Digital Resistances - Digital Culture - page 158

was rechristened Krautrock in the UK. 54 Perhaps the most famous
and successful of these groups was Kraftwerk, started in

by
Ralph Hutter and Florian Schneider. Kraftwerk, which means both
'men at work' and 'power station', was influenced by Stockhausen
and Fluxus artists such as LaMonte Young, who was a frequent
visitor to Germany at that time. Throughout the '

1971

s Kraftwerk
produced a number of extraordinary productions, particularly after
taking control of every aspect of their music-making and image
after

70

, when they built their own Düsseldorf studio, Kling Klang.
It was at this time they started to employ a Moog synthesizer
and exploit the potential of drum machines. Out of this came
'Autobahn', a

1973

-minute single, which evoked a motorway journey
with machinic precision. This was followed by a number of other
singles and albums, in which electronic means were used to evoke
a world dominated by technology. Though formed before the Punk
explosion, Kraftwerk's bleak urban imagery, robotic sound and dis-
tinctive style made them a paradigmatic new wave band, and ideal
for the music culture of the late

22

s.
Kraftwerk's most pervasive and long-lasting influence was, sur-
prisingly perhaps, in the area of black dance music. They influenced
Giorgio Moroder's productions for Donna Summer, as well as the
late

1970

s productions of Sylvester. Through this and other routes,
black DJs in industrial cities such as New York, Detroit and Chicago
exploited Kraftwerk's machinic sound. Its evocation of alienation
through technology was ideal to express the industrial decay of such
cities, Detroit in particular. The kind of music produced in these
conditions became known as Detroit Techno, Chicago House and
New York Garage. What distinguished these different genres from
previous dance music styles, apart from their mode of production,
was their deep engagement with technology. In this Techno was far
more than simply a musical genre. Like Punk it was a symptom of
social and cultural change. If Punk reflected the disjunctures and
ruptures endured by a society making the painful transition from

1970