Portrait: Tokio Hotel

Tokio Hotel are the absolute rage of the moment. Totally way-out band, crazy and, above all completely real. They've known each other since school and cast themselves - neither RTL 2 nor Dieter Bohlen had anything to do with it. It was fate that brought these four Magdeburgers together. Nevertheless, Tokio Hotel has been incredibly successful: their albums are breaking all sales records and at their concerts, the girls collapse en masse. Substantially more than 400,000 copies of the album "Schrei" (Scream) have been sold, about 100,000 DVDs and 200,000 concert tickets, all in the last six months. A stroke of luck, then? Proof that a newcomer group can still have success today even without having first been transformed into an interchangeable plastic band through the applied brainwashing of a star search?

The truth is, no. Because if you look carefully, or listen carefully, you will see that Tokio Hotel is a children's band. The singer Bill Kaulitz and his twin brother Tom, who plays guitar, are just 16 years old and their voices are just changing. No wonder that the boys have known each other since school, because they are still going to school! And it sounds rather improbable that the young band members themselves organized their professional impact in the pop business.

Tokio Hotel was made, and you can rest assured that it was made by adults. This time not with the aid of a casting show as a media platform but completely in keeping with the classical method, with producers and songwriters. Incidentally, one of them, David Jost, was a member of the group Bed & Breakfast in the 90s. But the old men were pretty successful in pressing the buttons of today's kids. First of all, Tokio Hotel protests the uniformity of contemporary everyday life: "Nein, nein, nein, nein, nein - schreeiiiii, wenn du du selbst bist" (No, no, no, no, no - screeeeam if you are yourself) " croaks Bill Kaulitz in the second single release. And for good measure, maybe a few bits of philosophical wisdom like "Es ist dunkel hier im Licht, es gibt alles oder nichts" (It's dark here in the light, it's all or nothing) guarantee profound discussions in the children's rooms throughout Germany. Add a darkly mysterious hymn to love, "Komm und rette mich, ich verbrenne innerlich" (Come rescue me, I'm burning inside) and presto, a milestone in German pop history is made - with all its awful consequences.


Whether in a loop on Viva Plus or at the award ceremonies for the Comet or the Bambi and soon the Echo as well, Tokio Hotel is screaming in your face, everywhere, non-stop. This causes headaches among normal consumers and hysterical fits of screaming among the target group "little girls". The band doesn't understand all the fuss, because all they want to do is "take off". "Germany needs a superstar, not complete idiots", shouts the little boy and his nerves are completely worn out. Unfortunately, Germany presently has plenty of both and somehow no one has really won.

On the other hand, the Tokio Hotel Hate Club in the internet has been winning, namely new members. The interesting aspect of this is that in the meantime, the debate has detached itself from the band and its half-baked musical aberrations. Fans just buy the CDs to support "their" band and to show the others in the text-message chat on Viva Plus that "Tokio Hotel is a million times cooler than US 5!!!" If Bill and his friends hit a wrong note from time to time on the guitar, it doesn't matter because hardly anyone is there for the music anyhow. The screaming of the fans is so loud that you can't hear the music. No one even notices that the concert is over after just 50 minutes or that for an encore, they just repeat the first two singles. The recording company laughs up its sleeve and tosses another chunk of meat into the arena to be shredded by fans and haters. They are waiting impatiently for the next tidbit: a new album. At best, it will be marvellously awful so that both sides will have plenty to keep themselves busy.
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