Azealia Banks, the Queen of the Unpopular Opinions, has returned to the load stating that “Kraftwerk are garbage.” Although their statements have nuances. She defends her right to not like Kraftwerk, but also claims that Donna Summer, and not the German group, is the true pioneer of techno music. «Kraftwerk seem garbage. The Germans always pretend that Donna Summer was not the true first techno artist of history.
Is Azealia right or are trying to rewrite history as Lizzo speaking of Madonna, Janet Jackson and Britney Spears?
Kraftwerk and Donna Summer emerged in music in the late 60s, the first with the alias of Organism and the second with their real name, Donna Gaines. Coincidentally, the first single from Donna Gaines was a version of ‘Aquarius’ of the musical ‘Hair’ sung in German.
The Kraftwerk and Summer races took off in the mid -70s, but with a year apart, Kraftwerk’s in 1974 with ‘Autobahn’ and Donna Summer’s in 1975 with ‘Love to love you baby’. Here, Summer already worked side by side with the Italian Giorgio Moroder.
The song that commercially broke Donna Summer on a global scale was the pioneer ‘I Feel Love’, which came out in May 1977 but was recorded in 1976. When ‘I Feel Love’ was launched, Kraftwerk had already settled their electronic sound in ‘Trans-Europe Express’, which came out in March 1977 but was recorded in 1976. The story tells that’ I was inspired by the sound of the sound of the sound. Kraftwerk and not vice versa. However, ‘I Feel Love’ marked a before and after in the evolution of electronic pop and club music thanks to its dance sound and its enormous commercial impact: we must not forget that ‘I Feel Love’ was Moroder’s attempt to produce the disco music of the future.
Is Donna Summer the first techno music artist? Yes and no. ‘I Feel Love’ was supposedly the first song in the story that combined a four-by four base with synthesizer and hi-jats typical club music that would emerge years later. However, Kraftwerk already made exclusively electronic music, and it could be said that Tecno, before her.
Banks, yes, shares praise for two German artists: he says that Klaus Nomi seems better than Kraftwerk although he also gives “more fear”, and says he is a fan of Roman Flügel. We remind you that Azealia Banks acts in Kalorama Madrid next June.
