ZweiundVierzig X

Deutsches Haus at NYU presents, ZweiundVierzig (42), a monthly playlist that explores German music in a transatlantic dialogue with the trends occurring in the contemporary American music industry. What kind of music is popular in the German-speaking world compared to in the United States? What does the demographic of the performers/artists say about the political, social, and cultural shifts in the German-speaking countries compared to in the United States? What parallels can be drawn between these countries, and what kind of parallel terminology, slang, and themes have developed? What differences are immediately apparent? From urban music, to rap and trap; to rock, pop, and techno; to dancehall, reggae, and bossa nova, etc.; ZweiundVierzig has something for all preferences and is an incredible resource for any language learner or music lover.

Why 42? 

ZweiundVierzig, a stylization of the German word for forty-two (42), is the address of Deutsches Haus at NYU (DH), as well as the answer to everything, according to some.     

Why do you only update once monthly? 

Deutsches Haus at NYU has a full program from cultural events to language classes, but a really small team. Depending on the amount of traction and follows these playlists receive, we'll try to update more frequently. For now, we'll take it slow. 

I don't have Spotify! How can I listen?

We'll screenshot the playlist below with every update. That way you can use whatever other streaming service you have, YouTube, or Google to find ways to access the music!

Why not just add the Spotify widget?

NYU is working on making this possible for our interface. Please bear with our alternate display for the time being. 

Disclaimers: *Explicit content*

The ideas, terminologies, and views expressed in these songs are not shared by Deutsches Haus at NYU or its team.

Welcome to the 2020/2021 academic year. While we find the start of this school year dystopian (to say the least), and are all yearning for "normalcy," we know that a good playlist can set the mood (whether it's to motivate us to act for change, to study hard, to cozy up to a friend or by a fire, etc.). For this tenth edition, we have decided to focus on translations and covers of internationally renowned songs of yore into the German language. While the world is more globalized and American/English media easily consumable, in the past, some acts chose to translate their works in order to appeal to global markets. As of late, with most of the German-speaking world having some knowledge of English, this phenomena is rarely observed. Below, is a sampling of some hits, that we're sure you'll know, even if the lyrics may catch you off guard.

We start off with Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Völlig losgelöst)," a building up on the character Major Tom from David Bowie's "Space Oddity," in a temporally-aware context. While not a cover, but a song of it's own, the sound and the borrowing/investing in of a lyrical and instrumental world laid before him, we qualified Schilling's hit for this theme. Speaking of Bowie, we feature "Helden" the German version of his hit "Heroes," at the middle of the playlist; no cover edition would be complete without it! British sensations The Beatles and Sandie Shaw make the playlist with "Komm gib mir deine Hand" and "An Jenem Tag," respectively. Ultimately, it may be the incredible Motown hits that'll have you singing along whether it be in English or German: The Temptations' "Mein Girl (My Girl)," Marvin Gaye's "Wie Schone Das Ist," and The Supremes "Moonlight and Kisses - German Version" are all featured. As early as 1963, Motown was having meetings abroad in Europe, to market their music and flying in folks to assist its subsidiary labels' artists with phonetics and pronunciation- launching the record label into a tour-de-force global wonder and breaking social barriers that helped propel the movement for equality. With other notable tracks, we finish off the playlist with Marlene Dietrich's "Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind," a translation of Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson's "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" A relevant question indeed. 

We hope you enjoy this edition of ZweiundVierzig (42).