AMD 2

Guten Tag!

So I watched the music video for "99 Luftballons" by Nena, a German pop group from the 80's. It's a pretty popular song, and there's also an English version of the recording by the same artist that was a big hit in the States. Luft auf Deutsch actually means "air", so the title literally translates into something like "99 Air balloons".

Upon doing some heavy scholarly research (Wikipedia) I found out that this song was actually a protest song. The song was first inspired when the band's guitarist saw a large group of balloons being released into the air at a Rolling Stones concert in the early 80's. "99 Luftballons" tells a story about a group of red balloons (99, to be exact) being released into the atmosphere and being mistaken by the Soviets for some sort of military attack by the Americans. Rather than confirming that it is indeed an attack before they make any major decisions, the Soviets of course launch a full-scale nuclear attack on the United States, who in turn counters with another nuclear attack. The song's lyrics end with the narrator standing in the rubble of some city, and releasing another balloon into the air.

There are a variety of reasons that this song is so fascinating to me. For one, it is auf Deutsch. But it also has a historical and political meaning behind it, and I've long been fascinated in the relationship between history and music. On top of all that though, it's an all-around catchy song, and who doesn't love a catchy 80's pop tune? Nobody, that's who.

Auf wiedersehen!

P.s. The music video isn't exactly a masterpiece, but here it is anyway: