How Penn State football, Kernkraft 400 came to be a match for the stadium anthem

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Florian Senfter cringed the first time he heard the stadium chant remix of his song, “Kernkraft 400.”

“At the time I felt like this didn’t really represent me,” Senfter said. “It sounded like some drunk hooligans singing along.”

The German DJ and music producer never thought his music legacy would be pinned to a stadium anthem. He’s not even a sports fan, and having a song that would be played in mainstream settings felt like a sin to him when he was in his 20s. He grew up in an underground music scene that centered on warehouse parties.

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The idea of one day hearing a techno song of his played in a 107,000-seat college football stadium in Central Pennsylvania was every bit as absurd as it sounds.

“I imagined myself being in a dark club with 200 people and as the energy unfolds there, everyone has a happy moment,” Senfter said. “If that would’ve happened two or three times, that would’ve absolutely fulfilled my expectations. … It just happened that it went much further and bigger.

“Not in my wildest dreams and imaginations did I expect this,” he continued with a laugh. “Had I known, I would’ve given it a name that’s easier to pronounce!”

Twenty-four years later, Senfter’s hit song, “Kernkraft 400,” — which in English translates to nuclear power 400 — is still the pump-up and big-play anthem of Penn State football. The song, incorrectly known by many Penn State and sports fans as Zombie Nation or the whoa oh oh oh song — lives on in stadiums and clubs around the globe. The song was the first track off Senfter’s 1999 project, Zombie Nation.

“Sometimes I felt like this monster I created developed a life of its own,” Senfter said. “You have to also accept that this is the song most people in the world associate you with.”

It has had incredible staying power. Penn State started using the “Kernkraft 400” chant remix in Beaver Stadium in 2005, and it has been a fan favorite ever since. It’s blasted at tailgates and played in bars. After big plays for the home team, it blares again.

Saturday night when James Franklin’s team runs out of the Beaver Stadium tunnel in front of 107,000-plus spectators for the latest installment of Penn State’s White Out, Nittany Lions fans will chant like a European soccer crowd when “Kernkraft 400” plays.

Anywhere in the world, if Penn Staters hear the quirky yet catchy melody, they know what’s coming when they start chanting: ohohohoh, oh oh oh oh, whoa oh oh oh We. Are. Penn. State.

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The staccatos of We. Are. Penn. State. cut through the night as the remix helps elevate the crowd to another level. The press box will sway, and fireworks will be shot off the top of the football stadium.

Senfter has seen the YouTube videos of Penn State football crowds and has found it amusing how they, like many other sports teams, have wrapped their arms around the chant remix. He respects how Penn State fans in many ways have made this song a staple.

“I don’t think it’s ever gonna die out either,” said Loren Crispell, the former director of marketing for the Penn State athletic department. “It’s been planted in enough generations that it’s just part of what you expect when you come to a game at Penn State. It’s almost like ‘Shout’ in Buffalo for the Bills. That spans decades and generations. I have to believe that this is gonna turn out the same way.”

Crispell was with Penn State’s Guido D’Elia, the architect of the White Out, in the early 2000s when they recalled stumbling upon a song that they had no idea what it was. Both are still unsure how it made its way to them as the song started to gain popularity in the U.S. They tried the “Kernkraft 400” chant remix during a Penn State men’s basketball game to see how the student section would react.

“We’re like, it’s kind of weird, but this has the possibility of if — and only if — we hold it out until when we give them a punch in the mouth,” D’Elia recalled. “If we force a timeout in basketball, let’s try it. We did and the students got unglued. It spread to the rest of the place, and then when it came time for football we said we’re going to use it strictly as a payoff. You scream your lungs out when we’re on defense, and when we get a pick, here you go.”

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Some of Penn State football’s top plays since 2005 are tied to this song. When Grant Haley headed toward the end zone en route to Penn State upset of No. 2 Ohio State in 2016, “Kernkraft 400” rumbled. When Bill Belton scored in the fourth overtime against Michigan in 2013, “Kernkraft 400” was there as the fans in unison knew what to do. They seemingly always have.

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How Senfter’s song ever made it from Munich, Germany, to State College, Penn., in the first place is still a mystery. Senfter was in Germany toying with new sounds and had reconnected with the Lazy Jones game he used to play on a Commodore 64. There was a melody that played in one particular room during the game that he was drawn to.

He manipulated that melody into a sound he felt was catchy enough that the song might latch on in some clubs. The only words in the original “Kernkraft 400,” which spans 4 minutes and 44 seconds, were zombie nation. The word zombie is repeated frequently throughout the song as the techno music builds until arriving at the melody (which is now the infamous ohohohoh, oh oh oh oh, whoa oh oh oh part).

Senfter wasn’t thinking about having a worldwide hit when he named it. He believes he might’ve just picked two words, one from each column on a brainstorming list, and named it “Kernkraft 400.” It was meant to just be kind of silly. With the benefit of hindsight, he laughs now and says yes, maybe he should’ve just called the song Zombie Nation, which was also the name of the project.

“The original version was a quirky, electro style,” Senfter said. “It represented my style at the time. Our first license was to an Italian label, and they made a remix that kind of polished it up a little bit to make it a little more accessible to a radio audience. … In Italy, I think they made some kind of remix that had the vocals on it because at the time, and also since the ’70s, people liked to sing along with sounds in the club.”

The Italian version had a straight beat and a high-hat. Senfter heard it and hated it. It was too commercial for his liking. But, it was just Italy, he thought. Nobody would ever hear this remix version that he disliked.

In the following years — and even to this day — many failed to recognize that the “Kernkraft 400” Italian version was indeed a remix. The remix version was the one that gained popularity. That remix gave way to the “Kernkraft 400” chant remix, which then was played on radio stations in the United States. That’s the version that’s still used at many sporting events today, even Penn State’s.

“The remix version became the more popular version,” Senfter said. “We decided to release it here too in the U.S. to try and take control of it, but that’s what led to the stadiums where it sounds like fans are singing along.”

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It was a challenging and weird experience as the chanting version — which he once hated — caught on. At live performances and as Senfter played festivals all over the world, that’s the version crowds wanted to hear.

Over time, Senfter learned to accept the remix for what it was. He resides in the Brooklyn borough of New York now and remembers his first time in the city in the early 2000s. He walked through Manhattan and saw a man in his car fist-pumping to a “Kernkraft 400” remix. He laughed at the absurdity of it all.

“There have been so many times where you’ve been in situations where people play it, and they don’t know that it’s me,” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s in the category with other stadium songs like the White Stripes’ (“Seven Nation Army”)? They’re kind of like those evergreens.”

That, of course, was never his intention. The remix has been played at the Super Bowl and even became a goal song for Germany. In the recently released Disney Pixar movie “Elemental,” there’s a sports scene with a stadium setting. A “Kernkraft 400” remix is played.

“I was waiting for it, and my kids didn’t really even notice it,” Senfter said between laughs. At ages 6 and 12 they were more locked into the story, he said.

Penn State remains protective about how and when it plays the song, trying not to overdo it. It has expanded to all other PSU sports too as the crowd anthem after big moments at basketball games and wrestling matches. It’s woven into the fabric of Penn State. Senfter appreciates the thoughtfulness of their selectivity, even though he has no control over when someone in the Beaver Stadium control room shouts “zombie, now!” and the “Kernkraft 400” chant remix is played.

“When I meet people they say, ‘Oh, man, you must’ve made millions with this stadium version,’” Senfter said. “I always tell them I don’t think I ever saw a cent from a stadium play in the U.S. It’s just not the way that it’s accounted for with the music (industry). It’s not really song by song. The stadiums have a gross amount for all the songs that they play. … There’s really no monetary reward for that. Even in the Super Bowl for a second they played it and you hear it for a second before it cuts into advertising.”

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It’d be a dream scenario for him financially if the song were played in a Super Bowl commercial. Still, as he approaches 50 with a song that’s been part of his life for nearly half of it, he says this isn’t a complaint but rather the reality of the music industry for many musicians.

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In 2019, for the song’s 20th anniversary, Senfter asked fans on social media to share what the song meant to them. He was quickly reminded that it’s about the moments people have associated with the music whether it’s when they’re chanting in a football stadium or dancing at a club that have made this song — or one of the various remixes of it — part of their lives.

In many ways that’s more than he could’ve ever imagined.

“It was the weirdest collection of things when people say how it influenced their lives,” he said. “The guy who shot (Osama) Bin Laden was pumping himself up before that raid with the remix of the song that we did at like half tempo. It’s like what? OK. People listen to music all the time and somehow they like that song.”

(Top photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)

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