Germany Leads Latin Revival

From Roxy Music to Franz Ferdinand, bands have always liked to wear their learning on their leather-clad sleeves, while forming a band at school is a teenage rite of passage. Usually, though, it's more of a way of getting out of Latin homework than an opportunity to practice declensions -- but 14 years ago, Ista was formed by seven students at a high-school in Wilhelmshaven for precisely that reason.

Germany's only Latin hip hop band launched its career with a recondite rendition of "Die Da," the 1992 hit by Germany's best-loved hip hoppers, "die fantastischen Vier", and recently enjoyed something of a comeback.

"Over the years we've sold around 2,500 CDs," member Lars Janssen told British daily The Telegraph. "Between 10 and 20 are bought per month from our Internet site, and recently that's doubled. People have found us over the internet and we have sold CDs to people in the US and all across Europe."

Not a dead language after all

Their sudden success reflects what appears to be a nationwide Latin revival. And according to the members of the band Ista, that's because Latin "grooves."

They're not the only ones to have noticed.

2005 saw a 9 percent rise in the number of students studying the classics, and the federal statistics office reveals that interest in taking Latin at school is rising steadily every year.

"People believe the subject provides knowledge with outstanding relevance that is immune to passing fads," said Hartmut Loos of the German Philologists' Association.

Meanwhile, Radio Bremen's regular news broadcasts in Latin have been attracting a growing fan base since they first aired four years ago.

Erudition is cool

Being able to read Ovid in the original is all well and good, but knowing Latin has some far more exciting applications. Ista frontman Clemens Liedtke, now 30, insists its rhythms lend themselves perfectly to rap, and judging by Ista's new-found popularity, he must have a point.

So roll over 50 Cent and Eminem -- if you can't conjugate, you better watch out.