Various - Die Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) Aus grauer Städte Mauern - Die Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) 1977-85, Teil 3

Die Neue Deutsche Welle - NDW

The New German Wave - NDW

At the end of the 1970s/beginning of the 1980s, hardly any other musical genre had divided the musical nation as much as the "Neue Deutsche Welle". For the one too weird or too weird, for the other the departure to new musical shores, an invigorating aspect in the bumbling music landscape or an energy boost for an entire industry and for others simply too silly or the worst commerce.

The "Neue Deutsche Welle" was until the early 1980s, before its commercial discovery by the major labels. An authentic underground movement whose origins lay directly in the British punk and New Wave movement.

Several bands of that time could not and/or did not want to take the step to the commercial side of the business and later fell into oblivion. At the end of the 70s it was high time for something to move in the German music scene. For decades, English and American music was copied almost exclusively. The only German/German-speaking stars were Udo Lindenberg, Peter Maffay or Marius Müller-Westernhagen.

The "Neue Deutsche Welle" was the "only pop event worth mentioning in Germany's popular music since the Second World War" (Thomas Schwebel v.d. "Fehlfarben"). The result was an independent scene that still has a market share of around 20% and has been able to hold its own against the major labels for well over 30 years. But there was hardly a music scene whose start was so overslept by the music industry, initially fought, then taken over in a flash, marketed so brutally and ruthlessly and so quickly dropped so ice-cold again. No music style was safe from the label "NDW" - pop, rock, blues, punk, amateurs, folk music, atonal, Schlager, rockabilly - everything was incorporated and labelled "Neue Deutsche Welle". What turned into shallow pop pop in the mid-1980s had once started as a rebellion against a stiffened music world, as a resistance against the cumbersome international pop music.

Own production and distribution

The musicians and bands suddenly produced with the simplest means and began to build their own structures in order to rebel against the gigantomania of the overwhelming major labels, not to be talked into it and to keep control of their "product" ("Rondo" slogan: "Listen in a good mood"). Own production and self-distribution of singles in small quantities, small independent "DIY" (Do It Yourself) - and self-publishing labels like "Schallmauer", "Rondo", "No Fun", "Pure Freude", "Rip Off", "Atatak", "Zick Zack", "Konneckschen" and alternative record shops created the conditions for this.

The use of German texts

The use of German lyrics, which created a new previously unknown feeling of togetherness, had already been successfully introduced by the German punk scene. Both young and experienced musicians, who at that time had hardly anything to lose, got infected by the philosophy and the experiences of the punks. As in the mid-70s, suddenly everything was feasible and possible ("You can do that too"). The dug-out arrangements, the overloaded productions, the "heavy messages" (ICHWILLSPASS) were simply thrown overboard to make way for Spartan instrumentation and simple chord sequences.

Everyone played as they could, composed as they wanted and produced in the kitchen, a corner of the bedroom or - almost professionally - in the garage. The bands recorded records or music cassettes on their own, which they then brought to the shops by themselves at first, then by themselves and were dependent on marketing themselves and their music (Es Geht Voran)

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