What was the controversy over Kraftwerks jingle for Expo 2000?
From June 1999, controversy surrounded Kraftwerk’s jingle for the EXPO 2000 world exposition. The mass media, politicians (including the German Federal Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder) and indeed many (though far from all) Kraftwerk fans were very critical of the jingle, for which the band was said to have been paid around 400,000 Deutschmarks. The jingle is only three seconds long and consists of a vocoded voice singing “Expo 2000”. Kraftwerk provided the jingle in six languages. EXPO manager Birgit Breuel defended the jingle, calling it a “courageous artistic production” (source: Hamburger Morgenpost). On 6th December 1999, Kraftwerk released a new song, Expo 2000 as a single; this incorporated the jingle and other phrases used in Expo 2000 publicity.
