From the VW Beetle to K-pop
Katarina Witt is there, so too is Karl Lagerfeld, as well as the model Lesley Lawson, known as “Twiggy”, and also Cara Delevingne. But it is not only people who are showcased as iconic figures in the exhibition rooms of the VW Group on the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Unter den Linden. Also on view are objects such as the Rubik’s Cube, the Monobloc Chair, the Sydney Opera House and audio cassette tapes. Of course there is also plenty of iconic music from the Beatles to Abba to Taylor Swift. Arranged in decades, booths are provided where visitors can listen to some of the songs. Markus Kavka is very familiar with music icons. He was once a presenter on Germany’s first and itself iconic music station Viva.
This was in an age when social media did not yet exist and there were no streaming services. Rotation conferences were held to decide which videos would be played more often during the day and which less often. Was he really aware of the power he was able to wield back then? “For us, it was all about playing clips the general public liked to listen to”, he recalls. “We were all music fans.” At the time, music television played as important a role as today’s streaming services or social media.
The golden age of music television (MTV) came to an end then at the end of the noughties. Kavka, who recently published a book he co-authored about the electrifying history of German MTV, has been a podcaster for a long time, although he still occasionally spins the hits on Deluxe Music, a German MTV channel. And he continues to search tirelessly for great new music that he desperately wants to discover before anyone else.
“I was never the retro type, I never went to a school reunion”, says Kavka. If he were to summarise how he thinks about music he would say: “Tomorrow is even more awesome than yesterday.” He listens to music every day for one or two hours, but rarely complete albums.
True icons inspire multiple generations
Everything has become much more democratic, because nowadays anyone can produce a song with a computer and upload it online shortly afterwards. But the jungle of offers is also much larger then as a result.
His own icons are Depeche Mode and The Cure. This was the music Markus Kavka listed to between the ages of 15 and 20 in his most formative years musically. The real icons for him are artists who can still inspire new generations. Nick Cave is one of these, but also the late David Bowie. And of course new icons are constantly emerging, including many women in recent years such as Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Rita Ora or Taylor Swift. He also does not rule out the possibility of commercially manufactured boy bands becoming iconic.
Nobody thought initially, for example, that bands from South Korea that play so-called K-pop could be so successful. Kavka believes that it is even possible that AI-generated music will become iconic one day. “I have experienced so many dramatic transformations”, he says “from music cassettes and vinyl to the introduction of CDs, from MP3 players to MTV through to social media and streaming.”
Mobility icons: the Porsche 911 SC from 1979
He is firmly convinced that we will have to decide in the future whether AI-generated music can move us emotionally. In any case, it will put our listening habits to the test. Apart from music, Kavka has another passion, which also has iconic status in the exhibition: “I am a car nerd.” He might still pop by to see the VW Bus and the vintage Beetle and perhaps also the bright yellow Lamborghini. But his real passion is a little nostalgic: a Porsche 911 SC from 1979. Kavka once saved up for a long time for one of these, and it has been sitting in his garage now for 20 years.
The exhibition also provides visitors with a glimpse of visions for the future of cities and mobility. Iconic drones? Nothing should be ruled out.
Interview of Dr. Elisabeth Binder, dfer Tagesspiegel
THE DRIVE
The must-see attraction in the heart of Berlin: welcome to the Volkswagen Group Forum! Welcome to a place brimming with movement, meet-ups and mobility.