JA JA JA
Speaking of Germans, I went into a long discussion of Neue Deutsche Welle (“German New Wave”) in my article on one of the coolest UARB’s of them all, Ja Ja Ja; and I never once mentioned the most successful of those bands: Nena. I am often patting myself on the back about how good my current article is turning out, and then I make an inexcusable omission like that.
One more German connection, and then I’ll move on: About a year ago, I found another great German New Wave album from 1982 by Nervösen Deutschen (“Nervous Germans”), called Desolation Zone (or Nervous Germans). As with Ja Ja Ja, the cover was irresistible.
(April 2013)
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Vanilla Ice was inaccurately called the first white rapper by many in that time period, but this was not at all the case. For one thing, future superstar Eminem was already rapping in high school by the age of 14 (in about 1986). For another, past UARB Ja Ja Ja released “Katz Rap” (“Cat Rap”) in Germany in 1982 as the first female rap song in Europe. As a third example, “Under the Gun” (1984) by a long-time favorite New Wave band called Face to Face features a Christian rap passage.
(September 2016)
