For three decades now, the band Rammstein has been more controversial than almost any other cultural phenomenon. Their visually stunning stage excesses, scandalous breaches of taboo, and boundary-breaking, highly sexualized fantasies of violence masterfully play on the public's outrage reflexes.

Rammstein themselves describe themselves as a "total work of art." The book explores this concept, giving the artists ample opportunity to speak. The focus is on the music: the energetic sound, the songs, and their staging in elaborate videos and bombastic stage shows full of pyrotechnic special effects.

But Rammstein is more than just music. What drives these six East German hard rockers to constantly wage war against the moralistic zeitgeist with new provocations, to hurl their brutal riffs at the zealous defenders and woke guardians of political correctness? To what extent are the reactions to these provocations themselves part of their self-presentation as a total work of art? What exactly makes this band so unique? Anyone seeking answers to these questions will find them here!

biography

Peter Wicke, born in 1951 in Zwickau, is Professor of Theory and History of Popular Music and Director of the Research Centre for Popular Music at the Seminar for Musicology of the Humboldt University of Berlin, as well as Adjunct Research Professor at the Department of Music of Carleton University Ottawa.

New product