How Kraftwerk's radical 1976 track Radioactivity became an anti-nuclear anthem

Fifty years old this month, Kraftwerk's single Radioactivity was a groundbreaking track that morphed into the German electronic pioneers' most political protest song. From the tremulous opening seconds of Kraftwerk's Radioactivity – a pulsing Geiger counter; escalating synths; shrill morse code spelling out the title – you sense that nothing will sound the same again. This core track from the German electronic pioneers' fifth studio album Radio-Activity (1975) feels like a scientific hymn, but it also strikes warning notes within its insistent hooks and haunting Sprechgesang (spoken singing) refrain: "Radioactivity / Is in the air for you and me". Over the decades, Radioactivity itself has mutated, from elegiac melody to club banger and an anti-nuclear clarion call, while remaining fantastically distinctive. Half-a-century on, the album is reissued for its 50th anniversary, and this anthem still crackles with Kraftwerk's creative power. Kraftwerk originally recorded their Radio-Activity album between bursts of transatlantic tour dates. It extended the experimental pop and deadpan wit of their international breakthrough Autobahn (1974), with lyrics in both English and German. It was