On April 26, 2019, the German band Rammstein released a black and white video for the single “Radio”. This song was the second after “Deutchland” in the yet unreleased album, which is scheduled for release on May 17, 2019.

Brief description and plot of the clip

The famous group appears before the viewer in the form of musicians from the middle of the last century. As you know, then Germany was divided into two parts – socialist and capitalist. Most likely, events unfold in the socialist GDR. But, perhaps, this is also a composite image, since the capitalist Germany in the post-war period could hardly be called a completely free country.

At the beginning of the clip, the viewer sees marching policemen, the frames are replaced by inserts with a group, as well as with women who do not very decent and defiant things with radios.

The video features a Berlin radio tower and receivers from the fifties and sixties.

Then women, incl. topless, start going out to protest for radio freedom. They come into conflict with the police, one lady cuts off the man’s ear and starts singing into it. Meanwhile, the cops try to stop the band’s concert, but they fail (because it turns out that there are already holograms) and they themselves start dancing.

At the end of the clip, the musicians, or rather, their holographic images, exit the building, near which the EU flags are full of colors, but not blue, but red.

The meaning of the clip

The Radio song conveys its entire semantic load only in a strong adhesion with the clip. Without belittling the whole value of Rammstein’s new masterpiece, we note that one can speak about its meaning after understanding the meaning of the clip.

It is permeated with notes of anti-globalism. This topic is apparently painful for the Rams. Drawing an analogy between the EU and the USSR in the image of the red flag of the European Union is nothing more than a criticism of the gradual expansion of the competence of this supranational formation with the actual loss by member states of part of their sovereignty (both internal and external).

Radio is both an image of propaganda and an image of information pluralism. Society demands a source of fresh informational air, but sometimes such a thirst reaches the point of absurdity (images of communication with radio receivers).

But Rammstein does justice to the age of the internet. As they try to disperse them, the cops fight the hologram, unable to resist the broadcast. This is the power of the internet. Now almost nothing can be hidden from society.

The meaning of the song (abridged translation)

In the first verse, it is sung that “they” are forbidden to be part of society, to see, speak, and even hear something. However, every night the protagonist finds solace in listening to the radio for a couple of hours.

The refrain is actually dedicated to the radio itself, which allows you to plunge into another world and suppress the craving for travel. It completely absorbs the hero.

In the next, second, couplet, we again talk about prohibitions for society. In particular, it is sung that songs are forbidden and foreign notes are very dangerous. But, again, night radio helps to achieve oblivion.

The transition has a slightly more optimistic connotation. Till sings that every night he “flies away” along with the music, floats through bright rooms, not seeing any boundaries and barriers…