{"id":3724,"date":"2012-04-11T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T13:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2021-08-05T20:16:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T20:16:14","slug":"german-pop-music-pur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/german-pop-music-pur\/","title":{"rendered":"German Pop Music: Pur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I have begun to write blog entries for Transparent Language<\/a>, I know that there are several German music bands who are very well known beyond the borders of Germany, e.g. Rammstein, Scorpions, and Tokyo Hotel. But do you also know the German band PUR<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

PUR<\/em><\/strong> has been the most successful German band in Germany since the last 15 years, and unlike many other German musicians they sing in German. One characteristic feature of PUR<\/em><\/strong> is that they polarize: people either love them or do not like them all. It seems that most people are ashamed of admitting that they like, at least a little bit, the music of PUR. I confess that I possess one of their albums, thus, I like their music because it is fairly melodic and the lyrics are easy to understand but, nevertheless, still quite philosophic.<\/p>\n

The members of PUR come from Bietigheim-Bissingen (Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg), a town near Stuttgart and they founded the band in 1975, when all of them still attended school. They started their career as the student band \u201cCrusade\u201d. In schooldays they still sang in English but when Hartmut Engler \u2013 today\u2019s singer and bandleader \u2013 later joined \u201cCrusade\u201d they began to sing in German because Hartmut Engler recognized that their fans like their music and wanted to make sure that everyone can understand what he is singing about. \u2013 Before Hartmut became a member of the band, the drummer of \u201cCrusade\u201d performed the vocal part. \u2013 All members agreed to Hartmut\u2019s suggestion to sing in German.<\/p>\n

Another renewal of the band, when Hartmut joined them, was the changing of their band name in 1980. Since they had started to sing their own songs in German they called themselves \u201cOpus\u201d, which turned out to have been a bad decision because another band form Austria, which was also named \u201cOpus\u201d released their hit single \u201cLive is life\u201d in 1985. Consequently, the members had to choose another name, namely PUR<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But in the beginning of their career they were not that well known and successful that they could have lived on their music. Thus, they performed regularly in GI clubs who were still based in Germany at that time and covered songs by American musicians, e.g. Bruce Springsteen and Lynyrd Skynyrd. By this they earned the money they needed to afford their own tour bus, and they eventually could start touring throughout the whole republic.<\/p>\n

The first real breakthrough they made was in 1986 when they won the Bundesrockpreis<\/em><\/strong> (lit. Federal Rock Award) \u2013 \u00a0a music contest for amateurs, which finally resulted in a record deal in January 1987. Although PUR<\/em><\/strong> already had a remarkable fan base and released four albums from 1987 to 1991, the media had not paid much attention to the band, but rather sneered at them. This changed when PUR<\/em><\/strong> performed at the Hockenheim Rock Festival in 1991, where 110.000 people listened to their music. PUR\u2019s long-desired \u201csecond\u201d breakthrough was finally there and they sold more than 1 million copies of their \u201cLive\u201d-Album.<\/p>\n

I have chosen two of my favorite songs for you and I hope you also like them a little bit. In addition to the German lyrics, I also give the English translations. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

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Wo sind all die Indianer hin? \u2013 Where have all the Natives gone?<\/h3>\n