Post by AtomHeartMother on Oct 7, 2004 16:55:28 GMT -5
'Boring' artists in Germany try to mute blare of English pop
By Tony Paterson in Berlin 04 October 2004
The Germans may soon have ways of keeping the likes of Robbie Williams off the airwaves: the Berlin government is considering mandatory radio and television quotas for Teutonic pop singers in an attempt to curb the dominance of English-language music on air.
A special parliamentary cultural committee began discussing the idea of French-style obligatory quotas last week following complaints by broadcasters, politicians and pop artists that the amount of German pop music aired nationally had slumped to a mere 10 per cent.
Peter Maffay, 55, one of Germany's veteran middle-of-the-road artists, complained: "Many stations are simply refusing to play my and my German colleagues' music. This is censorship. German artists and listeners are being manipulated by the dominance of the English-language sound."
The controversy was sparked after more than 500 German pop artists signed a petition demanding that a quota be introduced for German songs on radio. They claimed that the broadcasting media was biased against them.
Eckhardt Barthel, 64, a Social Democrat MP on the committee who is leading demands for German-language airtime quotas, said: "We will start by trying to get stations to agree to a voluntary quota. If that fails we will attempt to introduce a mandatory quota along French lines."
In France, Italy and Spain 50 per cent of the pop played is native. In France, broadcasters are bound by law to allot 40 per cent of their airtime to French-language pop music.
Apart from Mr Maffay, the petition was signed by a host of German pop and rock artists, including Udo Lindenberg, Heinz Rudolf Kunze and Dieter Birr, whose names are virtually unknown to English-speaking audiences. Germany ranks among the world's top five music markets but the industry has suffered a downturn since 1997 and turnover has dropped by 40 per cent since then. The country's current top rock export is the heavy metal group Ramstein, which has been alleged to flirt with a Nazi image.
Apart from that, German pop notoriety has been limited to Nena's 1984 number one "99 Luftballons", and to 1970s bands such as Kraftwerk, which were obliged to sing in English to make it into the charts.
Several broadcasters rejected the complaints. Konrad Kuhnt, editor of themusic station Radio Fritz, said: "It is not true that we wouldn't play the music. We wish we had the material to present to our listeners." Herbert Kremp of Berlin's BZ newspaper, wrote: "German artists are not being given airtime because many of them are boring or unbearably ideological."
GERMAN TOP TEN
news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=568492
By Tony Paterson in Berlin 04 October 2004
The Germans may soon have ways of keeping the likes of Robbie Williams off the airwaves: the Berlin government is considering mandatory radio and television quotas for Teutonic pop singers in an attempt to curb the dominance of English-language music on air.
A special parliamentary cultural committee began discussing the idea of French-style obligatory quotas last week following complaints by broadcasters, politicians and pop artists that the amount of German pop music aired nationally had slumped to a mere 10 per cent.
Peter Maffay, 55, one of Germany's veteran middle-of-the-road artists, complained: "Many stations are simply refusing to play my and my German colleagues' music. This is censorship. German artists and listeners are being manipulated by the dominance of the English-language sound."
The controversy was sparked after more than 500 German pop artists signed a petition demanding that a quota be introduced for German songs on radio. They claimed that the broadcasting media was biased against them.
Eckhardt Barthel, 64, a Social Democrat MP on the committee who is leading demands for German-language airtime quotas, said: "We will start by trying to get stations to agree to a voluntary quota. If that fails we will attempt to introduce a mandatory quota along French lines."
In France, Italy and Spain 50 per cent of the pop played is native. In France, broadcasters are bound by law to allot 40 per cent of their airtime to French-language pop music.
Apart from Mr Maffay, the petition was signed by a host of German pop and rock artists, including Udo Lindenberg, Heinz Rudolf Kunze and Dieter Birr, whose names are virtually unknown to English-speaking audiences. Germany ranks among the world's top five music markets but the industry has suffered a downturn since 1997 and turnover has dropped by 40 per cent since then. The country's current top rock export is the heavy metal group Ramstein, which has been alleged to flirt with a Nazi image.
Apart from that, German pop notoriety has been limited to Nena's 1984 number one "99 Luftballons", and to 1970s bands such as Kraftwerk, which were obliged to sing in English to make it into the charts.
Several broadcasters rejected the complaints. Konrad Kuhnt, editor of themusic station Radio Fritz, said: "It is not true that we wouldn't play the music. We wish we had the material to present to our listeners." Herbert Kremp of Berlin's BZ newspaper, wrote: "German artists are not being given airtime because many of them are boring or unbearably ideological."
GERMAN TOP TEN
- Obsesion - Aventura
- Amerika - Rammstein
- Break My Stride - Blue Lagoon
- Lebt Denn Dr Alte Holzmichi Noch - De Randfichten
- Perfekte Welle - Juli
- Pump It Up - Danzei
- Sick and Tired - Anastacia
- Dragostea Din Tei - O-zone
- Obsession - 3rd Wish
- These Words - Natasha Bedingfield
news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=568492
Don't think I've ever got to hear Kraftwerk though. 
