Why did most German bands sing in English?

I know very little about the story behind why almost all of the German music I've heard (at least 350 albums, mostly krautrock, with some acid folk, symph prog, prog. electronic, psychedelic/space rock, and heavy prog) contains vocals in English. Yet I have heard that the British music press did not give any value or much attention at all to those bands on the German side of the water. Why? Were they really going for the US market? Were they going for other English-speaking international market? It seems to me that singing in English would have estranged them from any potential or existent fan-base.

English sells more

[/thread]

When it comes to prog, it's mainly about reaching a wider audience.  English is one the singular languages that has come to dominate the world.  That's why PFM and Kayak do English lyrics and being an English speaker and only knowing a few words or phrases in other languages, I might not be a fan of either if it weren't for that fact.

Of course, in our hemisphere I think Spanish is even more predominant.  I don't know whether French or Portuguese runs next.

From what I understand there are more than a few varieties of native languages in India that don't work well together and English has become sort of a universal translating language.


Edited by Slartibartfast - May 26 2009 at 20:29

Even with very little exposure to English audiences?

There are tons of bands that speak other than in their native language. In fact, I can't think of a single Swedish or Norwegian band other than Enslaved in their early years that sing in their native tongues, off the top of my head of course.

I don't know as much about Krautrock as I'd like but:

Dave Anderson of Amon Duul was English, I believe.
Can had Malcolm Mooney (an African American) and Damo Suzuki (who was Japanese) in their band (not at the same time)
Guru Guru had Jim Kennedy (presumably English or Irish)

So they weren't all native Germans.

Many of the Krautrock bands were also on American labels.

Of course, many of the musicians in Krautrock bands were influenced by British and American bands, especially The Beatles and Velvet Underground.

Then you have to remember that Italy and Germany are culturally different and making music that is completely different to each other.

The popscene had been dominated by the English and the American. Rockmusic just sounded English I guess. Some barriers had to be broken.

Because German was the language of Hitler.

Like that 99 red balloons song?

^But the language of Elvis was American