‘Ich habe die DDR sehr geliebt, mit ihren Eigenheiten’

: A study of (N)Ostalgie in post-Wende popular music with reference to Silly, Karat, and Rammstein

Abstract

Despite extensive research on nostalgia and its presence in the arts, and on nostalgia and the former GDR, not much is known about nostalgia for the GDR in the area of popular music. In the past, scholarship has focused mainly on literature, leaving areas such as popular music comparatively underexplored. This thesis aims to explore the familiar concept of ‘Ostalgie’ within popular music from the 1990s through to the present day by examining the output of Silly and Karat, bands who achieved mainstream success in the GDR, and the industrial metal band Rammstein, whose members first played together in the punk band Feeling B in the GDR. My research principally investigates the different ways in which these groups articulate nostalgia in their outputs, as well as the way in which engagement with nostalgia by GDR groups and fans alike has changed since 1990. A musical and lyrical analysis of key songs by my case studies Silly, Karat, and Rammstein alongside paramusical materials including reviews and biographies reveal the different types of nostalgia that are present within their music and how they have changed over the 30 years since reunification. By situating this research within existing frameworks for exploring nostalgia (such as Svetlana Boym’s The Future of Nostalgia (2001) and Simon Reynolds’ Retromania (2013), amongst others), my thesis discusses how ‘(N)Ostalgie’ in popular music relates to other expressions of nostalgia in the GDR memory landscape. I will discuss how the reception of the music produced by these groups amongst their fanbases suggests differences between how cultural producers articulate nostalgia and how nostalgia is subsequently interpreted by their listeners. The different ways that my three case studies articulate nostalgia also expand on theoretical models within memory studies about remembering the past and nostalgia.

Date of Award	4 Feb 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Debbie M Pinfold (Supervisor) & Guido Heldt (Supervisor)