Paffendorf is a German

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

project. The group consists of

Ramon Zenker Ramon Zenker (born 11 November 1968) is a German music producer, songwriter, sound engineer and remixer. He is a member of Hardfloor, Fragma Paffendorf and E-Trax, who had a UK #60 hit with Let's Rock. Zenker started playing keyboards and bass ...

, also

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Fragma Fragma are a German vocal trance music group, originally comprising three producers. The group was successful in the early 2000s when they released several singles that charted successfully across Europe, especially the United Kingdom and Irel ...

, Gottfried Engels and Nicolas Valli. The project is represented by the Cologne DJ Christian Schmitz, active on Tiger Records. Paffendorf is best known for their year 2000

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization in ...

, "Where Are You", although they have had various successful hits across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, their best known in the UK being "Be Cool," which peaked at number 7 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in June, 2002. Their song, "Under My Skin", had become an Internet meme, featuring Momo, a character from the anime series ''

Sumomomo Momomo is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shinobu Ohtaka. It was serialized in Square Enix's Seinen manga, ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Young Gangan'' (first named ''Gangan YG'') from January 2004 to February 2009, with its chapter ...

'' repetitively imitating a train engine with her hands and jumping up and down. The song had been sped up to sound similar and rival to a more popular Internet meme,

Caramelldansen "Caramelldansen" (Swedish for "''The Caramell dance''") is the first track from Swedish music group Caramell's second and final album ''Supergott'' released on November 16, 2001. It became a viral internet meme in the mid-2000s where a sped-up ...

History

was involved in a number of dance music projects in the late 80's, including

Interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

("Who Is Elvis"). Engel's and Zenker's Samba dance project Bellini, centered around three female singers, began in 1997 with the release of " Samba de Janeiro"

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Bellini
/ref> in various versions. It became an international hit (#2 in Germany) and was followed by an album and more singles. The trance project Paffendorf debuted with "Smile" (#22 in Germany) in 1998. "Ruf Mich An" / "Call Me Now" and "Terminator" achieved

Top 50 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "conte ...

status. In the year 2000 they continued in that vein and made their breakthrough: "Where are You" went into the German Top 15 with "Everybody Scream" also making the Top 50. Their hit album, ''Dance City'' was also placed firmly in the Top 50 of the album charts. The track "Rhythm And Sex" continued the run, whilst "Be Cool" went to #7 in the

in June 2002. At the same time Zenker co-founded and produced the Fragma ("Toca's Miracle"). Their thirteenth single release, "Under My Skin", was successful in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, particular in the

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, NicoNico Douga. It was first shown in a fan-vid featuring the character Momo from

, plus the Jens O Remix version of the song that was shortened and played twice. Westerners sometimes called this the "Paffendorf Dance". Another version of this video involved characters from

Lucky Star Lucky Star, The Lucky Star or Lucky Starr may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Anime and manga * ''Lucky Star'' (manga), a manga, anime, and video game series * "Lucky Star", one of the Angel Frames from the anime and manga series ''Galaxy ...

Discography

Albums

* 2000: ''Dance City'' * 2001: ''Be Cool'' * 2007: ''Planet Dance''

Singles

Videos

* 1998: ''Smile'' * 1998: ''Ruf Mich An'' * 1998: ''Terminator 2 Theme: Main Title'' * 2000: ''Where Are You'' * 2001: ''Rhythm & Sex'' * 2002: ''Be Cool'' * 2002: ''Crazy, Sexy, Marvellous'' * 2005: ''On & On'' * 2006: ''La La La Girl'' * 2006: ''Where Are You 2007''

References

External links

Official website - doesn't work!
German Eurodance groups German dance music groups {{Germany-band-stub