I'm not one to place too much stock in the Rock and/or Roll Hall of Fame's induction process... the institution has some incredible blind spots, and it virtually ignores entire subgenres of rock. This year, though, the Hall of Fame finally inducted German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk. Of course, this is a year and a half too late for Florian Schneider to have witnessed the celebration. I went on a deep dive into Kraftwerk's discography in my memorial post for Florian, so I figure I'll post a couple of Kraftwerk's most influential tracks on this post, the ones which were instrumental in the development of Electronic Dance Music, Techno, and Hip-Hop.
The first track I'm choosing is Trans Europa Express, which was sampled in Afrika Bambaataa's early hip-hop track Planet Rock:
The second is Heimcomputer, released in 1981, which presaged the increasing presence of computers in our homes and lives:
As I noted, I embedded a bunch of Kraftwerk tracks, from all stages of the band's career, in my memorial post for Herr Schneider, and an overview of the band's influence on subsequent musicians. It's nice to see them get their 'official' accolades from the Rock and/or Roll establishment (hideous that such a thing exists), but it would have been nicer to see this recognition come during Florian's lifetime.
In the late Eighties, my next door neighbor ran a very successful computer store on Main Street, selling to individuals as well as large local businesses. There was always music in the store, and the employees could bring anything they owned to play, so long as the noise level was at an almost imperceptible level. CDs on frequent rotation included Tangerine Dream, Jade Warrior, Devo, Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani, Kraftwerk, et al.
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