electronic keyboard instruments and cutting-edge studio mixing
and editing, Kraftwerk and bands like it built their music
around the technology in many ways. In fact, they mentioned as
one of their influences the philosophy of the German Bauhaus
movement, which taught that technology and art should be joined
together. Even the band’s name, which means “power station” in
German, suggests this devotion to technology and electronic
music. The band’s best-known album in the early 1970s was
Autobahn, which featured a 20-minute long “drive” in a car down
the freeway, created in the studio with electronic instruments
and recording tricks. The group’s members were photographed in
costumes that made them look like engineers or scientists, or
later, robots. Many of their album titles featured technological
themes, such as 1975’s Radio-Activity, 1977’s Trans-Europe
Express, and 1978’s Man-Machine. The melding of technology and
music was carried forward in the 1981 album Computer World,
which featured the song “Pocket Ca