Showroom Dummies vs the Man-Machine

Photo by mediaeater.

While looking for news on the sudden absence of Florian Schneider from April’s US tour, I came across a very interesting article by Mr. Martin Belam, titled “When does it stop ‘being’ Kraftwerk?”, wherein he debates the existence of a hard core in the Kraftwerk lineup. Are Ralf and Florian essential parts of Kraftwerk, he asks, or is it still Kraftwerk when only one of the founding members is around? And would it still be Kraftwerk without any of them present? What if four random musicians (or one, or ten, or twenty of them) decided to appear on stage and perform Kraftwerk songs?

A brief look back at the history of the quartet reveals many changes in the lineup, especially during the earlier years. This excellent chart summarises the various changes up until April 2008, when, of course, Florian Schneider, a founding member, didn’t appear to perform live. Even Ralf Hütter, the other founding member, had left the group for some time in 1970. And I can only imagine the fans’ surprise when Wolfgang Flür and, years later, Karl Bartos (the other two pieces of the classic, most long-lived and most prolific Kraftwerk lineup) left Kraftwerk.

Ralf and Florian have always been an essential part of Kraftwerk, perhaps even more so than the rest of the members. So the real question is, do people go to Kraftwerk concerts to listen to Ralf, Florian and the gang jam on their synths, or do they just want to listen to their music? Decades under the influence of pop culture naturally prompt one to think the former is the case.

Kraftwerk, notorious for their reclusiveness, have always strived, it would seem, to avoid being identified as pop icons. Their priority is their music, not their image. They aim to detach themselves from their music, or at least those parts of their personalities that are not responsible for producing it and would interfere with its message. And yet, despite their best efforts, the absence of a member sparks discussions and speculation among the fans. Have Kraftwerk ultimately failed in their quest to remain musicians? Have they become the Showroom Dummies they famously describe in one of their albums? And have the fans pieced together an image that doesn’t reflect the group’s intentions?

It’s my opinion that it all comes down to the listener’s point of view. If one considers Kraftwerk a popular music group [the term "pop music" is used in its broader sense in this post], then every fluctuation of the lineup is of utmost importance. Pop music demands that the bond between the composers/performers and their music is sacred and mostly unbroken (with covers, remixes, etc being the exception). Kraftwerk will always equal two spoons of Ralf and Florian, sometimes a pinch of Wolfgang and Karl and perhaps some Fritz and Hennig. Stefan Pfaffe (2008 touring member), is a taste that can’t possibly become part of the Kraftwerk recipe.

But if one is to perceive Kraftwerk as a creative entity whose essence is its music – and a parallelism to composers of classical music might not be that far off the mark – then you’d have no problem listening to that music being performed by other artists. This point of view is clearly the one the musicians themselves choose to maintain, unless of course their apparent aversion to celebrity status is a systematic (as well as successful?) plan to attract even more publicity to themselves, which I highly doubt. Watching Ralf or Florian perform live suddenly becomes a matter of appreciating their skills as performers and paying your respects to them as composers of the music they perform.

The compromise is not that hard to make (at least not as far as I’m concerned): Watch Kraftwerk perform live as popular musicians for as long as they choose to operate under that template, but be open to new interpretations of their work. The originals will always be present in the studio albums. Their music, however, deserves to be (and is) more than pop music.

This, of course, is an extremely multi-faceted issue that involves a range of topics from the concept of intellectual property, to the philosophic division between appearance and essence, to the roots of pop culture itself. I can’t even begin to mention these without feeling they’re way beyond the purpose of this blog post (not to mention my own understanding), so it’s time for some closing words.

A few days ago I read (and scoffed at) someone’s perception of Kraftwerk as an idea. I can now safely proclaim is that if I ever get the chance to watch Kraftwerk live, I’ll be a happy witness of their attempt to break through the barriers of popular music into something greater.