Jennifer Rostock is a German

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band. They formed in 2007 out of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and first rose to fame in 2008 for their performance in the German talent competition " The Bundesvision Song Contest"

History

Jennifer Weist (born 3 December 1986) and Johannes "Joe" Walter-Müller are both natives of the German

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

island

Usedom Usedom (german: Usedom , pl, Uznam ) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea. It is north of the Szczecin ...

, where they first met in kindergarten. Walter-Müller started to take music lessons as a five-year-old; he initially learned the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

, later he started to play the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

. At the age of 13, he met Weist again when she was singing at a

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...

show, and he invited her to join his school band. They experimented with different genres such as

, pop, and swing. In the beginning they sang in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, later in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, and they eventually wrote their own songs. In 2004, both founded the band Aerials.Jennifer Rostock
FanLexikon.de. Accessed 10 December 2008. They met Werner Krumme, who later became their record producer, during a songwriting workshop in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

. Jennifer Rostock (Biographie)
laut.de. Accessed 10 December 2008. After both finished high school ('' Gymnasium'') in the summer of 2006, they moved to

to pursue a career in music. There they also met their future band members Alex, Christoph, and Baku.Usedomer Band rockt beim Bundesvision Song Contest für M-V
. MVregio. 12 December 2007. Accessed 10 December 2008. The band's name was originally based on a misunderstanding. Employees at the Planet Roc recording studios in Berlin repeatedly addressed notes for them to "Jennifer Rostock". Weist later explained: "Jennifer was directed at me, and Rostock, because they remembered we are from the coast, and Rostock was probably the only town the studio guys knew up there." This working title was eventually embraced by the band and became their official name. In 2007, the group gave their first concerts as Jennifer Rostock and they signed a recording contract with

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

. They mainly performed in the Berlin club scene and played as opening acts for the British bands Chikinki and

Gallows A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...

. In October, Jennifer Rostock released the EP ''Ich will hier raus'' as a

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

and they first receiving radio airplay by local stations in Berlin. In February 2008, their first single, "Kopf oder Zahl", was placed in rotation by

MTV Germany MTV Germany is a German language free-to-air television channel operated by Paramount Global. The channel launched on 7 March 1997 as MTV Central, as part of a regionalisation strategy by Paramount Global, then MTV Networks Europe. Availabi ...

. They competed with that song at the

Bundesvision Song Contest The Bundesvision Song Contest (often shortened BSC or BuViSoCo) was a song competition held annually between the sixteen states of Germany. Created by German entertainer Stefan Raab and aired live on ProSieben, the show was loosely based on t ...

, a German television show based on the Eurovision Song Contest, and came in fifth. Jennifer Rostock’s debut album, ''Ins offene Messer'', was released the following day and reached number 31 in the German album charts. They released two additional singles from their debut album, "Feuer" and "Himalaya". In June, Jennifer Rostock performed at ''MTV Campus Invasion'' in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, which was broadcast live by MTV, and they played at music festivals and concerts throughout Germany; they also had several shows in Austria and Switzerland. In October, they performed their song "Himalaya" at the tour premiere of German rock musician

Udo Lindenberg Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, drummer, and composer. Career Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...

in Rostock. On 15 November 2017, the band announced via

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

to go on hiatus after their planned tour for 2018. On 13 May 2018, they played their last show in the sold out Columbiahalle in Berlin.

Music

Jennifer Rostock's line-up consists of lead vocalist Jennifer Weist,

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

Johannes "Joe" Walter-Müller, guitarist Alex, bassist Christoph, and drummer Baku. The group's unconventional German lyrics are collectively written by Weist and Walter-Müller who also compose and arrange the songs. Although difficult to categorise, Jennifer Rostock are sometimes compared to the

Neue Deutsche Welle Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW, , "New German Wave") is a genre of West German rock music originally derived from post-punk and new wave music with electronic influences. The term was first coined by Dutch radio DJ Frits Spits on the popular nationwid ...

, especially due to their first single, "Kopf oder Zahl", and its similarities to the German 1980's band

Ideal Ideal may refer to: Philosophy * Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals * Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato Mathematics * Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considere ...

. The German newspaper '' die tageszeitung'' described their music as "between

glam punk Glam punk is a term used retrospectively to describe a short-lived trend for bands which produced a form of proto-punk that incorporated elements of glam rock, initially in the early to mid-1970s. History Glam punk has been seen as a backlash to ...

, electropop and Berlin-

". They have also been described as mixing

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

with punk and electro.

Discography

Albums

Singles

EPs

* 2007: ''Ich Will Hier Raus'' * 2014: ''Kaleidoskop''

References

External links

*
Official MySpace page

Profile at Warner Music Germany
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rostock, Jennifer 2007 establishments in Germany Musical groups established in 2007 German alternative rock groups German punk rock groups Electropop groups Participants in the Bundesvision Song Contest Musical groups from Berlin