Book review: German Pop Music: A Companion

Abstract

As editor Uwe Schütte observes, German pop music facilitates rich opportunities to "reflect on questions of German national identity and the definition of Germanness" (4). Accordingly, over the course of ten chapters and an interview with pop theorist Diedrich Diederichsen, the assembled authors range widely over the terrain of German pop music in the post-1945 era. Throughout, three themes appear in nearly every chapter and are central to the construction and definition of German pop music: responses to foreign (especially Anglo-American) music and culture; debates over [End Page 437] language use (German or otherwise); and engagement with the German past, present, and future. All told, the chapters contribute to the growing literature on how German popular music has expressed and represented Germanness since 1945.