Switzerland has long had a distinct cultural identity, despite its diversity of German, French, Italian, Romansh and other ethnicities. Religious and folk music dominated the country until the 17th century, with growth in production of other kinds of music occurring slowly.
Folk music
Due to a lack of detailed records, little is known about Swiss
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
prior to the 19th century. Some 16th-century
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
tablature
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
s have been reconstructed into authentic instrumental arrangements; however, the first major source of information comes from 19th-century collections of folk songs, and work done by
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
Hanny Christen. One of the oldest varieties of folk music was the Swiss song Kühreihen, an agricultural Alpine song in the Lydian mode. Traditional instruments included
alphorn
The alphorn or alpenhorn or alpine horn is a labrophone, consisting of a straight several-meter-long wooden natural horn of conical bore, with a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece. Traditionally the Alphorn was made of one single piece, or two parts ...
,
hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
,
fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
,
hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vio ...
,
castanets
Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a simil ...
,
rebec
The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings.
Origi ...
,
bagpipe
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Nor ...
,
cittern
The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...
and
shawm
The shawm () is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by th ...
.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Swiss folk music was largely performed by ensembles made of itinerant musicians and solo acts using an instrument, with only a few duos. In the 1830s, however, the
Swiss military
The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, sol ...
was reorganized, leading to the formation of brass bands that used modern instruments. These instruments, mostly brass or wind, were built much better than those played by itinerants, and musicians brought them back to their villages. Local players joined these ensembles, which played dance music for festivals and other celebrations. Dance styles included schottisch,
mazurka
The mazurka (Polish: ''mazur'' Polish ball dance, one of the five Polish national dances and ''mazurek'' Polish folk dance') is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, with character de ...
,
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
and
polka
Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas.
History
Etymology
The term ...
.
In 1829, the
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
was invented in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and it had spread to Switzerland by 1836. The accordion was popular because it was relatively easy to play and cheap to acquire, and took only one musician to play the melody and accompaniment. By the 1850s, the accordion was an integral part of Swiss folk music, and semi-professional ensembles were appearing to play at large social dances. Alongside the brass bands came string instruments like 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 regular ...
and
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
; string bands soon began to displace the older brass bands. The accordion, however, did not make an appearance in these dance bands until about 1903, and it eventually replaced the two violins which had become standard.
Following
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Switzerland became more heavily urbanized, and music moved to cities like Zurich. Rural folk music became the most popular style for middle-class audiences, and musicians like Joseph Stocker ("Stocker Sepp") became renowned across the country. Stocker knew his audience liked the exotic appeal of rural music, and so he bought traditional costumes from
Unterwalden
Unterwalden, translated from the Latin ''inter silvas''(''between the forests''), is the old name of a forest-canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy in central Switzerland, south of Lake Lucerne, consisting of two valleys or '' Talschaften'', no ...
for his band. This was the beginning of ''laendlermusic''.
In the urban areas of Switzerland, folk music began to mix with new styles, like
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and the
foxtrot
The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...
, while the
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
replaced the clarinet. Beginning in the 1930s, the Swiss government began to encourage a national identity distinct from Germany and other neighbors. Laendlermusic became associated with this identity, and grew even more popular.
Following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, however, laendlermusic quickly grew less popular with the influx of imported styles. The field also grew less diverse, with more standardized band formats and only four or five dance types in the repertoire. By the 1960s, trios consisting of two accordions and a double bass were the most common format, and many Swiss people felt it was a civic duty to preserve this tradition and guard it against change. They have largely succeeded in preventing change, but the field has grown stagnant and much less popular. There are still popular performers, such as Res Schmid, Willi Valotti, Markus Flueckiger, Dani Haeusler, and Carlo Brunner, but the total fanbase has shrunk enormously.
During the late 1990s, and especially in the 2000s from around 2008 to the present, the family band Oesch’s die Dritten, a yodeling family from the Bernese Oberland, have been enjoying success. Their format is a Schwyzeroergeli (small accordion) played by Hans Oesch, a guitar, an electric bass, and a large accordion. They are fronted by Melanie Oesch.
Folk music from Appenzell
The rural
Appenzell
Appenzell is a historic canton in the northeast of Switzerland, and entirely surrounded by the canton of St. Gallen.
Appenzell became independent of the Abbey of Saint Gall in 1403 and entered a league with the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1411, ...
region is a major center of folk music. While other parts of Switzerland adopted the accordion (Langnauerli and Schwyzerörgeli) in the 19th century, Appenzell kept 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 regular ...
and
hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...
dulcimer
The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments.
Hammered dulcimers
The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...
,
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
,
contrabass
Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...
) is of great importance, while the
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
and
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 keyboa ...
are also included in some formations.
Pop and rock
Late 20th century
Later in the 20th century, in the 1960s,
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
, or ''beat music'', was popular, peaking in 1968 with the release of
Les Sauterelles
Les Sauterelles (French, literally: the grasshoppers) are a Swiss musical group established in 1962. At least in the German-language area, they are believed to be as one of the 'closest' tribute bands to ''The Beatles'', and to ''The Shadows''.
H ...
' "Heavenly Club". Swiss rock popularity began in 1957, when the Hula Hawaiians incorporated
rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...
, setting the stage for the early 1960s boom. The Francophone section of Switzerland soon found itself dominated by French stars like
Johnny Hallyday
Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and pop singer and actor, credited for having brought rock and roll to France.
During a career spanning 57 ...
, and soon Swiss artists like
Les Aiglons
Les Aiglons was a 1970s Guadeloupean cadence band. Their single "Cuisse-la" was the greatest selling record of any Antillean band until Kassav's ''Zouk la sé sèl médikaman nou ni'' in 1985.
History
Les Aiglons was a classic Guadeloupean band ...
, Larry Greco and Les Faux-Frères became major artists.
1964 saw Beatles-inspired pop take hold on the continent, displacing the earlier instrumental rock and inspired musical battles in
, the capital of Swiss rock. Swiss bands in the same mold included The 16 Strings and
Pichi
The pichi (''Zaedyus pichiy''), dwarf armadillo or pygmy armadillo is an armadillo native to Argentina. It is the only living member of the genus ''Zaedyus'', and the only armadillo to hibernate.
Description
Pichis are relatively small armadi ...
, and German-speaking acts soon dominated the field.
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
then became a center of innovation, drawing on Chris Lange's
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
-roots explorations, Heiner Hepp's
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
-inspired folk and Toni Vescoli's pop fame. Other Swiss artists of the period included R&B act The Nightbirds from Locarno, light rock stars The Wild Gentlemen, The Blue Sounds and pop band Marco Zappa & the Teenagers. In 1967, artists like
Mani Matter
Mani Matter (4 August 1936 in Herzogenbuchsee – 24 November 1972 in Kilchberg, Zurich, officially Hans-Peter Matter) was a popular Swiss singer-songwriter.
Biography
Mani Matter was born on 4 August 1936 in Herzogenbuchsee, Canton of Ber ...
,
Franz Hohler
Franz Hohler (born 1 March 1943) is a Swiss author and cabaret performer based in Zürich.
Life
Hohler is the author of one-man programs and satirical programs for television and radio. He has written theater pieces, children's books, storie ...
Kurt Marti
Kurt Marti (31 January 1921 – Bern, 11 February 2017) was a Swiss theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in uni ...
began establishing Swiss-German dialect rock, glorifying their distinct national identities. While others like
Roland Zoss
Roland Zoss (born 2 August 1961) is a songwriter and novelist. He studied anthropology and literature in Bern and Avignon. He lives in the Aeolian Islands
Songwriter and novelist
Roland Zoss started his early songwriter career in the late 1970s in ...
and Tinu Heiniger sang on in German.
By 1968, Swiss rock was dying, and artists were exploring sonic innovations. Basel's Barry Window, for example, used
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
and
Indian music
Owing to India's vastness and diversity, Indian music encompasses numerous genres in multiple varieties and forms which include classical music, folk (Bollywood), rock, and pop. It has a history spanning several millennia and developed ove ...
to make
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 ...
, while The Sauterelles explored
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...
.
Progressive music formed by the 1970s, when
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, blues and other genres were combined with socially aware lyrics, outlandish solos and macho posturing. The first band of the progressive rock boom was supergroup Flame Dream,
Krokodil
''Krokodil'' ( rus, Крокодил, p=krəkɐˈdʲil, a= Ru-крокодил.ogg, ) was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922 as the satirical supplement to the '' Workers' Gazette'' (called simply «При ...
, and The Shiver and Brainticket soon followed. Sinus Studio in
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
, and engineers Eric Merz and Peter McTaggart, became the center of innovation by the mid-1970s, however.
1973 saw the first commercial release of dialect rock with Rumpelstilz's "Warehuus Blues"; the band broke into the mainstream in 1976 with the release of the
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
-influenced chart-topper ''Füüf Narre im Charre''.
Later in the decade,
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
became popular and
Toad
Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands.
A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...
soon established a Swiss scene with the debut single, "Stay!", setting the stage for the 1980 explosion of Krokus, the most popular rock band in Swiss music history. Also, bands like The Swiss Horns, Red Devil Band and Circus from Basel continued the music in a more experimental form and expanded the musical boundaries of Swiss punk rock. In 1976, a small group of Swiss punks began to adapt the American and British punk rock scene. Bands like Kleenex,
Dieter Meier
Dieter Meier (born 4 March 1945) is a Swiss industrialist, musician and conceptual artist. He is the frontman of the electronic music group Yello, which was co-founded (with ex-member Carlos Perón) by music producer Boris Blank. He is a vocali ...
, The Nasal Boys, Troppo, Mother's Ruin, TNT, Dogbodys, and Sick, all from Zurich, as well as Glueams (
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
), Sozz (Büren), Crazy (
Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...
), and Bastards and Jack & the Rippers (
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
) represented the Swiss punk & wave scene of the late 1970s.
Kleenex – beside the British bands
The Slits
The Slits were a punk and post-punk band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma R ...
and
The Raincoats
The Raincoats are a British experimental post-punk band. Ana da Silva (vocals, guitar) and Gina Birch (vocals, bass) formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art in London.
Signed to the label Rough Trade, the ...
– was one of the first three female bands of the Punk era, published in November 1978 their first single/EP with four songs. With the mixture of art-school, glamour and punk noise they attempted the attention of
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
and became the first Swiss Wave export hit. They reached the UK-Charts and got a contract with
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pun ...
.
During the 1980s, Switzerland produced a number of metal bands. A Swiss band, Celtic Frost, mostly known for their progression of style and
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
take on extreme music started in the early 1980s as
Hellhammer
Hellhammer was a Swiss metal band from Nürensdorf, active from 1982 to 1984. Although the band's sound and style were heavily criticized and poorly reviewed during their active years, they have been widely praised in retrospect and are often r ...
and soon became a leading heavy metal band in Switzerland. They together with a few other bands laid the foundation of modern metal in Switzerland. Related to Celtic Frost is the
technical
Technical may refer to:
* Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle
* Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data
* Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
thrash metal
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
trio
Coroner
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
who were roadies for Celtic Frost. The late 1980s saw
black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
band
Samael
Samael ( he, סַמָּאֵל, ''Sammāʾēl'', "Venom/Poison of God"; ar, سمسمائيل, ''Samsama'il'' or ar, سمائل, label=none, ''Samail''; alternatively Smal, Smil, Samil, or Samiel) is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic ...
being formed which converted into an
industrial metal
Industrial metal is the fusion of heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Prominent industrial metal acts include Ministry, Nine In ...
band.
At the beginning of the 1980s Swiss new wave bands developed their own individual music style and some of them became internationally famous, especially
Kleenex/LiliPUT
''Kleenex/LiLiPUT'' (also referred to as ''LiLiPUT'') is a compilation album by Swiss punk rock band LiLiPUT. Released by Off Course Records in 1993, the album compiles the band's entire recorded output, from their first recordings under the na ...
and
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983.
Their sound is often charac ...
in UK and the US, or
Grauzone
Grauzone (German for "grey area", ) was a band from Berne, Switzerland, that was active and disbanded in the early 1980s. The band is most famous for their 1981 hit " Eisbär" ("Polar Bear"). The single charted at number 12 in Germany and numbe ...
and
mittageisen
"Mittageisen" is a song by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It originally appeared on the band's 1978 debut album ''The Scream'' as "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)"; the track was re-recorded in 1979, this time with the lyrics sung ...
in Germany.
Grauzone
Grauzone (German for "grey area", ) was a band from Berne, Switzerland, that was active and disbanded in the early 1980s. The band is most famous for their 1981 hit " Eisbär" ("Polar Bear"). The single charted at number 12 in Germany and numbe ...
reached the Austrian and German charts with their
NDW
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 ...
-hit “Eisbär”.
Mittageisen
"Mittageisen" is a song by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It originally appeared on the band's 1978 debut album ''The Scream'' as "Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)"; the track was re-recorded in 1979, this time with the lyrics sung ...
released in January 1985 the 12" automaten” with a new electro sound. The single found the way onto the legendary
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
show on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
and became an indie-disco hit. Other notable Swiss
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
The Young Gods
The Young Gods are a Swiss industrial rock band from Fribourg, formed in 1985. The original lineup of the band featured singer Franz Treichler, sampler player Cesare Pizzi and drummer Frank Bagnoud. For most of their history, the band mainta ...
. Formed in 1985 by vocalist Franz Treichler, the group used digital sampling to create an intense amalgamation of classical and rock music and became pioneers of
industrial music
Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...
. The English music-press react enthusiastically and
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
made the band's first self-titled album their "The Album of the Year".
1983 saw the Ex-Trem Normal release "Warum" and "Welcome to Switzerland", which revolutionized Bernese rock by adding distinctive dialect trends. They were followed by
Züri West
Züri West ( Swiss German for ''Zürich West'') is a Swiss rock band. Most of their songs are written in Bernese German.
The band's name is an ironic reference to Bern, the capital of Switzerland, as merely a place west of Zürich, the largest ...
and other bands.
In 1986, the duo
Double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* Th ...
became the first Swiss act to hit the US Top 40 charts with their song, " The Captain of Her Heart".
In 1981, the guitar instrumental group "The four Windows" with lead guitarist Wolfgang Oehry (Long tall Wolfie) won best of Swiss TV's Sprungbrett, followed by a 5 year record contract with EMI. The group recorded the LP "IDENTITY", from which EMI singled out Wolfgang's composition "Lonely Seagull". It became the summer hit of 1982 and received extensive airtime on many radio stations. The German music publication "Fachblatt" dedicated two pages to the Windows' album, praising it as the best guitar based album in years. The band played in many concert halls and open airs, once even in the Ice hockey stadion in Zurich. They also appeared in a number of TV shows.
Since the 1980s Swiss jazz has continued to form. Notable exponents of the Swiss jazz scene are saxophonist Fritz Renold or trumpeter
Franco Ambrosetti
Franco Ambrosetti (born 10 December 1941) is a jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer. He was born in Lugano, Switzerland; his father, Flavio, was a saxophonist who once played opposite Charlie Parker.Stephan Eicher is a popular folk rock musician, rising to prominence in the mid-1980s and gaining a popular following across Europe in the 1990s.
In the 1990s, many rappers and DJs started to influence Switzerland's musical scene. Such as
Black Tiger
A black tiger is a rare colour variant of the tiger, and is not a distinct species or geographic subspecies.
Description
There are reports and one painting (now lost) of pure black non-striped tigers (true melanistic tigers). Most black mammal ...
from Basel was the first one to rap in a Swiss German dialect.
Sens Unik Sens Unik was a Swiss Hip hop group from Lausanne, which was founded in 1987 and disbanded in 2010.
Sens Unik received 4 gold records and contributed to music of films ''La Haine'' and '' Neutre''.
The six members were: Just One, Carlos Leal, Ra ...
from Renens (a suburb of Lausanne) are one of the most important rap groups, merging hip hop with influences from many other styles. Even their first EP included a track in Spanish, due to MC Carlos's Spanish and Galego heritage. Electronica is also part of the Swiss musical experience,
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983.
Their sound is often charac ...
's first album came out in 1979, in the 1980s, Touch El Arab scored a hit in several European countries with the song "Muhammar". Producer
Pat Jabbar
Pat Jabbar is a producer, musician and founder of the record label Barraka el Farnatshi. He is of Swiss, Russian and French descent.
Born in Hamburg, Germany, he grew up in Basel, Switzerland. In 1984 he discovered Arabic music in Israel. One year ...
from Basel established his own record company Barraka el Farnatshi in the late eighties, dedicated to music from the Arabic world (especially Morocco) mixed with dance music from the west. While most musicians’ works were based on contemporary Anglo-Saxon music, singer-songwriter
Christine Lauterburg
Christine Lauterburg (born 12 March 1956 in Bern) is a Swiss singer and yodeler. Lauterburg often remakes Swiss folk songs but also composes her own music. In contrast to most contemporary Swiss musicians, who use the Anglo-Saxon folk songs as a fo ...
took up the traditional Swiss folk music and merged old domestic song with pop and electronic music elements. With her version of the classic Swiss song "S'Vreneli vom Guggisberg", she triggered intense indignation as well as praise.
One of the most popular Swiss singer and performance artists is
DJ Bobo
Peter René Baumann (born 5 January 1968), better known under his stage name DJ BoBo, is a Swiss singer-songwriter, rapper, dancer, and music producer. He has sold 14 million records worldwide and has released 12 studio albums as well as several ...
(born René Baumann).
Emerging in the early 1990s, the band Gotthard evolved to become the leading Swiss rock group and one of the most acclaimed bands in Europe. With a total of 8 studio albums, 2 compilation albums and 2 live albums (one of which unplugged), they changed their style from hard rock to adult contemporary rock. They are presently very popular in Switzerland, but also in Germany, Austria, Italy and Brazil. Singer Steve Lee was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 5, 2010. Nic Maeder joined the band and in 2012, they toured around the world with their new album ''Firebirth.''
21st century
Some Swiss musicians actually enjoy a worldwide reputation, with commercial success. Helvetic electronic music plays a great role (house and dance music particularly), because of some artists like
DJ Antoine
Antoine Konrad (born 23 June 1975), better known as DJ Antoine, is a Swiss house DJ and record producer from Basel. He has a number of successful single and album releases in Western Europe, in particular Switzerland, Germany and France.
Musi ...
,
Remady
Marc Würgler (; born on 12 December 1977), better known by his stage name Remady, is a Swiss music producer from Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regens ...
,
Yves Larock
Yves Cheminade (; born 18 July 1977 in Neuchâtel), better known by the stage name Yves Larock (), is a Swiss DJ and record producer. He is a member of Africanism All Stars.
Biography
His single " Rise Up", featuring vocals by Jaba, was a popul ...
, or
Mike Candys
Michael David Kull (; born 20 August 1981), better known as Mike Candys (), is a Swiss record producer and DJ. He is managed by Mevlan D.
Musical career
In 2008, Candys became widely known in Switzerland with the song "La Serenissima". In 2009 h ...
. Some popular Swiss acts today are the
Neue Deutsche Härte
Neue Deutsche Härte (; "new German hardness"), sometimes abbreviated as NDH, is a subgenre of rock music that developed in Germany and Austria during the early-to-mid 1990s and during the early 2000s. Alluding to the style of Neue Deutsche Well ...
Celtic metal
Celtic metal is a subgenre of folk metal that developed in the 1990s in Ireland. The genre is a fusion of heavy metal and Celtic rock. The early pioneers of the genre were the Irish bands Cruachan, Primordial and Waylander. The genre has since ...
band
Eluveitie
Eluveitie ( ; )Chrigel Glanzmann: "...According to current research, it is pronounced in Bernese German as, i.e. ''"Elvèyti"''. But I don't know if this is correct. The gods know that.:: Metalist Magazine :: Interviews :: Eluveitie is a Swiss f ...
.
Thomas Gabriel Fischer
Thomas Gabriel Fischer (born 19 July 1963), also known by his stage names of Tom G. Warrior and Satanic Slaughter, is a Swiss metal musician. He led the groups Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and today is the frontman of the band Triptykon.
Caree ...
recently split up Celtic Frost and formed a new group,
Triptykon
Triptykon is a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich, formed in 2008 by Thomas Gabriel Fischer, founding member of the pioneering heavy metal bands Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Apollyon Sun.
History
Fischer announced his departure from Ce ...
, playing a black/doom style similar to recent Celtic Frost material.
In 2010, Swiss mathcore band
Knut
Knut (Norwegian language, Norwegian and Swedish language, Swedish), Knud (Danish language, Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German language, German, and Dutch language, Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. ...
released their 4th full-length album, Wonder, on
Hydra Head Records
Hydra Head Records was an independent record label that specializes in extreme metal music, founded in New Mexico by Aaron Turner (the frontman of Isis) in 1993. It had another imprint, Hydra Head Noise Industries, which specialized in experiment ...
.
Notes and references
Bibliography
*M. P. Baumann, ''Die Älplerfeste zu Unspunnen und die Anfänge der Volksmusikforschung in der Schweiz'', in: Schweizer Töne, ed. A. Gerhard, A. Landau, 2000, pp. 155–186.
*
*http://culture.all-about-switzerland.info/swiss-music.html
* Sorce Keller, Marcello. “La musique de l’émigration suisse et italienne aux États-Unis”, in L. Aubert (ed.), Musiques migrantes, In Folio, Genève, 2005, pp. 197–210.
* Sorce Keller, Marcello. “Transplanting multiculturalism: Swiss musical traditions reconfigured in multicultural Victoria”, in Joel Crotti and Kay Dreyfus (Guest Editors), ''Victorian Historical Journal'', LXXVIII(2007), no. 2, pp. 187–205; later appeared in ''Bulletin - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Musikethnologie und Gesellschaft für die Volksmusik in der Schweiz'', October 2008, pp. 53–63.
*Sorce Keller, Marcello. “La Swiss-Italian Festa a Daylesford-Hepburn Springs in Australia. Osservazioni etnografiche e un po’ di cronaca", ''Cenobio'', LV(2006), pp. 329–341.
*Sorce Keller, Marcello.“The Swiss-Germans in Melbourne. Some Considerations on Musical Traditions and Identity”, ''Schweizer Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft'', Neue Folge, XXV(2005), pp. 131–154.
* Sorce Keller, Marcello.“Canton Ticino: una identità musicale?”, ''Cenobio'', LII(2003), April–June, pp. 171–184; later appeared in ''Bulletin - Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Musikethnologie und Gesellschaft für die Volksmusik in der Schweiz'', October 2005, pp. 30–37.
*Swiss Composers' League. 40 Contemporary Swiss Composers = 40 compositores suizos contemporáneos. Amriswil: Bodensee-Verlag, 1956.
*Wagner, Christopher. "The Alpunk Phenomenon". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), ''World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East'', pp 7–12. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.