History Music / Kraftwerk

* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Perhaps at some point in the early to late Seventies, but as time went on their robot personas became less and less human. Case in point, [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Xvi552hlt90/maxresdefault.jpg here's the 1978 robots]] and [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FrX8HTMcYls/maxresdefault.jpg here's the robots from 1991's The Mix onwards.]]

* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Perhaps at some point in the early to late Seventies, but as time went on their robot personas became less and less human.

** Allegedly, Chris Martin of Music/{{Coldplay}} contacted them (through their lawyers) to request permission to sample "Computer Love" and they responded by mailing him a piece of yellow legal paper with "Yes" written on it.

* ''Tour de France'' (2003)

* BaldOfAwesome: Florian and Henning spot ones.

* BunnyEarsLawyer / ReclusiveArtist: They rarely give interviews. They usually use dummies or custom-made robots for promo photo shoots instead of themselves. All we know about their studio is its name. They are also extremely hard to contact. For example, their studio telephone didn't have a ringer because they considered it "noise pollution" during recording. If you really wanted to contact them they would instruct you to call precisely at a certain time, and Ralf Hütter would answer the call himself even though there was no phone ring.

* ''The Mix'' (1991)

* ProtestSong: "Radioactivity." Later live versions, and the version from the 1991 album ''The Mix'', make it an explicitly anti-nuclear anthem, specifically the proposed second processing plant at the Sellafield processing site in Seascale, England:

'''Kraftwerk''' is a German electronic group based in Düsseldorf, Germany, noted for such songs as "Autobahn", "The Robots", and "Trans-Europe Express". Originating in the [[{{Krautrock}} highly experimental rock scene]] of 1970s WestGermany, they're practically the TropeMakers of ElectronicMusic in general, being among the very first groups to begin experimenting making music electronically, starting in the early '70s. They are directly responsible for the existence of Dance music, from Techno, {{Industrial}} and EBM to SynthPop and even early Hip-Hop.

'''Kraftwerk''' is a German electronic group based in Düsseldorf, Germany, noted for such songs as "Autobahn", "The Robots", and "Trans-Europe Express". Originating in the [[{{Krautrock}} highly experimental rock scene]] of 1970's WestGermany, they're practically the TropeMakers of ElectronicMusic in general, being among the very first groups to begin experimenting making music electronically, starting in the early 1970's. They are directly responsible for the existence of Dance music, from Techno, {{Industrial}} and EBM to SynthPop and even early Hip-Hop.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Infamously, on ''Minimum-Maximum''.
--> ''[[FacePalm ONE POINT FIVE KILOGRAMME OF PLUTONIUM MAKE A NUCLEAR BOMB.]]"

* SynchroVox: Used for the Russian-speaking portions of the video for [[http://youtu.be/VXa9tXcMhXQ The Robots]] from ''Music/TheManMachine''.

** Ironically enough, "The Model" is the band's most popular song with the general public. That is probably because most people can relate to hearing a man singing about his attraction to a beautiful woman, but much fewer people can relate to lyrics about science and technology.

** Other tracks that are this are: all tracks from their debut, "Kling-Klang" and "Wellenlänge" from their second album, "Ananas Symphonie" from ''Ralf und Florian'', the two-part "Kometenmelodie" from ''Autobahn'', "Neon Lights" from ''The Man-Machine'' and "Computer Love" from ''Computer World''.

** They wanted to make music that sounded like 70s Germany, in the same way that the music of Music/TheBeachBoys sounded like early 60s California.

* LoopedLyrics[=/=]TitleOnlyChorus: Several songs, almost the majority of them in fact.

* {{Mondegreen}}: One of the more famous ones is the "Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn" chorus of "Autobahn", which was frequently misheard as "[[Music/TheBeachBoys Fun fun fun]] on the Autobahn". Hütter didn't mind the mishearing, as he has frequently cited Music/TheBeachBoys as one of his favourite bands.

*** Bootleggers took this even further - a bootleg edition of ''Ralf und Florian'' replaces the original cover depicting the two artists with a blue cone to match the first two albums. And to complete the 'cone' quadrilogy, one version of the bootleg ''K4'' (a live performance of otherwise-unavailable material recorded between the first two self-titled albums) depicts a yellow cone on its cover!

* RealSongThemeTune: Happened at least twice. For its initial 1983-1990 run, the {{Edutainment}} show ''Newton's Apple'' used "Ruckzuck" (from their long-disowned debut album) as its theme (it was replaced for the home soundtrack due to licensing issues), and the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch "Sprockets" used a sped up[[note]]specifically, playing a 33RPM record at 45RPM[[/note]] version of "Electric Café"'s 'chorus' melody.

[[caption-width-right:350:The classic lineup, from left to right: Karl Bartos, Ralf Hütter, Wolfgang Flür, and Creator/WillForte... er, sorry, Florian Schneider.]]

'''Kraftwerk''' is a German electronic group based in Düsseldorf, Germany, noted for such songs as "Autobahn", "The Robots", and "Trans-Europe Express". Originating in the [[{{Krautrock}} highly experimental rock scene]] of 1970s WestGermany, they're practically the [[TropeMakers Trope Maker]] of ElectronicMusic in general, being among the very first groups to begin experimenting making music electronically, starting in the early 1970s. They are directly responsible for the existence of Dance music, from Techno, {{Industrial}} and EBM to SynthPop and even early Hip-Hop.

* ''Tone Float'' (1969 - as Organisation)[[note]]The common CD edition of this album, released without the band's consent (as they've disowned their first four LP's) amends the credit to 'Kraftwerk/Organisation'.[[/note]]

* ''[[Music/TheManMachine Die Mensch-Maschine]]'' (1978)[[note]]An English version was released titled "The Man Machine".[[/note]]

* ''Electric Café'' (1986)[[note]]It was originally named ''Techno Pop'', and was rereleased in 2009 with that title.[[/note]]

* AnimatedMusicVideo: Musique Non-Stop, one of the [[TropeMaker first]] computer animated videos.
* AuthorAppeal: Ralf Hütter loves cycling so much he and his band wrote a song about the biggest race in cycling, "Tour de Fance", completed with sampled voices and mechanical sounds associated with cycling. They even go further by writing an album about it.

* BeepingComputers: "Pocket Calculator" from ''Music/ComputerWorld''

* BunnyEarsLawyer[=/=]ReclusiveArtist: They rarely give interviews. They usually use dummies or custom-made robots for promo photo shoots instead of themselves. All we know about their studio is its name. They are also extremely hard to contact. For example, their studio telephone didn't have a ringer because they considered it "noise pollution" during recording. If you really wanted to contact them they would instruct you to call precisely at a certain time, and Ralf Hütter would answer the call himself even though there was no phone ring.

--> '''Florian Schneider''': [[CrowningMomentOfFunny All]].

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCg7hPeUdvE Compare this to anything after ''Autobahn''...]]

** AdaptationDistillation: The version [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZgULbLm5do played live]], post-''The Mix'', is compressed down to 9 minutes, but retains all the high points of the original. The same thing happened to the single version, which was slashed down to 3 minutes but still kept the best parts of the song.

* TrrrillingRrrs: "Wirrr sind die Roboterrr." Not present in the English version of "The Robots," however, due to the vocals being processed through a vocoder.

* {{Robot or Spaceman Alter Ego}}: See above.

* ShoutOut: The "eins zwei drei vier" count that begins "Showroom Dummies" was made as a reference to Music/TheRamones' habit of starting their songs with Dee Dee quickly shouting "one two three four!".
* SpeedyTechnoRemake: Their remake of ''Music/{{Autobahn}}'' on their album of self-made remakes, ''The Mix''. It is speedy only in comparison though, given that they've taken the original version which was over twenty minutes long and condensed it to only over nine minutes long, by making it a little faster.
* StandardSnippet: Any TV item about postwar Germany (unless soundtracked with schlager music) is pretty much guaranteed to make heavy use of "Autobahn".

* {{Trope 2000}}: The single Expo 2000, filled with repeating soundbytes of different voices saying "das einundzwanzigste jahrhundert"/"the twenty-first century" throughout.
* TrrrillingRrrs: "Wirrr sind die Roboterrrrr". Not present in the English version of "The Robots", however, due to the vocals being processed through a vocoder.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: "Trans-Europe Express", which makes traveling to hang out with Music/DavidBowie and [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]] sound about as exciting as buying groceries. (Florian went asparagus shopping with Iggy Pop after they met, so points for realism, at least.)
* {{Zeerust}}: Some of their older works sounded futuristic at the time but are somewhat dated now, or they've already come true, like ''Music/ComputerWorld''.

* AffectionateParody: A recurring comedy sketch on ''Series/TheLateLateShow with Creator/CraigFerguson'' called "Einen Moment Mit Kraftwerk" has Florian (played by Craig) and Ralf (played by Josh Robert Thompson) engaging in brief, very weird conversations.
** Music/{{Bill Bailey}}, a self-professed fan of Kraftwerk, has parodied the group on [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nsDAdtfcIM several]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaxWoJPUC0 occasions]].
** ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'' had "Mini-Van Highway," a Kraftwerk-esque ditty played by two middle-aged men on the finest DOS computers - eventually joined by a hilariously stoic fellow on synthesized vocals.

Kraftwerk is a German electronic group based in Düsseldorf, Germany, noted for such songs as "Autobahn", "The Robots", and "Trans-Europe Express". Originating in the [[{{Krautrock}} highly experimental rock scene]] of 1970s WestGermany, they're practically the [[TropeMakers Trope Maker]] of ElectronicMusic in general, being among the very first groups to begin experimenting making music electronically, starting in the early 1970s. They are directly responsible for the existence of Dance music, from Techno, {{Industrial}} and EBM to SynthPop and even early Hip-Hop.

'''Discography :'''

* BaldOfAwesome: Florian spotted one during the 90s.

* AffectionateParody: A recurring comedy sketch on ''TheLateLateShowWithCraigFerguson'' called "Einen Moment Mit Kraftwerk" has Florian (played by Craig) and Ralf (played by Josh Robert Thompson) engaging in brief, very weird conversations.

[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kraftwerk.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330: The classic lineup, from left to right: Wolfgang Flür, Karl Bartos, Creator/WillForte... er, sorry, Florian Schneider, Ralf Hütter]]