Kraftwerk - More influential than the Beatles?

[Icy Gull]

what did they cover?

Plenty of people but only at the beginning. I guess you had to be there as there is absolutely no way you’d slag them off as some on this thread have if you lived through the time of their music. (Unless of course you were a cool music snob or had no interest in pop music)

 

[spring hall convert]

And Cans influence is more diverse than Kraftwerk and more relevant today than the Beatles.

Can are probably my favourite band ever not called The Fall but I'm not sure I agree with this. I'd say Can's influence is similar to The Velvet Underground. Vitally important to the underground but less so when considering potential chart botherers, which has to be a consideration when you are talking most influential acts ever.

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[spring hall convert]

**** me Kanye West and Paul McCartney? I won’t be listening to that!

Better than Mick Jagger and Skepta to be fair.


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[Gwylan]

Can are probably my favourite band ever not called The Fall but I'm not sure I agree with this. I'd say Can's influence is similar to The Velvet Underground. Vitally important to the underground but less so when considering potential chart botherers, which has to be a consideration when you are talking most influential acts ever.

Really. You don't think any chart acts use sampling. I'd say you're a long way behind the times

Can's introduction of sampling into the pop/rock sphere is probably more influential than Kraftwerk or the Beatles (even if they did nick it off Stockhausen)

 

[Gwylan]

Duplicate post

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Depends what you mean by 'influential'. Cluster and Neu! predate Kraftwerk. I regarded the latter as a bit meh tbh. 'Computer love' excepted.

Beach Boys trump Beatles, anyway. By 1970 Beatles sounded old fashioned. I'm 60. FFS.

As for Morely, here's some lovely (and FAR better than Kraftwerk):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHKm4mLTLs8

 

[boik]

Can are probably my favourite band ever not called The Fall but I'm not sure I agree with this. I'd say Can's influence is similar to The Velvet Underground. Vitally important to the underground but less so when considering potential chart botherers, which has to be a consideration when you are talking most influential acts ever.

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It's interesting. So you're implying that Kraftwerks influence has sold more records, whereas I'm saying Can have influenced a much broader range of bands. I guess both statements can be still true.

 

[Pevenseagull]

what did they cover?

Twist and shout

 

[spring hall convert]

Depends what you mean by 'influential'. Cluster and Neu! predate Kraftwerk. I regarded the latter as a bit meh tbh. 'Computer love' excepted.

Beach Boys trump Beatles, anyway. By 1970 Beatles sounded old fashioned. I'm 60. FFS.

As for Morely, here's some lovely (and FAR better than Kraftwerk):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHKm4mLTLs8

Krautwerk had hits, therefore had the opportunity to influence more than acts that outside of us music nerds are still relatively unknown.

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[essbee1]

I saw Kraftwerk in Belgrade earlier this year. Btw - if you want a cracking cheap beer weekend go there!

Anyway - hardly anyone I mentioned Kraftwerk to before I left knew them. Unbelievable.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Krautwerk had hits, therefore had the opportunity to influence more than acts that outside of us music nerds are still relatively unknown.

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Very true. I guess I am a snob. I am interested in which band influnced bands I like. The fact that Cliff influenced Robbie Williams doesn't really interest me...BIG though they are....

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

what did they cover?

Loads of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins stuff, not to mention a few Motown songs. But as someone old enough to have bought the Beatles second album new but who also went to Kraftwerk’s Brighton debut (and was utterly blown away by it), I have to say that I don’t think there’s any comparison. Without the Beatles, it”s hard to know whether there would even have been a Kraftwerk. For about five years in the mid sixties they dominated music to such an extent it’s hard to believe nowadays even if you lived through it. They changed both the musical and cultural landscape.

 

[happypig]

Can are probably my favourite band ever not called The Fall but I'm not sure I agree with this. I'd say Can's influence is similar to The Velvet Underground. Vitally important to the underground but less so when considering potential chart botherers, which has to be a consideration when you are talking most influential acts ever.

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I've heard of Can but never listened to them.

Giving them a go on the night shift tonight.

 

[El Presidente]

Duplicate post

Saw them a couple of times but they tailed off after the second album.

 

[beorhthelm]

Loads of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins stuff, not to mention a few Motown songs.

were they famous for any of this material? calling them a cover band seems a daft accusation when they wrote so much of their own material, and it was common for artist to cover or play others work.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Krautwerk had hits, therefore had the opportunity to influence more than acts that outside of us music nerds are still relatively unknown.

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True. Here’s what I wrote 3 years ago when talking about the influence of hip/hop in this thread.

“And my view on influence is that it is not necessarily being the first, but being the one which reaches out and popularises. These are the people who truly influence. And this is where Africa Bambata and friends come in. Kool Herc did not have any commercial success in the early days. Others, who were messing around with the electronic sounds of Kraftwerk, did and in my view this group of people who took this form of music forward to its next stage and who were the true influence.”

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Anyway - hardly anyone I mentioned Kraftwerk to before I left knew them. Unbelievable.

Wouldn’t happen in Germany.

 

[vegster]

Kraftwerk were a massive influence to the Detroit guys who started Techno music

Heard of Elton John, ELO and George Michael... Who are these "Detroit Guys" ? And I thought Kraftwerk started Techno?

 

[Trufflehound]

Saw them a couple of times but they tailed off after the second album.

I disagree. Their third album "Sorry, wrong thread" was a minor classic.

 

[Half Time Pies]

True. Here’s what I wrote 3 years ago when talking about the influence of hip/hop in this thread.

“And my view on influence is that it is not necessarily being the first, but being the one which reaches out and popularises. These are the people who truly influence. And this is where Africa Bambata and friends come in. Kool Herc did not have any commercial success in the early days. Others, who were messing around with the electronic sounds of Kraftwerk, did and in my view this group of people who took this form of music forward to its next stage and who were the true influence.”

And this really settles your original question: the Beatles were the first to popularise so much of what we hear now in modern music. When you go back to the 60's the Beatles were releasing record after record constantly innovating and revolutionising music with each release.

They were the first really popular band to really push the boundaries, they embraced the use of technology and used innovative studio techniques to differentiate their sound such as including guitar feedback, classical musicians on popular albums, artificial double tracking, close miking of acoustic instruments, sampling, direct injection, synchronizing tape machines, and backwards tapes. Its can be difficult to appreciate the impact looking back, you have to listen to people talking at the time to understand what a earthquake the Beatles were for the music industry.

“They were doing things nobody else was doing,” he later told his biographer Anthony Scaduto. “But I just kept it to myself that I really dug them. Everybody else thought they were just for the teenyboppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious to me that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing the direction that music had to go. . . . It seemed to me a definite line was being drawn. This was something that never happened before" Bob Dylan.

"I listened to Rubber Soul, and I said how could they possibly make an album where the songs all sound like they come from the same place. I couldn't deal with it. It blew my mind. And I said, damn it, I've got to do that. I've got to try that with the boys." - Brian Wilson

Its worth also remembering that Kraftwerk started out as a Krautrock band and that this genre of experimental music was massively influenced by the Beatles so you can see how their influence runs through in to electronic music. Revolver is arguably the starting point for the development of experimental, psychedelic and progressive rock and making experimental music popular.