theme they presented for each of their albums spook a lot about how much time was put into the perfection of their material. I can't help but feel influenced when I hear their music it makes me want to sample something from their work, Kraftwerk has so much to offer to industry professionals of many different genres of music. I tell you one track for me was Trans-Europe Express the train running percussion drum sound is amazing.