Ralf Hütter

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ralf Hütter is a German musician and composer, born in 1946 in Krefeld. He studied architecture and took classes at the conservatoire in Düsseldorf, the Robert Schumann Hochschule. There he met Florian Schneider, with whom he performed at happenings and in galleries in the late 1960s. In 1970 the two founded Kraftwerk in Düsseldorf. Hütter is the singer and keyboard player of the group and the only one who has played on every album.

Music and breakthrough

Together Hütter and Schneider built their own Kling Klang Studio, where they made electronic sounds unlike the guitar music from England and America. The music became ever tighter: a fixed rhythm, short melodies and a voice that often sounds almost mechanical. Hütter saw the group as a total work of art, in which music, image, design and performances belong together. He is himself reticent in interviews and prefers to let the group speak through its work. A clear personal passion is cycling, which returns in the song Tour de France and later in the 2003 album Tour de France Soundtracks.

Influence

Through Kraftwerk, Hütter's vision carried on into synth-pop, house and techno. In School of Rock he stands at the beginning of the chapter on electronic music, as the man who, together with Schneider, put the human as machine on the stage.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 8: Electronic Music^NL Reader