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Denmark - Culture - MusicDenmark [Main menu] - [Previous paragraph] - [Next paragraph] 4.11.1 The Earliest Times Rock [top]Post-war Danish youth music was in the 1950s marked by the americanisation of the entertainment industry that took place throughout Western Europe. The dance, films and records of the rock'n'roll culture were exported, and in Denmark it was jazz and dance bands, including Ib Glindemann and Peter Plejl's orchestras and the soloists Ib "Rock" Jensen and Otto Brandenburg that at first presented the new style. At the end of the 1950s bands were formed that on the model of the English group The Shadows played what became known as barbed-wire music. Among the best known groups were The Cliffters and The Rocking Ghosts. The English rhythm and blues style of the 1960s inspired The Beefeaters and The Defenders, whereas The Hitmakers and Sir Henry and his Butlers were more influenced by beat music. In 1967 the group Steppeulvene issued the LP Hip, which signified a breakthrough for a truly Danish beat music. The texts, written in Danish, were imaginative and personal, and the music was clearly influenced by folk rock (including Bob Dylan) and American West Coast rock. Influence from the American music scene also inspired groups such as Savage Rose, Alrune Rod and Young Flowers. The music was in general enquiring and experimental at the end of the 1960s, and many jazz musicians began to play beat music, for instance in the groups Maxwells, Burning' Red Ivanhoe and Blue Sun. In the late 1960s, beat music was replaced by the rock music of the 1970s. The texts were argumentative and critical of society, and a political rock scene arose around for instance Røde Mor and Jomfru Ane Band. One of the greatest successes of Danish rock, Gasolin (1969-1978) (with the singer and composer Kim Larsen) created a particular Danish brand of rock music with idiomatic texts and easily sung melodies. Other well-known names creating the profile of Danish rock were Shu-bi-dua, C.V. Jørgensen and the Århus groups Gnags and Shit & Chanel, who demonstrated that rock music was not only a Copenhagen phenomenon. The rock scene of the 1980s was marked by well-sounding and splendidly produced pop and rock music, created, for instance, by Sneakers (with Sanne Salomonsen) and the soloists Lis Sørensen, Anne Linnet and Sebastian, but groups inspired by punk and new wave such as Kliché, Sods/Sort Sol and Miss B. Haven also marked the musical scene of the day. The group TV-2 enjoyed a success with its commentaries on the life style of the 1980s. The trend of the 1990s and the early 2000s has been for rock to be internationalised due to the globalisation of the music industry. Groups like Aqua, Michael Learns to Rock and Safri Duo aim for international careers and many rock musicians use English texts, e.g. Thomas Helmig, Lars H.U.G., Dicte, and D-A-D. Alongside this, hip hop has been finding a Danish idiom with names like Humleridderne, Den Gale Pose and Østkyst Hustlers. But there is still a niche for socially committed troubadours like Johnny Madsen, Lars Lilholt, and Poul Krebs, who carry on singing in Danish. In the 1990s guitar rock groups such as Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, Kashmir and Psyched up Janis gained ground, inspired by the grunge movement, but a thriving electronica scene has also developed, including e.g. Sorten Muld, who reconds techno arrangements of old Danish folk songs, the ambient Future 3 and the Goa-trance group Koxbox, who have both gained international attention. Charlotte Rørdam Larsen, Carsten Berthelsen
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