DOLLS IN DEUTSCHLAND - Sixties girl-pop in Germany

My darling friend, Sheila B. from Cha Cha Charming recently sent me an email with the latest scoop on girl-pop. She included an article about dozens of girls who made it big in '60s Germany and I thought it was only fitting to share it with you all.

xo Amylu
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Dolls In Deutschland

Sixties girl-pop in Germany

By Graham Welch
Chachacharming.com article link

In the early '60s, Germany was still trying to come to terms with its past. The division of the country into capitalist West and communist East cut deep into the national psyche, and musically, Germany was no less torn. The almighty European beat boom turned German teens off their country's pop fluff, thus setting the battleground for foreign versus domestic. But German record companies refused to hear the call for something more hip, and continued to force-feed schmaltzy, high camp fare to their artists. Girl singers, traditionally consigned to a diet of stolen kisses, salty tears, and song contests, found it particularly difficult to pass through the German music industry's Checkpoint Charlie. Very few were granted access to the catalogue of cool. For the majority, Schlager (hits)—the kind of low-grade pop lite that gave German music a bad name—was their domain, whether they liked it or not.

But Deutschmark-filled pockets eventually changed hard German minds. When a post-war economic miracle gave Germans greater spending power over their neighbors, international travel became de rigueur for the country's newly wealthy residents, and international influence on Germany's pop culture was inevitable. Themes of love and adventure in foreign climes dominated German lyrics, demonstrating the strength of Germans' musical wanderlust. For a country low on national pride, foreign was fab. Click here to read more