In the documentary “Pop Videos in the GDR” by Heike Sittner, artists, directors and moderators explain under what conditions and with what goal music clips were created back then, what difficulties had to be overcome and what kind of feedback they received received for their work.
The film follows the music videos from the period up to 1989/90 and also puts them in direct comparison with clips from the Federal Republic of Germany. The 90-minute MDR documentary is available to stream in the ARD media library from now until February 20th.
Set accents with “STOP! Rock”, “KLIK” and “Bong”
The launch of the US music channel changed the world of music and media forever. The German show “Formula One”, which started two years after the American MTV, also set new standards by broadcasting international clips from artists such as Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode, The Cure and Pet Shop Boys. This gave rise to a desire in the GDR to keep up with trends. With formats like “STOP! Rock” (a ratings program for rock and pop artists), “KLIK” (a monthly production for teenagers from 1985) and “Bong” should succeed in this.
Jürgen Karney, the presenter of “Bong” at the time, remembers in the documentary and explains in the interview about the efforts to be modern and contemporary: “Of course we wanted to get involved and had the ambition to put all the songs we presented in a video to be packaged according to the topic, the artist and the topicality. And we put a lot of time and ambition into it.”
Other celebrities who have their say: IC Falkenberg, Petra Zieger, Jürgen Ehle (Pankow), Mike Kilian, Reinhard Petereit (Rockhaus), Maschinen (Puhdys), Arnulf Wenning, Rainer Oleak (Datzu), the then production manager of DEFA Herbert Kruschke , the directors Frank Heusing, Klaus Dieter Rentel and Ulrich Meißner, the moderators Alexander Lehmberg and Peter Illmann, the former Amiga boss Jörg Stempel.
Click here for the documentary “Pop videos in the GDR”.