The Kraftwerk song inspired by David Bowie
One of David Bowie’s many talents was his way of ushering new forms of music into his sound. While it’s easy to put most popular artists’ music into one general idea, Bowie was fearless when blending different genres, going from his sounds of folk-tinged rock and roll to some of the most glamorous rock music ever made as Ziggy Stardust. As the ‘70s reached its turning point, Bowie was ready to grow out of his plastic alien skin.
After developing a nasty cocaine habit, Bowie’s original vision for the album Station to Station was to strip things back down again, crafting songs that had a slightly mechanised feel. As opposed to the off-the-rails party sound of his first records, Bowie was starting to immerse himself in the krautrock scene in Germany, becoming enamoured with the industrial sounds coming out of Berlin.
Throughout most of Bowie’s Berlin period, he would often fade into the background so that he and producer Brian Eno could take over behind the soundboard. Although most fans were left in awe of records like Low and “Heroes”, one of Bowie’s great muses was listening right back.
When Bowie was still trying on his best blue-eyed soul voice on Young Americans, Kraftwerk was busy deconstructing what music was supposed to be. Outside of the normal confines of rock and roll, albums like Autobahn were about taking all of the elements of danger out of rock and roll, replacing most of the loud guitars with chilling synths and sounds that made each record sound like it was made by robots.
It was this kind of style that influenced Bowie to venture outside the humanistic side of rock and roll, telling Uncut, “What I was passionate about in relation to Kraftwerk was their singular determination to stand apart from stereotypical American chord sequences and their wholehearted embrace of a European sensibility displayed through their music. This was their very important influence on me”.
As the group began work on their album Trans-Europe Express, they hid a little Easter Egg in the background of the title song, name-checking Bowie and fellow rocker Iggy Pop for their use of krautrock tendencies in their music. The song also has a unique style that feels more reminiscent of Bowie’s sound, almost like they were trying to take their usual robotic approach to songs and sprinkle a bit of rock and roll rebellion into the mix.
Although both periods of music for Bowie and Kraftwerk garnered a mixed reception at the time, they became highly influential once the next generation kicked in. Despite the stuttering beats not having anything in common with standard rock music, artists like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails were immediately inspired, creating songs that echoed the sounds of Bowie’s Berlin period on albums like The Downward Spiral.
Even giants of the dance scene like James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem found a friend in this style of music, using the electronic structure and punk rock fearlessness to create a few of his early demos. Although both Kraftwerk and Bowie stood out as oddities in their time, it was really only a matter of time before the rest of the rock scene caught up to them.
