all band members are self-taught musicians. at the beginning of their musical career most of them were still at school. their first album was recorded in a studio rented by the hour. the band kept to simple guitar chords and lyrics, in garage style. "die toten hosen" were mainly influenced by punk bands from the 1970s, to whom they frequently pay tribute in recorded work and live performances. on occasion they have played songs by the beatles and the rolling stones. some of the band's songs have been described as "schunkelpunk", a fusion of german schlager music and punk, exemplified by "eisgekühlter bommerlunder", numerous cover versions of german schlager songs and tracks like "azzurro". they can be seen as pioneers of "volxmusic", which combines elements of german folk music with jazz, hip-hop or rock. in some of their songs "die toten hosen" experiment with strings or wind instruments. a few songs have elements that are lifted from jazz (e.g. "warum werde ich nicht satt"), reggae ("zehn kleine jägermeister") or yugoslavian gypsy music ("das mädchen aus rottweil").