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9 - Neu!

from Part II - Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2022

Uwe Schütte
Affiliation:
Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
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Summary

This chapter discusses the musical and cultural impact of the Düsseldorf group Neu!, who consisted of Michael Rother (guitars) and Klaus Dinger (drums). The essay puts Neu!’s work in the context of how Krautrock music was part of the quest to establish a new sense of post-war West German cultural identity by establishing new musical forms that did not owe a debt to the Anglo-American blues tradition or conventional rock structures. Analysing their first three albums released in the first part of the 1970s – Neu!, Neu! 2, and Neu! ’75 – this chapter shows how Neu! arrived at a musical formula that reflected the opposite temperaments of the two group members, reflected in the ambient rock of Rother and the motorik beat of Klaus Dinger, creating an imaginary West German landscape travelling from the past, through the present to the future. The chapter concludes that although they were commercially unsuccessful at the time, Neu! were hugely influential and have established for all time a unique mode of rock musical being, West German in origin, which serves as a source of inspiration for present and future generations.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Neu!
  • Edited by Uwe Schütte, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock
  • Online publication: 20 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009036535.010
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  • Neu!
  • Edited by Uwe Schütte, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock
  • Online publication: 20 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009036535.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Neu!
  • Edited by Uwe Schütte, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Krautrock
  • Online publication: 20 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009036535.010
Available formats
×