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55 albums · 1934–2023

Music of Germany, from the Comedian Harmonists and Hildegard Knef to krautrock, Kraftwerk, Neue Deutsche Welle, Grönemeyer, metal, techno, hip hop and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Germany's popular music on this list begins in the Berlin of the late twenties and thirties, with the close-harmony singing of the Comedian Harmonists and Marlene Dietrich's Lili Marleen, followed after the war by Bert Kaempfert's orchestra and the chansons of Hildegard Knef. Around 1970 a new generation set out to find a sound of its own beyond British and American models: Amon Düül II in Munich, Faust near Hamburg, Neu! and Kraftwerk in Düsseldorf and Tangerine Dream in West Berlin invented krautrock and electronic music that echoed around the world. At the same time the Liedermacher Reinhard Mey and Hannes Wader sang to the guitar, while Ton Steine Scherben in Kreuzberg, Udo Lindenberg, Nina Hagen, Westernhagen and Cologne's BAP gave rock music a German voice of its own.

The early eighties brought the Neue Deutsche Welle of Fehlfarben, Ideal, DAF and Nena, Einstürzende Neubauten built industrial music out of scrap metal in West Berlin, and Herbert Grönemeyer and Rio Reiser wrote songs that outlasted the decade. Alongside them Boney M., Alphaville, the Scorpions and Enigma topped charts abroad, Accept, Kreator and Helloween shaped heavy, thrash and power metal, Die Toten Hosen and Die Ärzte carried punk into the mainstream, and Rammstein led Neue Deutsche Härte in the nineties. Element of Crime, Blumfeld and Tocotronic opened a new chapter of German indie rock, followed by Wir sind Helden, Kraftklub and AnnenMayKantereit, while Sven Väth, Scooter and Paul Kalkbrenner stood for rave and techno, Helene Fischer defined modern Schlager, and Die Fantastischen Vier, Freundeskreis, Beginner, Seeed, Sido, Peter Fox, Casper, Haftbefehl, Apache 207 and Nina Chuba carried German hip hop and pop to the present.

The list gathers 55 records from 1934 to 2023, one or two by each artist; the classical tradition from Bach and Beethoven to today, the carnival and folk songs of the regions and most of Schlager would each need a list of their own. About 42 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 31%Electronic 13%Hip hop 12%Other 44%
  • Rock 31%
  • Electronic 13%
  • Hip hop 12%
  • Other 44%

The genres named most: hip hop, rock, pop rock, pop, deutschrock, indie rock.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Germany 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1930s

The 1940s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.