Popular Music in Contemporary France Authenticity, Politics, Debate [Paperback]

While music lovers from all over the world have tried to recreate the ambience of French caf?s by playing music from stars such as Piaf, Tr?net and Chevalier, intellectuals, sociologists and policy makers in France have been embroiled in passionate debate about just what constitutes 'real' French music. In the late 1950s and 1960s a wave of Anglo-American rock 'n' roll and pop hit Europe and disrupted French popular music forever. The cherished sounds of the chanson were sidelined, fragmented or merged with pop styles and instrumentation. From this point on, French music and music culture have been splintered into cultural divides - pop culture vs high culture; mass culture vs 'authentic' popular culture; national culture vs Americanization. This book investigates the exciting and innovative segmentation of the French music scene and the debates it has spawned. From an analysis of the chanson as national myth, to pop, rap, techno and the State, this book is the first full-length study to make sense of the complexity behind the history of French popular music and its relation to 'authentic' cultural identity.David L. Looseley Professor of Contemporary French Culture, University of Leeds

Acknowledgements, ix
French Abbreviations, xi
Introduction, 1
Part I: Defining Authenticity
1 Popular Music before 1958, 9
2 The 1960s: Authenticity and Barbarism, 21
3 From 1968 to the Present: Authenticity and Mtissage, 37
4 Chanson as National Myth: The Authenticity Debate, 63
5 Denationalising Authenticity: The Sociological Debate, 87
Part II: Politicising Authenticity
6 Music and Politics before 1981, 113
7 Music and Politics 1981-93, 131
8 Policy and the Music Industry at the End of the Millennium, 151
9 Policy and Its Discontents: The Republican Debate, 167
10 Techno and the State: The Cultural Debate, 183
Conclusion, 203
Chronology, 215
Bibliography, 223
Index, 235

This is an excellent book. Clearly and simply writtel³/