Scooter

biography

Scooter - most successful singles act since the charts were invented!

When "The Question Is What Is The Question?" flew into the top ten of the media control singles charts, it heralded a new record for H.P. Baxxter and co - Scooter’s twentieth top ten hit! With 20 top ten hits under their belt, Scooter are the most successful German act since the charts were introduced.

No other German artist has scored a score of top tens since the charts were created in 1956. Xavier Naidoo and Modern Talking claim the silver and bronze medals with a mere 13 top ten successes. International megastars such as The Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams and Britney Spears are all behind Scooter in the top ten rankings!

Added together, Scooter have spent in excess of 400 weeks in the charts. That's 8 years. Or three quarters of the band's lifetime (and still counting).
There are not many German bands who can lay claim to having such an impact on the music scene over such a period of time. Scooter are right up there and have lost nothing of their verve and energy in the past decade.

Scooter divide opinion like few other acts - love them or hate them, you definitely can’t ignore them. Their style is diametrically opposed to boredom. In excess of 14 million sales, over 80 gold and platinum awards from all over the world, plus countless prizes and music trophies, their record speaks for itself.


Time for a closer look at the Scooter phenomenon:

Back in 1994 the worldwide party nation was celebrating rave culture in the underground as new techno clubs sprung up everywhere, whilst the charts were dominated by mindnumbing Euro dance and mainstream singles. At that time, "Hyper Hyper" could not be considered a commercial track by any stretch of the imagination, and yet Scooter took the charts by storm, launching techno into the overground overnight. Eight years of graft with "Celebrate The Nun" and other projects and remixes were finally about to pay off.

Songs like "Move Your Ass", "Friends", "Endless Summer" and "Back In The UK" proved beyond all doubt that Scooter were more than just another "one hit wonder" of the early 90s. "How Much Is The Fish?", "Maria (I Like It Loud)", "Nessaja", "One (Always Hardcore)" and "Hello! (Good To Be Back)", to name just a few, continued the hit tradition of this remarkable formation.

Many an interview begins with sheer wonder at the longevity of the band's career, coupled with the question: "what is the secret of the group’s success? - Find out what you are unable to do and then go and do it!" is one of H.P.’s favourite quotes, which has become something of a mission statement for the combo. "You can’t afford to lose your curiosity or a certain healthy naivety, otherwise you might as well pack it in on the spot. If the element of fun is gone, it doesn’t make much sense. And you need to stay credible. We do everything by ourselves in the studio and our fans respect that." Baxxter’s fondness for unconventional methods can drive his colleagues to distraction, however. "He comes up with the maddest ideas and then we have to see how we can build a song together" is how Rick J. Jordan describes their way of working, a twinkle in his eye. "But that’s why I love him, it’s a real inspiration and you can be sure there’s something worthwhile in there, once you get used to his style." His lyrics may, at first glance, focus on whipping up the crowd into a frenzy, enacting battles with imaginary M.C.s (and winning), embracing the "Scooter phenomenon", but H.P. has come to delight in sprinkling literary references and hidden messages among the more apparently simplistic shouts ("Respect to the man in the icecream van", by way of example, is a tribute to The KLF). Baxxter is Scooter’s enfant terrible, and has been the focal point of the band, in terms of sound as well as vision, over the past 13 years. Keyboard player and sound engineer Rick J. Jordan i

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