Music & Sound

Bowie and Iggy at Hansa, Einstürzende Neubauten, the Berlin School of electronic music, hip-hop, and the bands the city forged.

Part of Berlin

18 moments in this segment.

1. 1974 — Tangerine Dream. Pioneers of the Berlin School of electronic music — vast synthesizer soundscapes from the early 1970s.
2. 1976 — Hansa Studios. The "studio by the Wall" — Bowie, Iggy, Depeche Mode and U2 all recorded in its great hall overlooking the death strip.
3. 1977 — Iggy Pop — Lust for Life. Iggy and Bowie's Berlin years at Hansa produced this 1977 classic, all hammering drums and reckless joy.
4. 1977-09-23 — Bowie — "Heroes". Recorded at Hansa Studios by the Wall in 1977 — a love song "by the Wall", the anthem of divided Berlin.
5. 1978 — Nina Hagen. The "godmother of punk" — born in East Berlin, expelled to the West, a wild and operatic original.
6. 1979 — Eurovision and Schlager. The pop and Schlager of West Germany — the lighter sound that ran beneath Berlin's avant-garde.
7. 1980 — Ideal — Neue Deutsche Welle. The West Berlin band whose "Berlin" defined the early-80s Neue Deutsche Welle.
8. 1983 — Depeche Mode at Hansa. The English synth-pop band recorded "Construction Time Again" and more in Berlin, drawn by the Hansa myth.
9. 1983 — Nena — 99 Luftballons. The 1983 global hit born in West Berlin — red balloons mistaken for a nuclear attack across the divided sky.
10. 1985 — Einstürzende Neubauten. The "collapsing new buildings" — industrial pioneers who made music with power drills and scrap metal.
11. 1991 — Element of Crime. Sven Regener's literate, trumpet-laced Berlin band — chansons for the rainy city.
12. 1992 — U2 — Achtung Baby at Hansa. U2 reinvent themselves recording "Achtung Baby" at Hansa as the Wall comes down — "Zoo Station", "One".
13. 1997 — Rammstein. The pyrotechnic Neue Deutsche Härte giants, formed in Berlin in 1994 from the ashes of the East.
14. 2001 — "Dickes B" — an ode to Berlin. Seeed's love letter to "fat Berlin" by the Spree — one of the city's unofficial anthems.
15. 2005 — Seeed. The Berlin reggae-dancehall big band whose sunny basslines became a city soundtrack.
16. 2008 — Bonaparte. The anarchic Berlin art-punk circus — a wild, costumed embodiment of the city's performance scene.
17. 2009 — We Are One. Paul van Dyk's Love Parade anthem — the sound of Berlin's open-air euphoria.
18. 2011 — Apparat. Sascha Ring's gauzy electronic music — a quieter, more melancholy strand of the Berlin sound.