Herbert Grönemeyer achieved his breakthrough forty years ago with the successful album “4630 Bochum” – and the feat of not sounding like a hit despite great feelings and seriousness.
Four decades ago he gave a city an unmistakable anthem and a country a whole series of skilfully mangled classics for the collective memory. With the record “4630 Bochum” – which included hits like “Men”, “Alcohol” and “Planes in the Belly” – Herbert Grönemeyer achieved the breakthrough that many people had not believed in. Four decades later, the album is one of the most successful in German pop music history.
Grönemeyer had thrown out his former record company Intercord after four studio albums due to relative lack of success. The people in charge at his new label EMI in Cologne also had to be convinced of his plans: When he said that his next album should be called “Bochum”, “they looked at me as if I didn’t have all the cups in the cupboard,” said Grönemeyer a few years ago in the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”. “Nobody in Bottrop will buy that,” they said. The Rhinelanders were taught otherwise.
Bought again and again: “Bochum” was in the album charts for 140 weeks
Since it was released on May 11, 1984, first on vinyl and then months later as a CD, which was still a secondary medium at the time, “Bochum” has sold more than three million copies, according to the Universal label, and continues to win gold records to this day. It has climbed into the album charts again and again over the last four decades, staying in the top 100 for a total of 140 weeks.
The title song about the city that had such an impact on him, but which he had already turned his back on, has been played for many years not only before every home game of the VfL Bochum football club. The declaration of love for the unvarnished nature of the mining town also worked for an audience from the rest of the republic: “For consumers from outside, the song had less of an impact on the perception of the city and more on the perception of Grönemeyer as an authentic artist: There is one “, who knows where he comes from and is happy that not everything is perfect there,” says music expert Derek von Krogh, artistic director of the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg.
In fact, it was probably the releases “Men”, “Airplanes in the Belly” and “Alcohol” that boosted sales figures: “Almost everyone knows these titles – they made it into the folk song book of German pop music,” says music producer von Krogh appreciatively. “Grönemeyer has not only reached die-hard music fans, but also people who otherwise don’t listen to music. This is a trophy that only a few artists can claim.”
Despite big feelings: Why Grönemeyer didn’t sound like Schlager
The release of “4630 Bochum” came at a time that the pop music expert describes as the “golden, balanced mid-eighties”: the Neue Deutsche Welle with its life-affirming and meaning-denying lyrics and squeaky sounds was just ebbing away, the “completely shoulder-padded late eighties with their big permanent waves and even bigger sounds,” said von Krogh, had not yet begun. “Grönemeyer now came with this unabashed pathos and a form of emotional commitment that had not existed for years before – and that few still dare to do today,” says von Krogh. Grönemeyer, then 28 years old, sang about his time, gender roles, ties to home, love, longing and ambivalent feelings. “He found a way not to sound pop-esque,” says von Krogh.
The German rock, which still sounded handmade, was modern enough to differentiate itself from pop songs thanks to the “growing synthesizer sound worlds”. Above all, however, Grönemeyer set a counterpoint with his special habitus in singing: “The angularity in his singing that he brought with him as a singing theater actor”, the borrowings from soul, for example when he includes small twists at the end of words, his preference for awkward terms and Lines of text – all of these elements, according to Krogh Grönemeyer’s overall work, are already visible on the record: “Anyone who hears “Bochum” today doesn’t say: That sounds like the Mid-Eighties, they say: “That sounds like Grönemeyer”.”
His style of singing – pressed voice, sometimes mumbled, sometimes thrown lines – has long since become his trademark. Today he likes to flirt with the fact that his singing initially caused producers and listeners to shake their heads. Grönemeyer remembers in numerous interviews that the first release “Männer” wasn’t played on the radio at all because people couldn’t understand him. “I just sing like I kiss,” Grönemeyer explained last year on the TV talk show “3 nach 9” on Radio Bremen: “not clearly, but hopefully sometimes well.”
The anniversary will be celebrated with new interpretations and concerts
Once discovered, Grönemeyer developed over the decades into the Germans’ favorite pop poet: This was followed by hits such as “Kinder an die Macht”, “What’s that supposed to be” and finally, with “Mensch” in 2002, a record that, in terms of sales figures, was still the best in Bochum the rank should expire. Grönemeyer’s latest studio album “Das ist los” entered the album charts at number two in 2023 and provided the opportunity for numerous concerts in full arenas and stadiums.
Grönemeyer still remains loyal to many of the 40-year-old hits from “Bochum” when performing today. A younger audience should discover the iconic Bochum classics in a new guise this summer: a new edition of “Flugzeuge im abdominal” with the singer and rapper Céline started, followed by an electronic “men’s” reinterpretation by the musician Dilla. According to Universal, a total of three new recordings will be released as homage by young artists to Grönemeyer and his repertoire.
The 68-year-old musician will of course also be celebrating the album’s milestone birthday with concerts: this summer he will be on stage once in Dresden and twice in Berlin. There are four concerts where it all somehow began: in Bochum. Good luck.