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What are some bands/songs that are good to learn vocabulary from? I'm not particular about the genre. I would like music that is comprehensible to an absolute beginner (I'm still fairly new to German grammar and sentence structure and my vocabulary is almost nonexistent) and that does not contain regional dialect.

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    If you want to learn how to rhyme properly in German, avoid "Die Toten Hosen" ;-)
    – Jan
    Jun 10, 2011 at 15:17
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    Please explain what you consider "good". Are you looking for slowly-sung and clear music? Any specific genre? This is currently very subjective. Also, please ask one question per question.
    – Tim
    Jun 10, 2011 at 15:18
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    @TimN - edited.
    – Moshe
    Jun 10, 2011 at 15:25
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    Perhaps wiseguys.de
    – bernd_k
    Jun 10, 2011 at 15:25
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    @Moshe: okay, that's a start, but now you have to define "beginner", "comprehensible", "peppered", "regional"... (^_^). Seriously, such soft questions have to be exceptionally narrowly defined, otherwise you will just get a ton of answers where people will simply submit their favorite bands. And don't get me started about individual songs. A question can only handle so many answers before becoming utterly useless.
    – RegDwight
    Jun 10, 2011 at 15:48

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German Disney songs.

Since you've probably heard these songs in your native language, you'll learn how to express the same ideas in German. As timeless, they are arguably also contemporary.

Examples:

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    Very interesting idea!
    – Pekka
    Jun 10, 2011 at 16:17
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I'm a big fan of Die Ärzte - they use lots of different musical styles and their lyrics have a broad range from mindlessly funny to very sociocritical.

They're from Berlin and there's the occasional song that is "peppered" with the respective dialect, but they're mostly singing standard German. Lots of young people like their songs, even though the band has been in business for 30 years now.

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I would recommend Max Raabe & Palast Orchester. He sings songs from the 1920s, 1930s and some contemporary ones, but all in the style from the two decades. He sings and speaks in a very clear German. The songs often carry a sense of humour which is not conveyed through fancy usage of the language but more through the meaning. I think his music can help you learn the right pronunciation (since he emphasizes a clear pronunciation), lets you enjoy the simple fun of the the last century, and is easy to understand. Some words are old-fashioned, though.

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OK. I'll make an answer from my comment.

I propose The Wise Guys a famous German a cappella group performing Relativ

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  • I listened to a lot of Wiseguys in my high school German class. :)
    – kitukwfyer
    Jun 11, 2011 at 14:00
  • Sounds good! Clear and I am surprised how much I understand.
    – Moshe
    Jun 12, 2011 at 8:26
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Also, take a look at

Wir sind Helden.

It was popular five years ago, but they're singing with very little accent.

Should get you into the spirit of deutsche Musik....

There are tons of videos on youtube

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Herbert Grönemeyer does some deeply lyrical and philosophical stuff, makes beautiful music and has produced quite some classics, but unfortunately, you'll need the lyrics book nearby even as a native speaker, as he is the archetype of a mumbler.

Edit: He also uses lots of symbolic language, so he's maybe not first choice for a beginner, but definitely interesting if you want do delve deeper...

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  • -1 since the question was edited to read "comprehensible to an absolute beginner" I want other answers to be shown before this one. Good artist, though! :-)
    – Stovner
    Jun 10, 2011 at 16:31
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    @Stovner Agreed. I was thinking about deleting it altogether but decided to add that warning instead - after all, maybe someone who is not a beginner may find it useful.
    – Jan
    Jun 10, 2011 at 16:33
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    For an intermediate I would recommend Rainald Grebe.
    – km84
    Jun 10, 2011 at 16:48
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I like Dota und die Stadtpiraten, also known as Kleingeldprinzessin. She's from Berlin, but sings standard high german with very little local dialect in it (I remember only "Molle" for a beer).

My favorite song is Öffentlicher Nahverkehr.

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Reinhard Mey would be a good choice from a language learner's point of view. Some people find him a bit bland and un-exciting but his diction is always faultless and clear. The qualities of Mey's deceptively simple style become clearer when you compare him to some of the names mentioned here. Worst of all are Silbermond. It simply isn't enough to pronounce individual words "right" (= free of dialect), as their benighted singer does. You have to get prosody right, too. This is where Silbermond and fellow incompetents Rosenstolz fall down. Listening to them is actually harmful to language learners.

Looking at past winners of the Echo awards, a few names stand out as being useful to language learners:

Ich + Ich (featuring the divine Annette Humpe, author and performer of instant classics such as Ich küsse Ihren Mann (video).

Die Prinzen (graduates of Leipzig's famous Thomaner singing academy, check out their album Küssen verboten: all twelve songs are sung a capella!)

Roger Cicero (easily can hold his own against a big band going at full swing)

I agree with others that Grönemeyer slurs his words and therefore may not be a good choice for beginner students of German to listen to. The same goes for Udo Lindenberg and to a lesser extent for Peter Fox; however, all three are major artists.

German is at bottom a barbarian language, lacking refinement, and sometimes brutally crass in its expression. Although in the intervening centuries since Martin Luther much has been grafted on to make it more suited to "high culture", a few singer-songwriters still cultivate its earthy roots, muddy workboots and calloused hands. One such maverick is Rummelsnuff, watch his Der Heizer video on YT.

(Agree with the plaudits for Max Raabe and Annett Louisan, by the way.)

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Ich würde grundsätzlich vom Vorhaben abraten. Lyrik und Songtexte werden im Idealfall von Meistern der Sprache geschaffen, die im jeden dritten Satz eine Regel verletzen, und damit eventuell neue Sprache prägen in dem sie Grenzen überschreiten, aber um dem zu folgen muss man die Sprache schon recht gut kennen.

In dieser Textform wird, um dem Versmaß zu entsprechen, oft ungewöhnlicher Satzbau verwendet sowie Wörter und Silben unterschlagen.

Bei Musik kommt verschärfend hinzu, dass man ohne Textbuch oft aufgeschmissen ist, und nicht versteht, was gesungen wird. Gut - das Textbuch ist kein echtes Problem mit Google plus Schlüsselwort "Lyrics". Wieso dann aber nicht gleich Lyrik?

Hier ist Rangehen von Nina Hagen, hier Ulla Meinickes Die Tänzerin, Sympathie für den Teufel von Udo Lindenberg, bei dem das engl. Original sicher bekannt ist. Eher eine sprachliche Herausforderung dürfte Brandenburgs Ikarus von Wolf Biermann sein.

Sicher kann man da überall unbekannte Vokabeln nachschlagen, und wenn die Musik gefällt, dann lernen sich diese wohl leichter.

Hier hätte ich noch etwas sehr subtiles von den Phudys, Geh zu ihr und ein weiteres Nichtoriginal, Es war Sommer mit Peter Maffay und zum Abschluß noch eine Frau, Annette Humpe mit Ideal, Ich steh auf Berlin . :)

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I would definitely recommend following the Herbert Grönemeyer approach after you have covered the basics. It's really worth it. Also if you want to train yourself in understanding some fast German, you should seriously consider rap (not hiphop) music. I've lived in another country for 13 years and because of this rap music, I am still able to talk/understand German perfectly.

I would recommend that.

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  • Now, please do explain "rap (not hiphop)"...
    – Jürgen A. Erhard
    Jun 12, 2011 at 0:17
  • Rap is a music genre, that is spoken fast, the correct German word is "Sprachgesang". Hiphop is more slow. For example, rap would be: youtube.com/watch?v=I7ZtvCiBhME (i am able to understand every word :))
    – Herr
    Jun 12, 2011 at 5:55
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    Interesting definition. Wrong, but interesting. Rap is just a style of, well, singing (which "Sprechgesang" emphasizes). Speed is irrelevant. Hiphop is a musical genre. Actually, it's hiphop culture (including other, non-musical things which aren't relevant to this comment thread). And speed is irrelevant for hiphop too.
    – Jürgen A. Erhard
    Jun 12, 2011 at 7:41
  • No not really, hiphop is more slow where rap actually is about, speed. Actually, while being understandable and being fast to be exact :) Music is always a good point to train, as addition to "normal" study:) I was in turkey from 1997 - 2010, and can't understand the difference between my german and a native speaker. This kind of music, including other german groups like silbermond, tokio hotel, die ärzte & etc. helped lot :)
    – Herr
    Jun 12, 2011 at 16:45

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