Music Videos - Was es ist by MIA, and Das alles ist Deutschland by Fler, and plus more!!

So after being tortured by old Heino tapes for most of my childhood (sorry to those who may actually be a fan), I finally found the first modern German song I actually LIKED in the summer of 2010, when I studied in Strobl, Austria. Sabine, my awesome German tutor, thought that a cool and interactive way to get us used to hearing more colloquial as well as more poetic German was by listening to contemporary music sung in German. The first song she played for us that summer was "Was es ist," by MIA., a pop/rock band from Berlin. Here is the music video below, but I have a bit more to say on the song.

(don't you love her mullet, by the way?)

Anyway, "Was es ist," is based off of a 1983 poem by Erich Fried of the same name. The interesting thing is,  Fried wrote a love poem, while the song "Was es ist" is much more political. Here is a snippet from the above-linked Wikipedia page of MIA.:

2003 saw the band being heavily criticized for their song "Was es ist" ("What it is"), released on an EP of the same title. The lyrics, based on a reference to Erich Fried's 1983 love poem of the same name, featured romantic references to Germany and the colours of the German flag, topics that due to Germany's difficult history, especially the 'Third Reich'-era, many political leftists and especially Anti-Germans consider forbidden territory. MIA. claim the song was meant to provoke a discussion about Germany as a home and as a place to change and design. Furthermore, they consider themselves politically on the left.

You can even hear the German nationalism in the lyrics. "Fragt man mich jetzt woher ich komme. Tu ich mir nicht mehr selber Leid," which I translate to, "Someone asks me from where I come from. I don't feel sorry (for myself) anymore."

But is German nationalism in a song really "forbidden territory" ? Here is another song by the German rappers Fler and Bushido (for an interesting story, look up the feud, and later reconciliation, which this song is supposed to represent, between the two!). It's calle "Das alles ist Deutschland," and while it takes the approach of multiculturalism, it also is about one's love of their home nation, Germany. It's an interesting topic to consider. As a student of history, I know nationalism has shaped many countries, Italy and Germany being prime European examples. It certainly, however, is not a thing of the past.