Kraftwerk are not only a highly influential music group, but their music is prone to obsession and repetition, which makes them perfect candidates to have a whole academic conference surrounding them. The inaugural Kraftwerk academic conference — titled “Industrielle Volksmusik for the Twenty-First Century: Kraftwerk and the Birth of Electronic Music in Germany” — will take place on January 21st and 22nd at Aston University in Birmingham, UK. Papers that will be presented include “Fun Fun Fun on the Autobahn: Kraftwerk Challenging Germanness,” “We Are the Robots! On the Cultural-Historical Origins of the Man-Machine,” and “Trans-Slovene Expressions: Kraftwerk on the Sunny Side of the Alps.” Former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür will also be in attendance and will read a selection from his memoir and host a Q&A session. Like most academic conferences, it’ll probably be pretty dry, but there is a promising-sounding “Kraftwerk Disco” on the first night. More information can be found here.