French pop music

French Pop (sometimes also: French Pop Music) is a collective term for pop music, which comes from France. In general, French pop titles are in French; However, there are exceptions here.

Definition

In contrast to the French-language song with its centuries-old tradition is French Pop a fairly recent term. As an alternative designation for Chanson as well as wider block marking for older and newer pop music from France, it is common, especially outside of France. In France itself is the preferred term continues Chanson (if it is a song in the broadest sense ) - or if a particular style is meant the particular genre name ( punk, rock, hip -hop, bossa nova, and so on ).

Since the chanson in France is the dominating form of a song, clear demarcations between Chanson and French Pop are as good as impossible. In practice, the identification French Pop emphasized more strongly the Hitcharakter of a piece or even awareness of the interpreter. In the area of ​​newer songs or Nouvelle Chanson, both terms are used side by side. Practically, the "drawer" French Pop especially in chansonfernereren music productions, such as in the areas of Jazz, Hip- Hop, Electronic and World Music.

History

On the one hand, the term French Pop emphasizes similarities and parallels to the international Anglo-Saxon- dominated pop music. On the other hand, it puts certain peculiarities of the French pop music in the spotlight - the language, heavily influenced by the culture of France Chanson music and special features of French pop music history. In contrast to Germany, say the Rock'n'Roll France reached comparatively late. Until the 1960s, the jazz of the most important American music was imported. The French jazz tradition handed back to the 1920s. A well-known celebrity was a dancer, actress and singer Josephine Baker. The U.S. citizen had moved already in the 1920s to France and took French citizenship in 1937. Shaped the development of the French pop music was beyond the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. In the 1940s and 1950s, the French jazz scene who is dating more or less strongly with the philosophical direction of existentialism. Spokesman was mainly the writer Jean -Paul Sartre; Boris Vian, another author, worked as a copywriter chanson and jazz musicians. In the Chanson existentialism left its mark, especially in the music of Juliette Greco, Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel the Belgian. French jazz musicians such as Barney Wilen were primarily known for their contributions to the music of some Nouvelle Vague films - such as Elevator to the Gallows (1958 ) and Dangerous Liaisons (1959).

In the 1960s, the French youth inspired more and more for ( Anglo-Saxon ) pop music. The Twist and Yéyé - wave (after the " Yeah Yeah " by the Beatles ) made ​​a new generation of artists popular: Johnny Halliday, Eddy Mitchell, Michel Polnareff and Jacques Dutronc. Great successes were especially heavily Yéyé Girls - singers who strongly oriented to the current British music trends and style, alternated between harder songs Beat, Blue - Eyed Soul, chanson and international pop. Petula Clark established himself as an internationally known pop singer on both sides of the English Channel. Françoise Hardy, France Gall, Sylvie Vartan and other singers reach the mid-1960s also one far beyond the borders of France protruding degree of popularity. While not able to permanently benefit from the Yéyé wave all artists. Lesser-known artists such as Claude François, Brigitte Fontaine, Adele or the singing ex-model Zouzou soon fell into oblivion. Others were based increasingly on Western European pop and popular music market. Adamo or Mireille Mathieu launched a second career as a pop artist in Germany. Height and end of the Yéyé wave was in 1969 in a second version newly released song Je t'aime ... moi non plus, written by Serge Gainsbourg and interpreted together with Jane Birkin. On the one hand the piece sparked negative reactions to radio and TV boycotts. The BBC chart show Top of the Pops approximately refused in October 1969 for the first time to broadcast a number-one hit. Despite some airplay boycotts was Je t'aime ... moi non plus with a major international success and, in retrospect, one of the greatest classics of French Pop.

In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the French pop music changed considerably their character. Increasingly taking the place of the classic chanson occurred productions for the international pop market. Well-known artists of this era were Michel Berger and Julien Clerc. While in the 1970s French pop music was little demand, it achieved in the 1980s renewed attention. Parade band in French Punk was Téléphone. Les Rita Mitsouko The duo verquickte synth pop and new wave and landed mid-1980s some hits. Other bands such as The Dogs, Bérurier Noir or Trust played roots rock, punk or metal. Still others such as Les negresses Vertes, Tetes Raides, the singer Mano Negra or Bernard Lavilliers, the former band of Manu Chao, experimenting with French folk punk, with world music and reggae versions. Important musical innovations were beyond of immigrants from the former colonies. The band Carte de séjour and their singer Rachid Taha fused North African raï with rock; a similar music taste Alexandre Stellio, Les Loups Noirs and Kassav '. Became internationally known as world music artists, especially the Algerian native Cheb Khaled. Independent innovation, was also a French hip -hop. Well-known hip- hop acts are born in Senegal MC Solaar and Suprême NTM Joey Starr.

In the new millennium the French Pop made ​​mainly by productions in the field of electronic music talked about. A separate development took the classic song. From the 1990s saw a new generation of performers breakthrough and success. Like the generation before, too, is internationally oriented. Typical of many artists from the Nouvelle Chanson is a two - or even multilingual song repertoire. In Germany and other European countries, the terms French Pop and Nouvelle Chanson increasingly synonyms for contemporary French pop music were - said music can be both classic song and drum and bass, neo- bossa nova, hip hop, rock or world music. Well-known artists are mainly electronic bands like Daft Punk or Air, chanson artists such as Benjamin Biolay, the pop band Nouvelle Vague, the film music composer and musician Yann Tiersen and singers such as Matthieu Chedid, Émilie Simon, Agnès Bihl, ASA, Irma, Hindi Zahra and Zaz. In addition, there is a wide scene which is stylistically less clearly exposed and pursued music in different ways.

Styles

Compared with the term chanson, which puts a greater emphasis on a certain historical tradition, the genre label French Pop includes a variety of styles and genres of music. The common denominator is a rule that the music of French musicians is made or produced in France. The following genres are well represented in the French Pop:

• Jazz. In particular, the post-war styles of jazz - bebop, cool jazz and hard bop - have left a lasting mark in the French musical landscape. French jazz musicians such as Barney Wilen were instrumental in movie soundtracks of the Nouvelle Vague.
• The classic chanson. In many cases, the spotlight while focus strongly on the Swinging Sixties and the subsequent decade. However, CD compilations on the subject of French Pop Chanson involve known artists such as Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Becaud or Edith Piaf often with a.
• Yéyé, Sixties and Seventies pop. The French version of the Swinging Sixties is especially in retro compilations and oldies stations strongly in the center.
• World Music and Folk French productions. Relevant here are all genre productions that come from France or were taken by French-speaking musicians. Another unique feature besides the language is often the terms of specifically French folk music traditions.
• Rock, Punk, New Wave and Metal. The music of French productions here differs little from international. USP is mainly the language. The tendency of relevant bands are, however, perceived more as part of international rock, punk or metal scene and less from the origin aspect.
• French hip -hop. Internationally, the French hip -hop scene is considered the largest after that of the United States. Language, the French popular culture as well as the specific situation of migrants play an important role. As in other countries, hip hop culture and hip - hop music is a relatively independent area. Consequently, they are under the label French Pop subsumed rather than case by case basis regularly.
• Electronic Music. Electronic styles such as Bossa, Lounge, Drum and Bass and Ambient have the Nouvelle Chanson strongly influenced. Moreover, in France there is an innovative, highly differentiated itself in electronic scene. Crossover productions in which both electronic musicians and performers of the Nouvelle Chanson participate, are a typical feature of modern French pop music.
• Neo - Nouvelle Chanson Chanson or. The term the new, coming after Polnareff, Hardy and Gainsbourg song -oriented generation performer is usually marked. Stylistically, the Nouvelle Chanson includes ( other term: Nouvelle scène française de ) both classical chanson artists and artists who are more influenced by electronic music, rock and folk. Although only partly attributable to the nouvelle chanson, includes retro and cover band Nouvelle Vague to the internationally best-known representatives of this direction.

Dissemination and media impact

A role labeling French Pop in four areas: in marketing new artist, as a genre name in pop music coverage, as a retro genre term for the marketing of past hits and artists (especially from the 1960s ) and as a program marking of radio programs, the predominantly or exclusively send French pop music. French TV channels are stopped due to a prescribed rate to 1994, preferably to take account of national productions. Strong presence is francophone pop music, especially in the programs of RTL 2, Europe 2, Radio Nova, Chérie FM radio and FM Isabelle; highly specialized in French music of the 1960s has become the Internet radio station Radio Yé - Yé! . Special French Pop Channels can also be found on some Internet radio providers such as Last.fm and Laut.fm.

Abroad, especially in Germany, the interest in pop music from France has grown considerably since the turn of the millennium. Feuilleton journalists, media critics and music reviewers perform regularly as a trigger to the quality and expressiveness of the nouvelle chanson. Another trigger for the success of the film The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain (2001) and the success of the New Wave cover band Nouvelle Vague apply. The F.A.Z. wrote: "As spirited as in the Nouvelle Scène was long no longer experimenting, quotes and mixed. With the Nouvelle Scène, but also with Air, Daft Punk and Alizée, Manu Chao and the old music fighting force Noir Désir, their new hit, Le vent nous portera ' now appears in German broadcasters, France is also musically to that new present center, it ' has long been in the literature with Michel Houellebecq and Frédéric Beigbeder or cinema with the film, the Fabulous Destiny of Amélie. "

In Germany, current pop music from France was made ​​available to a larger audience, especially through the activities of the Cologne-based label Le Pop. A side effect of this interest was that even artists in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s again met with interest - such as Juliette Greco and Françoise Hardy, who looked back in the mirror interviews on her career. To celebrate the release of the sampler Le Pop 3 had the Cologne label in a press release pointed out that even in France itself pop music "à la Française " is increasingly in demand. Quote from the text: " The not-so- new, Nouvelle Scène Française 'is evident on the shelves of major chain Fnac and Virgin Megastores wide, where now the, variety Française' subjects are as big as hip-hop or alternative. The stars of the neo- chanson take you there just as much space as the classics from past decades. And when old stars like Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy or Juliette Greco add new disks, then they attack as a matter of course on the skills of the young songwriter and composer returns that have caused so much fresh air and still care. "

The versatility and adaptability of French pop music was in the music press also a regular topic. The journalist Dorin Popa dealt in a longer contribution to the French chanson with the question of what else might be regarded as a chanson and what had already hit pop song, and answered them as follows: " Even the Rezensentenkniff, the authorial attitude, you 'll hear already if it is a song, occasionally resort to short. Often it works: Sheila, who was known as one of the first singers in the '60s with hits like, Pendant les vacances ' no longer on the stage, but immediately via radio, television and records, has certainly left the genre, as they later wrote in the 70s as Sheila & B. Devotion Les with disco as Mucke, Spacer ' Hitgeschichte. Conversely, from Donna Summers, Is not It Magic ' flawless Chanson, Alain Chamfort once it Isabelle Antena as, Le temps qui court ' adapted. Other French music icons such as Mylène Farmer, Les Rita Mitsouko, even the great rapping Sniper merge the chanson rather with rock, pop and hip-hop than that I would dismiss them entirely from its tradition. "

French Pop Compilations (selection)

• French Classics ( 2009; Sony BMG)
• Le Pop 1-6 (2002-2010; Le Pop )
• Le Pop - les filles (2008, Le Pop )
• Le Tour - The Best in French Alternative Music (2003; Local Records)
• Le Tour 2-7 (2004-2013; Local Records)
• Haute Couture - French Lounge Session (2009, Audio Lotion Recordings)
• La belle époque - EMI 's French Girls 1965-1968 (2007; EMI Records )
• Paris - Classic French Songs ( 2009; Cleopatra Records )
• Swinging Mademoiselle - Groovy French Sounds from the 60s (2008, Silva Screen Records)
• Années 80 (2004, EMI Twogether Series)
• French Pop Hits (2005; Sony BMG)
• Franco Musiques (2010/ 11; Cornelsen Verlag)