‘The Model’: What is Kraftwerk’s groundbreaking single actually about?
The Man Machine is a pivotal entry in Kraftwerk‘s classic LP run. Standing poised with mannequin grace on its Russian suprematist-styled cover, the Düsseldorf electronic pioneers’ seventh studio album marked the conceptual shift toward the wry automatons that’s guided their aesthetic identity to this day, even offering their likeness robots to handle press interviews and promotional materials.
A sly riposte aimed at the critical accusations of synthesizers and sequencers’ lack of human feeling and exploring technology’s ever-encroaching role in society, The Man Machine was fuelled as much by founding members Ralf Hütter’s and Florian Schneider’s aslant humour as West Germany’s industrial landscape.
“I like the idea that Fritz Lang had for ‘the man machine’ in Metropolis,” Karl Bartos revealed to Classic Pop in 2022, referencing the iconic German silent Sci-Fi. “Kraftwerk took on that idea, of the robot becoming the voice of Metropolis’ lead female character, Maria. ‘Man machine’ is a good expression, because ‘man’ comes first, not ‘machine’.”
Following their Krautrock foundations with future Neu! members, long hair and denim jeans gave way to smart trims and tailored suits, a unique look utterly at odds with the glam glitter and prog wizardry dominating the charts when 1974’s Autobahn dropped, the sonically revolutionary ode to Deutschland’s vast motorways featuring the most famous use of the vocoder in popular music entwined with its distinctive Minimoog bass burbles.
A fascination with Europe’s romantic hinterland and its mass-transit gateways reached its apex on 1977’s Trans-Europe Express. Recruiting Bartos and solidifying their signature lineup, the album’s explorations of Germany’s lost culture due to the Second World War and its keen engineering of a new language away from America’s blues and R&B foundations imbued their seminal masterwork with a wistful sentimentality and radiant optimism they’d never truly indulge in again.
As enchanting Mitteleuropa turned to their enduring robotic theatre, Kraftwerk’s anticipation of the future proved so prescient they crafted their biggest hit three years before it climbed the charts. Initially a B-side to ‘Neon Lights’, DJs soon found themselves flipping their 12″ to play the infinitely catchier ‘The Model’, entranced by its hooky synthpop and coy lyrical picture of the titular glamour model.
So, what is ‘The Model’ about?
Inspired by the models who worked at Cologne nightclub The Bagel and slyly probing the fashion industry’s empty, transactional culture, further songwriting shaping came from longtime collaborator and former pre-Autobahn guitarist Emil Schult.
The master student of Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter at the Düsseldorf Art Academy genuinely fell in love with a model and wrote a sketch of ‘The Model’ based on his infatuation. Initially guitar-heavy, Kraftwerk altered and edited to fit their electronic austerity and situated the cut as a surprise pop gem among The Man Machine‘s suites of synth minimalism.
With the pop world only just catching up with them, ‘The Model’ finally nabbed a UK number one with its 1981 re-release along with ‘Computer Love‘, dropping amid a new wave climate of budding synthesis all indebted to the original German masters.
