Wednesday, January 20, 2010

DAF: Der Raeuber Und Der Prinz

I'm not sure at what point it became uncool to deal with homoerotic themes in industrial music and ebm, but I am going to guess it happened when they started throwing distortion and cowboy hats into the mix.  I was not around, so I really have no way to know first hand how it happened.  All I know is that it's all right to reference DAF if you are into "electro" but not okay if you are talking about industrial music.  I have been ridiculed several times for being into DAF, with the reasoning of the opposing party being pretty much rooted in American misconceptions about masculinity.  Of course, the opposing party was also usually wearing really wide-leg pants with cyber-goth dreads.

What I don't quite understand is this...

Why is it okay to like Nitzer Ebb, but not okay to like DAF?  Before they turned to synths, DAF were an intense band that were hardcore before hardcore even existed in the US.  The entire second half of their second album from '79 involves a performance where they yelled at the audience for a good thirty minutes because the audience were attacking them and throwing things at them.

Regardless of what the haters might think, this music video from 1981 is pretty awesome, and extremely creepy.  I am amazed it was ever played on MTV.

Also, check out this live clip:

Posted by Front 312 at 7:07 PM
Labels:

7 comments:

  1. Adolf HipsterJanuary 20, 2010 at 7:34 PM

    I think your cowboy hat comment hits the nail right on the head. Specifically Al Jourgensen of course, and his metamorphosis around 1987 from Dance/Punk Electro into "Industrial" - but "Metal/Industrial" more like. He later denounced his past works as "fag disco" (despite having many gay friends) and despite it being his best work ever in many peoples minds. Discuss...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adolf HipsterJanuary 20, 2010 at 7:49 PM

    I probably should have mentioned Laibach, one of the hardest, toughest, most masculine "Industrial" bands of the time - a few members of which were gay.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Front 312January 20, 2010 at 8:42 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Front 312January 20, 2010 at 8:43 PM

    Right? It's such hypocrisy. I personally prefer eighties Ministry over the 90's stuff. I never got into Ministry in middle-school because it was all this hard metal stuff that wasn't as good as actual metal, but wasn't dancey enough like Laibach.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Adam BlackJanuary 21, 2010 at 2:14 PM

    i thought rob zombie invented industrial, but i know he's like, 40 or something and thats way old. my favorite band is rammstein, they are oldschool, i buy their tshirts at hot topic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mr AutomaticJanuary 21, 2010 at 10:42 PM

    HA HA HA HA. I remember when all the kids who thought they knew about industrial looked down on the rob zombie kids because they knew about rammstein before du hast was on the radio. ha hahahahaha.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Le SpriteJanuary 22, 2010 at 10:47 PM

    ..... and I quote, "Well, industrial music IS pretty gay.."

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)