Hey I was wondering if some of you orgers from the fatherland could give me a hand.
I have to give a 15min presentation on "Schlager Musik" for my German oral presentation.
Any ideas as to what to talk about?
What is it exactly? How can you describe something as "Schlager"
When is something "Schlager" and when is just something else?

vielen Dank!

this is the first "Schlager" thread I ever saw in this forum

sorry, I can't really help you here, and I doubt you will find many others around this place...




but make sure to include this one in your presentation


[Edited 11/12/08 3:42am]

Dancelot said:

Me too! But it's cool. I like that we're starting to get diverse again.

In a sense, Barry Manilow and Tom Jones could be considered the English language version of Schlagermusik. Some of Sinatra´s and Dean Martin´s music are a bit reminiscent of "Schlager", too.
Check out
Roy Black ( i.e Gerhard Höllerich)
Howard Carpendale
Tony Marshall
Roland Kaiser ( i.e Ronald Keiler )
and maybe Karel Gott, and you´ll get an idea of what Schlager is. Don´t let the English sounding names distract you, except for mr. Gott and Carpendale, they´re all German.

And then there´s always the great Mr. Udo Jürgens, a very vigorous and energetic, youthful looking old man who must be in his 70s or 80s by now. He plays piano and is much more than Schlager. A friend of mine once compared him to Prince !

Definitely check out Udo Jürgens. He´s not German though, he´s from Austria but hey, the lines are blurry when it comes to Schlager.
If you want to branch out with your essay, you can also do some research and analyze the parallels between some Turkish "Schlager" and the German version.
Ibrahim Tatlises, Müslüm Gürses, Orhan Gencebay( Master of the Saz instrument !!),
Ferdi Tayfur.....what they did or still do is also some kind of Schlager.

And don´t forget to add Heintje to the mix.He´s Dutch but his huge hit "Mama!"
( or was it called "Mutter!" or "Mutti!" ??? ) is an all time Schlager classic.
You can make a lot of money as a songwriter and producer for Schlager, by the way.

I hate Schlagermusik though. But, you gotta give them credit for always being in good spirits. Unlike the German version, Turkish Schlager is often very bluesy.

Ahhhh, and don´t forget the self declared "King of Mallorca", the one and only Jürgen Drews. He was hot for a minute sometime in the 70s.

Frank Zander´s comedic Schlagersongs....Matthias Reim...ahh... so much crappy music to discover for you .

haha, cool thread.

I'd say you should focus on special and most famous singers. Roy Black was probably the most important one.

Du Bist Nicht Allein (You Are Not Alone)

http://www.youtube.com/wa...Fupd2bYYpQ

Ganz in Weiß (All in white)

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related

Schön ist es auf der Welt zu sein (It's nice to be alive)

http://www.youtube.com/wa...re=related


The music was most popular during the 1960s and 1970s. You gotta realise that after the Third Reich many Germans wanted to forget about this dark, dark period. So in the 1950s movies that played in the forests and mountains (Heimatfilme) where especially popular. They featured pretty landscapes and had superficial love stories.

During that time Schlagermusik became popular. Of course you could consider most German songs since the 1920s Schlager, but it was quite different. They were either chansons (a la Dietrich) or a capella groups (The Comedian Harmonists being the German equivalent to the Revellers) but what most poeople consider typical Schlager is what showed up in the 1960s.

Superficial lyrics about love or the joy of life, easy sing-a-long melodies, no edges.

The singers had to provide the fitting image. Serach up for Roy Black and Rex Dildo and his song Fiesta Mexicana.
They had to grin all the time, they had to be solo and available for their female fans. They had to live scandaless lives.

But the discrepance is widely known. While at the outside every thing is allright most singers have financial problems, many divorces and especially Roy Black was known for becoming a depressive and alcoholic and medicament addict. He was divorced from his wife, couldn't see his son and his career went down (in the late 70s when Schlager became unpopular). In the 80s he had no hits anymore and he often had to perform in front of a handful of people when a new supermarket was opened... You gotta know he outsold the Beatles in Germany in the 1960s...He was eventually found dead in his house in 1991.

Rex Gildo was another sad case. He had to hide is homosexuality until the day he died. Some say he killed himself by jumping outta his bathroom window.

About Schlager... of course not ALL Germans liek to hear it. In the 60s there were hip people that liked beat music but people that were less educated or came from small villages or people who are now in their 70s and 80s loved that. As said before it was escapism from the bad times. It was not political and not sexy (Germany was prude back then).

In the 1970s Schlagermusik become unpopular. There are still many programs that are about Schlager but those songs don't chart in the Top 100.

In the late 1990s Schlagermusik experienced a kind of comeback with y younger audience. The 70s were in and Schlagermusik was considered trashy...
Especially Guildo Horn earned success with his song Guildo hat euch lieb http://www.youtube.com/wa...821UDJH_-Q

in the Eurovision Song Contest (I think it was in 1998)

Please tell me if you want more information.

KoolEaze said:

he once recorded with the Earth Wind & Fire horn section

I always say that Abba did many Schlagersongs. For example Just another Town, Another Hall, Super Trouper, Waterloo (!!) are pure schlagermusik.

Schlager means hit, so it's mostly about a pretty beat, nice melodies...

I think that's why Abba were soooo popular here... because they made Schlager-like music.

Also you gotta be careful not to compare Schlager with Neue Deutsche Welle (which was cool in the early 1980s, especially Nena with 99 Luftballons). NDW was fresher, with faster beats, cheekier lyrics and the performers were not as boring.

Volksmusik features mostly the typical image people have from us Germans: Bavarian dresses, Lederhosen, Dirndls etc...
But Volksmusik features other instruments (Trumpets, accordeons etc).

http://www.youtube.com/wa...u2atRF-MA4
[Edited 11/12/08 12:34pm]

graecophilos said:

Hey Graeco, cool post, nice info, you really seem to know your shit...but.....it´s Rex GILDO, not Rex DILDO !
Let the poor man rest in peace.

Dancelot said:

For real ? Udo is the man ! Hardest working man in showbiz right after James Brown and Prince. No shit, the man´s been keeping it real for more than 40 years or longer.I´m not a fan but I have a lot of respect for him. And he´s a true player, too. He has his way with the females.

KoolEaze said:

same here. I'd never buy a record from him, but one simply must have respect for his endurance and his ongoing success since virtually ages, and his undeniable musical talent.

the EWF collab happened on his (only?) English language album released in the early 80's, produced by Harold "Axel F" Faltermeyr. I should have bought this back then, I just noticed it's selling for 68 Euros used on amazon

http://www.amazon.de/Leav...B00000B0TW

.
[Edited 11/12/08 12:47pm]

Dancelot said:

KoolEaze said:

haha, yeah it's my nickname for him.

***I've been clicking on all the YouTubes offered in this thread****

Personaly i'm digging this one

http://uk.youtube.com/wat...cixc-gT2yY

Quite what it has to do with aeroplanes god knows.

Babydubistzuschnell said:

@ your name.....

abierman said:

lol
baby du bist zu schnell....ja du bist! lol

Dancelot said:

I've played this clip about 3 or 4 times [!]

I was in a Danish bar not too long ago that played a set of Schlager. It's quite a sight to behold. People were singing it word for word. But I like it! Just the kitschy, unabashed element of it.

Babydubistzuschnell said:

Ja der Name ist cool .
Why are all of a sudden so many people on the org who speak German ?

I never denied me being German.

graecophilos said:

nor i studying it

Ah, Northern and Central Europe.

Babydubistzuschnell said:

from where are you originally where do you study German and what for???

I'd love to see your presentation, what you wrote etc. I wonder what's YOUR interpretation now, after all our help.

graecophilos said:

I'm English, but i'm in my final year at university now; studying German with Management.

For the actual presentation i'm going to put together a powerpoint presentation, and just have a few cue cards to keep me on track. Am going to make the German up pretty much as I go along,

As for my interpretation, i'll get back to you on monday once i've had some time to digest all the information i've come accross and put together some sort of structure.

Thanks for everyones helop thus far!