Fifty years ago, the electronic pioneers released a 23-minute song about a road – and changed pop music for ever. Our writer hits the speed-limit-free highways of Düsseldorf and Hamburg in search of its futuristic brilliance

Ask people what the most iconic musical road trip is and they’ll most likely direct you towards America: take Highway 61 through the birthplace of the blues, they’ll say, or head to California on Route 66. They may even mention vintage T-Birds or Cadillacs. Yet there’s a road trip arguably more important to the history of popular music than any other, one that tells its story not just via the cities it visits but through the sounds of the journey itself – and the hum of the engine that’s powering you. And the best way to ride it is in a humble Volkswagen.

Fifty years ago this month, Kraftwerk released Autobahn, a 22-minute 43-second song about the German road network. Astonishingly for a 22-minute 43-second song about the German road network, it somehow managed to change the musical landscape forever. Indeed, look back at the soundtrack to the last few decades – with its abundance of pristine synths, robotic vocoders and repetitive beats – and you’d be hard pressed to find a road that doesn’t somehow lead back to Autobahn.