Oooh boy, this one is bound to generate some controversy… Galaxie Mag from Malaysia has a feature about lead singers who they say are “more famous than their bands”. And they believe that Bill Kaulitz is the reason that Tokio Hotel is so famous. Enjoy the article, and grab a pair of boxing gloves before you head into the comments. Heh. Thank you to Limviona for sharing this with us.
Kraut Rock
It’s like the chicken and egg debate – which came first? Did German emo-pop act Tokio Hotel standout because of their music or did they become huge simply because of their frontman Bill Kaulitz?
Luckily, unlike the chicken and egg scenario, it’s not a terribly difficult question. The unanimous and popular answer is simple: Bill.
With his anime-esque big hair, androgynous look and way-too-skinny trousers, Bill single handedly grabbed the attention of music fans, DJs and journos, who initially at least, couldn’t decide if the frontperson was a guy or girl. Once the question of gender had been established though, Tokio Hotel was all the rage with Bill, the frontman, its star attraction. Strangely, the only person who remains oblivious to the number of heads he turns is Bill himself.
“No, Tokio Hotel is all about the music,” Bill immediately responds when asked if he had anything to do with the band’s fame. As far as he is concerned, Tokio Hotel is a package. And that package includes Bill’s identical twin brother Tom on guitar, drummer Gustav Schafer and bassist Georg Listing. “Tokio Hotel is a visual offering and the only thing I bring to the band is my personality,” he adds during our interview.
Bill states, however, that his flamboyance isn’t integral to the band’s success. He claims, rightly so, that when one hears Tokio Hotel’s music on the radio, how the frontman dresses or what he looks like doesn’t factor in.
For the 20-year-old, Tokio Hotel is not about him. It is about a dream he and brother Tom had when they started writing music at the tender age of seven.
The brothers grew up in a small salt-mining village in Magdeburg, Germany that was so far removed from the bright lights of the big city that few believed they would amount to anything. Yet, despite the odds, Tokio Hotel has gone on the become one of the biggest acts in Germany and, on the strength of their major label English debut Scream and hit single Monsoon, the world!
“We were so ready to make music,” says Bill. “I know it sounds crazy but that was all we ever dreamed of.” The frontman cannot emphasise enough that it is the music, and the band’s passion for it that resulted in success. “It is important to be creative and to come up with fresh ideas,” he adds.
The passion has undoubtedly paid off. Tokio Hotel are a multi-platinum selling act with four No. 1 German singles and sold-out tours to their name. And the icing on the cake, according to Bill, was playing at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008 where they took home the Best New Artiste accolade.
But while Tokio Hotel did score big with Scream, for their follow-up Humanoid, the band were determined to crank it up even more. The current album, which was tracked in Hamburg, Miami, and L.A., sees the band at its most experimental.
“Monsoon was started 13 years ago and [this time] we knew we wanted to make something that was new because we definitely did not want to recreate or top what we had done previously,” states Bill. “Humanoid is completely different and it was cool to do. But more importantly, it shows the world what Tokio Hotel can sound like. It’s eclectic and versatile and has some cool vocals.”
There are more electronic sounds on Humanoid too, which complement Bill’s dazzling stage persona. When asked, the frontman picks their first single Automatic as a good representation of the theme they were going for on the current album.
“How many things happen automatically everyday?” Bill asks. “The door opens and closes automatically, shifting gears in a car; a camera lens – all those are always positive things, but when the mechanical quality of the automatic meets human things like love, then suddenly it becomes extremely negative. Love has to be spontaneous and genuine, never automatic and cold,” says Bill of the album’s unifying theme.
So a new sound, new subject and new live shows but will fans be able to connect with the band and their new ideas. Bill is 100% positive, “We love our fans because they are the loudest of all and do such crazy things. They always support us, no matter what has happened. And a lot has happened.”
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I think Bill is just the attention grabber, not the back bone of the whole group.
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I think Bill gets the band noticed, but the music is what keeps the fans.
That is what happened to me, I saw a pic of Bill and so I looked up Tokio Hotel. I fell in love with the music and I have now been a fan for little over a year.
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believe it or not. its true bill is the reason for this great success. thumb me down all you want. but without bill TH is nothing, after all even without his looks, if the lead Singer was gone, the band will be just useless instruments. see if that works…
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Well thats just your opinion. True the band wouldn’t work without Bill but it wouldn’t work without Tom as well. And gustav and Georg too. They are all equally important to make Tokio Hotel as awesome as it is. It wouldn’t be the same if somebody left. It might be easier to replace a guitarist then it is to replace a singer but they wouldn’t play exactly the same and it wouldn’t sound the same. Me and the majority of fans are fans because of the music. You can’t rock out to good looks. I mean you could like them for their looks but music is the reason we are fans of Tokio Hotel! Tom is pretty famous too btw and most of us didn’t know what they looked like before we were fans
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The band wouldnt be the same without bill, tom, georg, or gustav. They all make it what it is.
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stop implying i said anything about liking them only for looks..
re-quoting myself : “without bill TH is nothing, after all even WITHOUT his looks“
and yes all of the members are important, thats why its called a band, but bill;s charisma is out of this world try imagining this great success of TH without his alienness and charisma, but of course tokio hotel, all four of them makes the BAND!even people who dont listen to TH or are ignorance about their existence, when you describe bill they instantly know which band you are talking about.. TH is nothing without bill and bill is nothing without tokio hotel. all of them are important and greatly talented but to make it in this industry you gotta have a uniqueness and bill got that and the fact is bill IS the driving force of TH.
dont try to sound like you are the number one “fan“ and everyone else is blind. a fan is a fan, dont generalize into your own box. i love them for who they are and for what they do. but a fact is a fact.
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Oh wow I can see why they would say that but true fans arnt fans if they just like Bill. They are just admirers and nothing else. I heard about Tokio Hotel the day after Christmas in 05 on a music network called IMF. They did a music spot light and I was in the kitchen cleaning and i heard this amazing voice it was something so beautiful. They were playing Der Lezte Tag and I dropped what I was doing. There was absolutly no doubt how beautiful Bill was but I was attached from the moment i heard his voice. The real fans are the once who like the music first and find their looks attractive or unattractive after. This maybe true on some leval but not for Tokio Hotel. 30 STM,Gwen Stafani and all those yes it is true. Tokio Hotel hold true fans.
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i first discovered them after watching emas 07′. their epic Monsoon performance won me over. that and the fact that Tom Kaulitz is too cute for his own damn good. ha :-) but i still love the music. they progress every year and i loved watching thtv. what happened to that?
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hehe, tom is too cute <333
and ugh idk! I wish someone had the answer! but it sadly seems like everyone is wondering the same thing… i just want THTV back!
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I think it matters on how people discovered them if it was based on music or looks. They have both in ridiculous abundance. If it was looks that brought you in, it was the music that made you stay. If it was the music that brought you in, the looks made it all the better. Bottom line, we’re all here because of their music, no matter in which order it came for us.
They way I discovered them was I was scanning image boards (7chan lol) and came across a picture of Bill and immediately wanted to know who this guy/girl was (we can all see the androgynous-ness of course). So I found out his name was Bill Kaulitz and he was in some German band named Tokio Hotel. It sounded interesting and it wouldn’t be the first time I had bands that weren’t in English on my iPod, but they would be the first German one to get on there. The rest is history.
“Monsoon” was the first song I ever heard from them and it’s still my favorite after three years with “World Behind My Wall” tying for top spot. It was Bill’s outrageous, unique, and endearing style that brought me in, but the music made me stay. Not to mention how Tom, Georg, and Gustav are just as hot in their own ways. They’re seriously the only band that I’ve paid enough attention to know everyone’s name and personality. ^_^ We can all agree that they’re just awesome, separate and as a whole.
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I found them through Adam Lambert (someone’s going to hate on me for this, I can feel it :P). I saw an interview where they asked him who his ‘hair hero’ was and he said “Bill Kaulitz from Tokio Hotel. It takes balls to pull of that lions’ mane.” Of course I was intrigued, so I looked up some pics and was completely entranced by Bill. (I’ve *always* had a big thing for androgynous men and men in makeup. They’re my weakness.) Luckily, I liked the music, too. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have hung around the fandom.lol And I definitely wouldn’t be willing to pay *whatever* it’s going to cost to get to see them in the States if I didn’t feel a connection to the music. :)
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ps. S’all about the bogeostav!!!…cough.
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Bill the cause of fame? You’re kidding right? Pfft…
It’s the message the music sends that brings the fans in. Nobody would listen to a band just for what the members look life, okay maybe groupies, but even they listen to the music!
And Bill is amazingly right when he says that its the music not him.
Lol i remember the date and time and what i was doing when i found out about tokio hotel.
March 24, 2008. 3:56 PM.
I was watching tv and on the computer. The music video for Ready, Set, Go! Came on, and i stopped everything i was doing to watch it. I was mesmerized. Immediately when the video was over i started googling. Been a fan ever since.
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I think their music really speaks to me. When I first saw the durch den monsun video on youtube last 2006 I was blown away by their music . I started searching other songs of tokio hotel and I was surprised that a person like me could like all of tokio hotel’s songs. The week after listening to tokio hotel I met other people who also like their music and eventually they became my best friends.
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Pretty sure the first song I heard was Jung und nicht mehr Jugenfrei, and I was psyched that I understood every word. I mean, finally, four years of German paid off in a HUGE way for me..
I was hooked after that.
They’ve been my favorite ever since.
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WHAT! Bill and Hayley this Crazy!
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NOT KEWL! I was p.o. ed just reading the first sntence!!! TH is amazing and it’s not just because of Bill! Yeah, Bill is awesome!!! But hey! TH is amazing they always wil be! <3
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Tokio Hotel is the shit not because of just Bill, it’s all four of them working together producing their great Tokio Greatness :) It’s that Simple, GOSH dumb magazines these days just don’t use their brains :)
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guys come on ! really? bill still has his mohawk. obviously he just doesnt put it up during concerts and everything going on. and if you think about it – how could a mohawk like his stay UP during his shows and clothing changes? AND he says he uses an entire bottle of hairspray a day for his mohawk – they couldnt possibley fit all that hairspray on the tour bus. haha
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for me it’s simple. i heard DDM on radio nd started to be interested. absolutly not because of bill ( he gorgeous, unique nd blablabla) he’s not my type. i use to like group with maked up, androgynous frontmen like PLACEBO or KILL HANNAH… so fr me TH is all about music. dn’t give a s*** about their look ( dn’t get me wrong they the most original look i’ve evr seen: they r all differnt and i like that)
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come on guys, just ignore this. there is already enough hate in this world.
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when will people relize that Bill does not have the mane anymore?
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Magdeburg was a salt-mining village?
well, that’z the only new thing i learned from this article xD
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i love them coz of their music. thats it. zip. nothing else. it was three months later after i listened to their songs that i found out how they looked like. i think the people in the medias are just jealoous of their fame
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I can thank my short attention span, curiousity, and YouTube for my wonderful first experience with Tokio Hotel. “Monsoon” made it all happen, it was only one time for me to watch the video and listen to the really meaningful lyrics. I wasn’t at all interested in who the people were or how they look, I was into what the songs meant and how they were getting it across in such creative and original ways. Everyone who’s a fan knows that it wasn’t his style that made people stick around. Like if a guy is a jerk but incredibly hot you would get bored after some time and his looks would just die down; HELLO!! same goes for music you can’t just have a pretty or in this case beautiful face and nothing to back it up :)
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I fell in love with TH through their music, too.
So, it was October 3, and I was at my friend’s house. We were working on a Global project. We were getting kind of bored, so we decided to listen to a CD. I was looking through her CD’s when I saw Scream. I was curious, and I was like “Who are these guys?” My friend said “Oh, their Tokio Hotel, they’re like my fave band in the world!” So I decided to put it in the CD player and listen to it. Scream drew me in. Then, Don’t Jump sealed the deal. I loved it! So the next day, I looked up the songs, and I listened to the whole album twice. I was so hooked I bought it off of iTunes and have been hooked ever since :)
I’ll admit, I thought Bill was a girl too at first. And he definitely intrigued me (especially by his awesome personality) But he’s definitely not the reason I fell in love with the band. It was their music. :)
Tokio Hotel fur immer!!!!!
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i remember when i first heard Tokio Hotel.
it was last summer and i was looking for college audition songs. i was looking for “german audition songs” and came across “RETTE MICH”. i saw the video and fell in love with it. at first i thought Bill was a girl, but that didn’t really matter because i loved their sound.
later on, around october, a music website i joined informed me of the release of HUMANOID. the first song i heard was “HEY YOU”, then “WORLD BEHIND MY WALL”. from that moment on, i was hooked. I love Tokio Hotel for all that they are, not just Bill. they are the reason i am learning German and became a vegetarian. their influence over people comes from all four of them, not only Bill. THEY ARE THE EPITOME OF AWESOME AND PERFECTION.
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I’m learning German cuz of them too! I’ve tried to be a vegatarian, but ugh its so hard! Maybe one day…
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Bill is not the only one who brought them fame. They did it together, as a band. If it was individualized, Bill wouldn’t need them and could branch out on his own. But like I said, they’re a BAND. They are like brothers, and they are all equally responsible for their fame. To me, they are all on the same level. SO STOP TRYING TO TEAR THEM APART. THAT’S ALL THE MEDIA IS GOOD AT-RUINING AWESOMENESS. THOSE ASSHOLES.
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The music makes the BAND not only Bill does make the band. I would not be the same without Bill Tom Georg Gustav. I want them together and forever.
-Why won’t the media give it a rest and leave Tokio Hotel in peace. At the same time I’m wrong because without the media nobody would know about Tokio Hotel.
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Bill AND Jared Leto on the same cover??? *dies*
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The first time I saw them was on demand
I was looking at the new songs and saw ready set go
I listened to it and immedietly fell in love;
not even because of their looks so that night
I googled them watch TH TV saw pictures of them
listened to the songs read the lyrics
and been in love with the whole band ever since;
<3
8/10/08 is the date i found them ahah
&& its my birthday which is odd yes? xD
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I will be the first to admit that I love Bill more than the other four.
But that’s because he’s more attractive to me.
Personality wise, I’d be more attractive to Georg or Tom.
And musically… They all are Gods.
Bill’s look may have turned heads towards the band, but the music is the reason they’re so amazing and successful and popular.
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I totally agree that Bill is a lot of the amazing-ness in the group and he for sure gets the attention when someone first looks but when i first looked i remember thinking that they looked really cool and i actually never thought bill looked like a girl *hand to God, i actually thought TH was a japanese band because of the anime look lol But as a fan i remember Ready Set Go really captivating me and i had to listen to more they rocked and were cool and now i just love Bill and TH the music is the best for me :)
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The day I became aware of Tokio Hotel was an awkward one. I, like a few of us, was a bit confused by Bill’s gender (Please don’t take this the wrong way) and at first thought he was a girl. But after my friend cleared that up, Bill’s more manly features became more noticeable to me.
I heard their songs’ lyrics and the emotion they had (did not mean to sound so very cheese-tastic there) and well, practically fell in love with the “Tokio Hotel Craze” my school was going through, and became a fan automatically.
Their looks didn’t draw me to them, it was their music. They could be the most average or below average guys out there, but I would still like them because of their music and not their looks.
It’s all about music like Bill says. :)
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Your school had a THCraze? OH MY GOD! I’m the ONLY ONE at my school. Everybody HATES TH there. It’s horrible ._.