Kraftwerk’s Computer World

Aka volume 163 of the 33 1/3 series.       Computer World was Kraftwerk’s most concise and focused conceptual statement, their most influential record and crowning achievement. Computer World transformed the way pop music was composed, played, packaged and released and, in the process, helped create entire new genres of music including hip-hop, techno, trance, electro, industrial and synth-pop. They influenced the influencers.     Upon its release on 10 May 1981, the record was a revelation. It was unlike anything created for mainstream consumers of music at that time, an electronic suite of assured and industrious propulsive forward…