#and also im exhausted and like miles deep in my thesis at the moment so this is just.

[betweenheroesandvillains]

please please please, will you share your Opinions regarding radio with us as soon as you have time to do so?

Ok where do I start.

Well let's start with the“bigger picture” - Rammstein and the 1920s. Which kinda is thefirst perfect parallel. Because we all know Rammstein love toprovoke. They have literally made a career out of it. And is thereany era as provoking as the 20s, with as clearly a cut between “Howone is expected to behave” and “How one really behaves”? Ohdefinitely not. Listen, for everyone who isn't German. Imagine your20s. And now believe me when I tell you Berlin was worse. Far, farworse. Berlin in the 20s was basically sex drugs and rock'n'roll(obviously under a veneer of “respectability”, but Berlin was theworld's third biggest city at that point, AND there was no such thingas Prohibition going on) So let's say you were more than able to havea good time after nightfall, and Berlin's subcultures were prettyvaried. LGBT-stuff was, while not necessarily being condoned bysociety as a whole, kind of. Just there? Drinking and drugs were VERYavailable, especially for entertainers (Which is basically whatRammstein are...) It was all a very curious mix of the leftovers ofthe straight-laced monarchy with its rigid rules and the strangefreedom/despair after the breakdown of everything you have everknown. (A lot of people struggled tbh, especially in the first yearsbut... let's not get into that bc that would be going too far.

Basically, the privatelife of the 1920s is one big provocation towards older ideals, andthe sub-/nightculture of esp. Berlin is an even bigger provocationtowards the sheer veneer of a respectable bourgeois lifestyle

Now what else comes up inthe 20s? Mass media. Film, magazines, and (you'll have guessed it)the radio. This I think sort of is the main running gag and I CAN'TSTOP LAUGHING BECAUSE IT'S SO ANTICLIMCTIC because yeah in the 20sthere was radio but it cost money so people kinda illegally builttheir own radios and illegally tuned into the stations this is soridiculously funny and I think I shouldn't laugh but people haveliterally always pirated stuff.

Aaaaanyway now to come tothe Thrilling Point Where History And Slightly Closer HistoryInteract: the so-called “Schmutz- und Schundgesetz” (“Filth andTrash Law” [my translation]). Basically, the goal was to keep any“filthy media” away from “the kids”, and while (as far as Iknow) not invoked widely, it was censorship. Now what makes thisreally interesting is that in the GDR (where Rammstein grew up) thesame term (“Schmuzt- und Schundliteratur”) were used to describecensored literature. In the GDR, the media were state-controlled.While it technically wasn't illegal to listen to West-German radio,you were in deep shit if you got caught (which basically is thereason for most of Rammstein's slightly cryptic double entendre inthe lyrics but this too would lead us too far from the point). A lotof people still listened to Westradio, but if you did so, you madesure nobody knew you were doing it. You had your own private life(“How you really behave”) under a veneer of behaving as the stateexpected you to. And I KNOW this song is intensely personal forRammstein, and I THINK they are very conscious of this strongparallel.

TL;DR:

reaching out for aworld you cannot touch; navigating the space between your two lives,the one on the surface that you live for the state and the one youlive in private; provocation – the guys know exactly what they aredoing when they set this song to a 20s/early 30s background.

Thanks for coming to myted talk, come back when I rant on about the last 10 seconds incolour because they really did That.