First Techno (Kraftwerk 1970)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used in techno-history threads as evidence of Kraftwerk's role in the genre's origins and as an example of original work.
What it is
The earliest existing concert video of Kraftwerk, from a 1970 performance shortly after the band formed. It shows the band in its original setup and the audience's reactions.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2018 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec awiesenhofer · 2020-05 · on “Florian Schneider has died”
Still one of my favourite clips on youtube: the very first video recording of Kraftwerk live, from 1970! [this video] (Those audience reactions!)
Cites Dowwie · 2021-04 · on “History of Techno”
1978 Kraftwerk live performance of 2 songs: [LINK] Kraftwerk's first live recorded performance was in 1970: [this video] How many people in the 1970 audience sensed that they were listening to something as significant as what it became?
Cites aa-jv · 2023-04 · on “The Battle over Techno’s Origins”
Techno was started in Düsseldorf by Kraftwerk. [this video] People found this very inspiring and created their own variants. The Detroit variant came along. The Chicago variant came along. The UK variant came along. But it all goes back to Kraftwerk.
Cites yencabulator · 2026-08 · on “Patterns and problems in emerging multi-agent systems”
"A lot of creative work is remixes" in no way conflicts with "That's pretty low-value creativity." Hiphop made using samples a fashion . You can think of it as choosing to restrict one's in order to explore something deeper, like a painter deciding to paint with only two pigments to exercise their skills at shading at patterning. Or you can think of it as a cheap way to make demo tracks in your bedroom. If you want to find actually creative things, look outside of mainstream, Disney, etc. I'll leave you with this link. You tell me if you think it is just a remix of something earlier: [this video]