When West-German experimental pop rose to transnational fame in the early 1970s, it marked nothing less than the beginning of a new era. For the first time in pop history, the latest innovations originated outside the United States and the United Kingdom; for several years, bands such as Kraftwerk, Can, Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül or Faust – among many others – were considered pop avant-garde, across Europe and the United States. In his book, Alexander Simmeth traces the roots of the so-called Krautrock in West Germany's late 1960s, its zealous reception at home and in the two motherlands of pop, and the reasons for its lasting impact in the decades to come. He identifies Krautrock as a key site of the transnational in West-German cultural history, focusing on the exchange of concepts and ideas, on shared experiences across borders, as well as on mutual key concepts such as authenticity and identity.
