04 Aug 2016

This morning, I was going through radio stations, and ran across Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon.  What an odd song to run across; but it reminded me of the 80s.  Having said that, I remember these German songs/bands from US radio in the ‘80s:

• 99 LuftBalloons  (Nena, This song was also called 99 Red Balloons in the US, which is weird because Luft Balloons means air balloons and not red balloons.)

• Da Da Da (Trio)

• Dar Kommisar (Falco, but was he German or Austrian?)

• Rock me Amadeus (Falco)

• Anything from the Scorpions (I even saw them in concert in Long Beach)

• Girl you know it’s true from Milli Vanilli, but I’d imagine Germany (along with everyone else) disowned them.

• And of course, perhaps the most iconic song of the 80’s German invasion:  Major Tom (Peter Schilling)

If I could catch them on German Radio, then my ’80s new wave experience would be complete.

In the US, it’s well known that David Hasselhoff had a career in Germany, but I have yet to hear a ‘Hoff’ song on the radio. Nor does anyone talk about him here.  I expected him to be the Celine Dion of Germany.

Another German song I love is Du Hast from Rammstein.  Although I have to admit that it’s mostly because I loved singing it in Rock Band.  Now at least I know what some of the lyrics mean.

For an American, German radio is a strange mix of mostly English language music, with a few German songs mixed in, and German DJs.  I’ve gotten pretty good at translating traffic reports, if nothing else.

I also hear a lot of Journey on German radio.

Some of you may know that my family is prone to do this insane thing where we play a song that we all love (that’s not considered a good song) in the car with the windows down, singing as loud as we can.  Songs like Higher from Creed, Total Eclipse of the Heart, and Africa from Toto.  It turns out that it isn’t received in the same way here as in the states.  In the states, people look at us strangely, some smile, and some take video of the weirdos.  Here… Nothing. No response. Or maybe people are embarrassed for us. 

Not a lot of bands that we know make it to Karlsruhe, although Milky Chance did play Das Fest here a few weeks ago.  I think if we want to go to concerts again, we’ll have to head to Stuttgart, Berlin or Munich.  Or get into more local German bands like “Itchy Poopzkid”.  Ok, I’m not sure if they’re local, but the name is funny.