French Music

France has long been considered a centre for European art and music. The country boasts a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French rock, hip hop, techno/funk, and pop performers.

The late 1800s saw the dawn of the music hall when Yvette Guilbert was a major star. The era lasted through to the 1930s and saw the likes of F�lix Mayol, Lucienne Boyer, Marie-Louise Damien, Marie Dubas, Fr�hel, Georges Guibourg, Tino Rossi, Jean Sablon, Charles Trenet and Maurice Chevalier.

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French popular music in the 20th century included singers like superstar �dith Piaf as well as Monique Serf (Barbara) and Georges Brassens plus the more art-house musicians like Brigitte Fontaine. Many present-day stars released their first albums in the mid-1970s and early 1980s including Francis Cabrel, Alain Souchon, Laurent Voulzy, and Jean-Jacques Goldman. More recently, the success of the Star Academy television show has spawned a new generation of young pop music stars including Jenifer Bartoli and Nolwenn Leroy; and the superstar status of diva Mylene Farmer inspired pop rock performers like Zazie, Lorie and Aliz�e, and R&B-influenced singers like Nadiya and Ophelie Winter.

American and British rock and roll was also popular in the 1950s and 60s, and indigenous rock achieved some domestic success. Punk rock, heavy metal found some listeners.

In particular, electronic music, as exemplified by Jean Michel Jarre, achieved a wide French audience. The French electro-pop bands Air and Daft Punk and techno artists Laurent Garnier and David Guetta found a wide audience in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both locally and internationally. Electronica groups such as T�l�popmusik continue to enjoy success.

Algerian rai also found a large French audience, especially Khaled. Moroccan chaabi and gnawa is also popular.

American hip hop music was exported to France in the 1980s, and French rappers and DJs, like MC Solaar, also had some success.

France became one of the leading producers of progressive rock in the 1970s. Aficionados worldwide were enamoured by recordings like Ange’s Le Cimetiere des Arlequins, Pulsar’s Halloween, Shylock’s Ile de Fievre, Atoll’s L’Araignee-Mal and Eskaton’s Ardeur. Most well-known, however, may be the band Magma, whose 1970 debut, Magma, used free jazz and lyrical references to science fiction. The band later used Indian and electronic styles.

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