ABSTRACT
In its last issue for 2014, the German music magazine Musikexpress hailed a ‘new wave’ of austropop in its cover story, under the headline ‘Auferstanden aus Ruinen – austropop zwischen Wurst, Wien und Wanda’ (revived from the ruins – austropop between sausage, Vienna and Wanda). The story portrayed a diverse range of Austrian pop acts such as Ja, Panik, Der Nino aus Wien, Bilderbuch, Gustav, and Wanda. The article also included Conchita Wurst, winner of the 2014 ‘Eurovision Song Contest’, and the queer band Pop:sch, who are part of an emerging (trans-)local queer music scene in Austria.1 The majority of the featured ‘new wave’ of austropop bands, however, share several characteristics with musicians such as Wolfgang Ambros, Georg Danzer, Stefanie Werger and Rainhard Fendrich, who represent the epitome of ‘austropop’, a popular music phenomenon that evolved in the early 1970s in Vienna. This article2 deals with the development of austropop since the 1970s and discusses how the commercial recycling of austropop’s past since the turn of the millennium is increasingly taking on an aura of Austria’s national cultural heritage.
