Why no French rock n roll?

stupid Americans.

Your theory doesn't work too well for Cuba. Why they would want to bother with rock and roll when there are a zillion different forms that have developed locally out of Afro-Latin roots is beyond me. Actually, at the moment hip-hop seems to be pretty big in Cuba. But Cuba's popular music has remained quite vital despite the heavy state centralization. Cuban forms have spread to Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, New York City, etc., among other places, and have gone on to mutate according to local needs. If anything, the Cuban public has been less interested in seeing older traditions conserved than, say Puerto Rico. That's why new hybrids like timba are developing in Cuba.

The french have great rap though.

I suspect that rebellious french yoof imported their music and got super anglo/ameri-philic in the 60s then all went off and got depressed and started listening to/making crap experimental music or withdrawing into resurgent nationalism and their own euro-diva tradition in the 70s after '68 went bust, then the new wave of excitement's been from the immigrant population (Algerian in particular) which has produced its own hybrid forms for years which are now incorporating/merging with rap.

Some of the experimental stuff sounds okay to me. Heldon is not all bad (though I just sold off my only Heldon CD a month or so ago). I am hoping I have not made a mistake by ordering the Etron Fou Leloublan collection. They sound good on Frith's "Speechless," but I can't remember too much of what they sound like alone. And Univers Zero, well, they are pretty blah, I have to admit. Carpe Diem anyone? No. I'm afraid you are more right than wrong, actually.

Jacques Dutronc, Antoine et Ses Problemes, Les Sinners, Les Sultans, all those YehYeh girls.

MBV, surely. But that works too.

i was so dumb

What did you learn?

Anyway, there's plenty of French rnr. It's just that most of it is not exported

It's not exported because it's not very good, though. The fact remains that the French are good at pop, not so good at rock. (Yes, vast generalisation, of course there must be good French rock bands out there etc. etc. Still.)

There's enough homegrown not-very-good rock to go round

hooray!

um..

well if you do a ratio good-bad rnr and you add the difficulty of exporting music in a foreign language, i think you'll fidn that the situation isn't that different.

Anyway, I guess I could accept the idea that the whole grittiness that's implied in rnr does not come off as cool to the french psyche as in the UK or in the US

I thought they loved the rnr in France?

yes. Doesn't make it french tho.

and some more: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=HZLmczqPTC8

Killer Man by Gasoline urgent and key!

btw Asylum Party are the shit

Ladies and gentleman, SOGGY.

p.s. killer man = killer song

no mention of gojira. how sad

Also these guys:
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:YkgCuKqySm6BLM:http://bp0.blogger.com/_pkDNJyttaOE/R-BulhxsSjI/AAAAAAAAAEg/M-MAh7QvULY/s320/Dogs%252B-%252BDifferent%252B-%252BFront.jpg

I came here to mention Metal Urbain but they've already been mentioned over and over! Jello Biafra produced their last album I believe. Are they rock and roll? To close the case once and for all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJx80Q6FZaE&feature=related

Trop cool, as the top comment says.

BTW that clip is NSFW

The Encyclopaedia Metallum lists 2,824 bands under France. I guess some people there do dig the Rock.

http://www.metal-archives.com

OK:
i. Metal Urbain played at the Hundred Club Festival where Sid put a girl's eye out by throwing a beerglass = THEY ARE PUNK HURRAH = not rock'n'roll obv
ii. Jerry Lewis is GRATE
iii. Isn't the point abt Sweden that they are SO socialist that they subsidise you ANYWAY? In France you have to jump over a qualifying bar, in Sweden you can just blunder under it.
iv. I always heard N.'s lingistic theory also, tho it appears it wd apply in Belgium just as badly-uh. Helenfordsdale: punXoR or rock& roll?
v. Il y'a pas de cinq.
vi. French yoot picked up on rad-pop topsyturvy "critical theory" via film — Godard on Hawkes and Truffaut on Hitchcock = Ewing on Britney and Ned on er Tool — which is unfortunately not a medium where the audience clamber up ovah the footlights when they are fucked off with how it's done. Unless you think The Fifth Element is an answer record to Les Chinoises.
vii. Léon *is* an answer record to Jules et Jim.
viii. Jerry Lewis is GRATE but Eddy Murphy is BETTAH
xi. This is where you come in.
-- mark s,

Wow!!

Hand: did you end up marrying this mysterious French person?

anyway, it's a typical question for you to ask, with you virtually being FRENCH or something.

i. is wrong tho (xp)

I did! I have French in-laws! My father-in-law loves the Doors.

And Dee Dee Bridgewater.

I was eating dinner with them the night James Brown died. The whole table had something to say, mainly naming James Brown songs and nodding gravely, much the way different varieties of foie gras might be discussed. "SEX MACHINE!" one would say, which would set the rest of the table off, "Ouai, ouai, 'Sex Machine'."

wow. that's beautiful. and it belongs in a deadpan french farce of a movie.

um, that would be me, scott, not maria.

:D

Clair Obscur = France's answer to Joy Division - explosive post-punk coldwave

experience it:

CLAIR OBSCUR - Statues - 1983
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPydYdNx6k
-- djmartian, Wednesday, 25 June 2008

EXPERIENCE IT

CLAIR OBSCUR
There's a thread in this name, which I might have tried to start a few years ago- Bands Whose Names Can Be Split Into Two Parts That Are Antonyms Of Each Other. As it is, the only other example I can think of right now is Was (Not Was).

Yo, Francophiles, what's a good shortlist of quality French 80s pop kinda shit? Synth pop, minimal pop, electro pop, regular pop, whatever. Doesn't seem like much has ever been discussed of it.

French language particularly

Bands Whose Names Can Be Split Into Two Parts That Are Antonyms Of Each Other. As it is, the only other example I can think of right now is Was (Not Was).

Hello Goodbye are pretty big these days, I think (though sadly not French).

Also (the also not French) Biggie Smalls.

And Fatboy Slim -- okay, I'll save these for an actual thread from now on.

French 80s pop kinda shit? Synth pop, minimal pop, electro pop

This comp looks kinda promising:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bippp

My aunt lived in France during the 80s and she forced French crap circa that period on my developing brain when she came back, so I have a weird affection for it.

Yeah, that compilation sounds pretty cool

get the Les Rita Mitsouko "Bestov" and take it from there

here's an awesome compilation of french rock

France is the center of rock n roll these days. The thing is it can be summed up in two words, "Ed" and "Banger", and a lot of people here apparently don't like it.

Burt, I made a list in the "rough guide thread" of 80's french synth poo. I'll try to dig it out

But you might already wanna start with 80's Etienne Daho, Indochine and Mylene Farmer

Stanton, why do you use the words 'shit' and 'crap' to denote things you like or want to hear?

Why does the word "bad" mean "good"? I mean really.

Ah, found it:

The Rough Guide to 80's French Pop:

1. Mylene Farmer - Libertine
2. Partenaire Particulier - Partenaire Particulier
3. Etienne Daho - Week-End a Rome
4. Vanessa Paradis - Maxou
5. Alain Souchon - Quand Je Serai K.O.
6. Caroline Loeb - C'est la Ouatte
7. Alain Bashung - Gaby
8. Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baila
9. Negresses Vertes - Sous le Soleil
10. Indochine - L'Aventurier
11. Jeanne Mas - Coeur en Stereo
12. Desireless - Voyage, Voyage
13. Guesh Patti - Etienne
14. France Gall - Debranche
15. Marc Lavoine - Les Yeux Revolver

Yeah, all this stuff is perfect. Thanks

i can't really stand Daho except for one song i've never been able to find again that sounded almost like Felt!!

Does French people ever want to rock?

This comp looks kinda promising:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bippp

=======

Christ on a pointed stick. Yeah, synth rock -- rock out, Claudette, rock out.

I'm listening to Illimite -- a deluxe Telephone thing that came out on EMI France in 2006. Two CDs, one a "best of," the other a live shot. Centerpiece of live stuff is a show at CBGBs in 1980, apparently in front of about a dozen, where the band tore up the floorboards. Segment of show from Montreal, one year earlier, has them sounding -- tone and attackwise -- like Metallic KO for 15 minutes of material, only more polite than Iggy. Well, they could have been impolite, but I don't know French.

Just way too early for anyone in the US to get their brains around Frenchmen, singing in French, who had a rhythm section and two guitar players who knew roots rock and hard rock better than a lot of people prowling big stages in '80. 'Course, it seems not to have been too early for their countrymen who bought their albums by the bagload, so much so the badn retired around the mid-80's.

I kick myself for having missed them at some dive in Philly.

Seconding and thirding SOGGY. Holy crap this album is great!

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49KyJQl-Og

^^^SERIOUSLY JUST LOOKIT THAT GUY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_rock

Other notes: There's a French series of psych comps called Freakout Totale that are pretty good, though they're francophone (so include Quebec etc.).

Once I get home, I'll be able to drag through the huge archive I found on SLSK from some user named Docteur Stein, which was all a bunch of 7"s in French, with a good half of them rock and roll (bands like Alex et les Lizards).

Bérurier Noir are pretty fun, though they're on the goofy quasi-political new wave tip, at least as I've been able to figure out. I had a pal send me a mixtape of their stuff once and I've downloaded a bit over the years.

2100-ish words on Les Rita Mitsouko, Niagara, Elmer Food Beat, Indochine, Les Négresses Vertes, Mylene Farmer, Noir Désir, Les Hatepinks.

http://www.spin.com/articles/french-modern-rock-essentials-phoenix-daft-punk/