Zombie Nation released their beloved, inescapable jock jam ‘Kernkraft 400’ 20 years ago
Ah, the jock jam.
Everyone has a special stadium anthem that gets them out of their seat—from Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll (Part 2),” and Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” to House of Pain’s classic “Jump Around” and Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is).” Chief among the jock jams, however, might be Zombie Nation’s inescapable classic, “Kernkraft 400,” which as of March 18, is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary of riling up sports fans everywhere with the buzzing power of 90’s electro.
Kernkraft 400 was released 20 years ago in March 1999 !!! 🎉
— Zombie Nation® (@zombienation) March 18, 2019
“Kernkraft 400” came on German electronic outfit Zombie Nation’s debut album in 1999, Leichenschmaus. The track’s origins are deeply rooted in 8-bit computer inspiration, the original melody deriving from a track called “Star Dust,” written by David Whittaker with an SID card. Two decades later and video game music has inspired the rise of some of electronic music’s most revered torch carriers, from deadmau5 to Porter Robinson. The history of “Kernkraft 400” is a strange one though, as the original mix isn’t even the one that has catalyzed the track’s undeniable global ubiquity for the last two decades—a remix of it is.
“Kernkraft 400” didn’t invent the jock jam genre, but it certainly helped define it. And the rest is American pro sporting event history.
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