Music Machines

In The Music-Machines, author Sean Nye traces a fascinating and distinctly American interpretation of 20th century German electronic music . Covering a series of crucial historical moments, Nye provides both a new and alternate history of the extraordinary impact that electronic music from Germany had in the United States, including the receptions of elektronsische Musik, Krautrock, goth-industrial, Eurodance, techno, trance, and minimal.

This first comprehensive history of German-American exchanges in electronic music explores the political and social dimensions of American constructions of Germanness in electronic music. Nye interprets the music in relation to technology, art, and musical style, encouraging readers to delve into what that reveals about its relationship to nation, race, gender, and sexuality. Through such interpretations, The Music-Machines presents a cultural arc of these constructions of Germanness and electronic music.

Nye sets this German-American exchange within larger questions of music and transnationalism, tracing key intersections between German and US cultures while also reflecting on other musical and cultural influences on German electronic music, The Music-Machines also places the evolution of electronic music in its broader historical context, demonstrating the ultimate intertwining of America’s popular music with the Cold War history of West Germany and the post-1989 history of the Berlin Republic. In this way, The Music-Machines sets the frame not only for the study of German electronic music, but the ways in which this electronic turn emerged in American perceptions of German identity.

Sean Nye is Associate Professor of Practice in Musicology at the University of Southern California and a scholar of electronic music and dance culture. His articles, translations, and reviews have appeared in multiple edited volumes and academic journals, including Journal of Popular Music Studies and Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture. Most recently, he published a volume on the Berlin electronic duo Modeselektor for the 33 1/3 Europe series.