Krautrock

Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental bands who appeared in Germany in the late 1960s. It was originally a somewhat derogatory term coined

Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental bands who appeared in Germany in the late 1960s. It was originally a somewhat derogatory term coined by the British music press from the slang term "Kraut", meaning "a German person" and taken from the traditional German dish of pickled cabbage, Sauerkraut. However, because much of the music produced by these bands has since come to be very highly regarded, the term "krautrock" is now generally seen as an accolade rather than an insult.

Krautrock is an eclectic and often very original mix of Anglo-American post-psychedelic jamming and moody progressive rock mixed with ideas from contemporary experimental classical music (especially composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, with whom, for example, Irmin Schmidt and Holger Czukay of Can had previously studied) and from the new experimental directions that emerged in jazz during the 1960's and 1970's. Free of American and British conventions of song structure and melody, the Germans drove the music to a more mechanical and electronic sound.