A musical undercurrent has long permeated German culture and intellectual
life. For more than a century, theories and practices of folk, art, and
classical music—variously understood both in their mutual interrelation and
as entirely distinct—have anchored definitions of German national identity
and the German cultural heritage. More recently, musical styles such as
jazz, rock and roll, and hip-hop have also played a key role in the emergence
of new social movements and alternative sensibilities in Germany.
Indeed, since the end of World War II, popular music practices in Germany
have been alternatively decried as drivers of Americanization and hailed as
catalysts of technological development that prompt new ways of producing
and consuming music to emerge.
Sounds German?: Popular Music in Postwar Germany at the Crossroads of the National and Transnational
