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French Popular Music
French popular music is a music of France belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. It stands in contrast to French classical music, which historically was the music of elites or the upper strata of society. It also differs from traditional French folk music which was shared non-commercially. It is sometimes abbreviated to French pop music; however, French pop music is more often used for a narrower branch of popular music. The late 19th century 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 Félix Mayol, Lucienne Boyer, Marie-Louise Damien, Marie Dubas, Fréhel, Georges Guibourg, Tino Rossi, Jean Sablon, Charles Trenet and Maurice Chevalier. French popular music in the 20th century includedSweeney, Regina M. (2001). ''Singing Our Way to Victory: French Cultural Politics and Music During the Great War'', We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of France
In France, music reflects a diverse array of styles. In the field of classical music, France has produced several prominent Romantic music, romantic composers, while folk and popular music have seen the rise of the chanson and cabaret style. The oldest playable musical recordings were made in France using the earlist known sound recording device in the world, the phonautograph, which was patented by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857. France is also the 5th largest market by value in the world, and its music industry has produced many internationally renowned artists, especially in the nouvelle chanson and French electronic music, electronic music. Classical music Medieval French music history dates back to organum in the 10th century, followed by the Notre Dame School, an organum composition style. Troubadour songs of chivalry and courtly love were composed in the Occitan language, Occitan language between the 10th and 13th centuries, and the Trouvère poet-composer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chanson
A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of French pop music which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. The genre had origins in the monophony, monophonic songs of troubadours and trouvères, though the only polyphonic precedents were 16 works by Adam de la Halle and one by Jehan de Lescurel. Not until the ''ars nova'' composer Guillaume de Machaut did any composer write a significant number of polyphonic chansons. A broad term, the word ''chanson'' literally means "song" in French and can thus less commonly refer to a variety of (usually secular) French genres throughout history. This includes the songs of chansonnier, ''chanson de geste'' and Grand chant; court songs of the late Renaissance and early Baroque music periods, ''air de cour''; popular songs from the 17th to 19th century, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Rivers
Hervé Forneri (; 24 April 1945 – 24 April 2019), known professionally as Dick Rivers, was a French singer and actor who began performing in the early 1960s. He was an important figure in introducing rock and roll music in France. He was an admirer of Elvis Presley, who influenced both his singing and looks. His stage name came from the character, Deke Rivers, that Presley played in his second film, '' Loving You'' (1957). Biography Rivers was born in Nice, France. He started his music career in 1960 as the lead singer of the band Les Chats Sauvages, cutting his first record on his fifteenth birthday. In 1961, the British music magazine ''NME'' reported that a Rivers concert with his group Les Chats Sauvages at the Palais des Sports de Paris, whilst headlining with Vince Taylor, had turned into a full-scale riot. Rivers left Les Chats Sauvages in 1962 to pursue a solo career. His last album, ''Rivers'', was released in 2014. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sylvie Vartan
Sylvie Vartan (; born Sylvie Georges Vartanian on 15 August 1944) is a Bulgarians in France, Bulgarian-French singer and actress. She is known as one of the most productive and tough-sounding yé-yé artists. Her performances often featured elaborate show-dance choreography, and she made many appearances on French and Italian TV. Yearly shows with then-husband Johnny Hallyday attracted full houses at the Paris Olympia, Olympia and the Palais des congrès de Paris throughout the 1960s and mid-1970s. In 2004, after a break in performances, she began recording and giving concerts of jazz ballads in francophone countries. Early life Sylvie Vartan was born in Iskrets, Sofia Province, in the then Kingdom of Bulgaria. Her father, Georges Vartanian (1912–1970), was born in France to a Bulgarians, Bulgarian mother named Slavka and an Armenian people, Armenian father. He worked as an attaché at the French embassy in Sofia. The family shortened the name Vartanian to Vartan. Her mother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddy Mitchell
Claude Moine (; born 3 July 1942), known professionally as Eddy Mitchell, is a French singer and actor. He began his career in the late 1950s, with the group Les Chaussettes Noires (The Black Socks). He took the name ''Eddy'' from the American expatriate tough-guy actor Eddie Constantine (later the star of Jean-Luc Godard's '' Alphaville''), and chose ''Mitchell'' as his last name simply because it sounds American. The band performed at the Parisian nightclub Golf-Drouot before signing to Barclay Records and finding almost instant success; in 1961 it sold two million records. Heavily influenced by American rock and roll, Mitchell (who went solo in 1963) has often recorded outside France, at first in London, but later in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee. Guitarists Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page and drummer Bobby Graham were among the British session musicians who regularly supported him in London. For his American recordings he employed session men such as Roger Hawkins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Hallyday
Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and Pop music, pop singer and actor, credited with having brought rock and roll to France. During a career spanning 57 years, Hallyday released 79 albums and sold more than 110 million records worldwide, mainly in the French-speaking world, making him one of the List of the best-selling music artists, best-selling artists in the world. He had five diamond albums, 40 Music recording sales certification, gold albums, 22 platinum albums and earned ten ''Victoires de la Musique''. He sang an estimated 1,154 songs and performed 540 duets with 187 artists. Credited for his strong voice and his spectacular shows, he sometimes arrived by entering a stadium through the crowd and once by jumping from a helicopter above the Stade de France, where he performed nine times. Among his 3,257 shows completed in 187 tours, the most memorable were at Parc des Prin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brigitte Fontaine
Brigitte Fontaine (born 24 June 1939) is a French singer of avant-garde music. She has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry, and world. She has collaborated with Stereolab, Michel Colombier, Jean-Claude Vannier, Areski Belkacem, Gotan Project, Sonic Youth, Antoine Duhamel, Grace Jones, Noir Désir, Archie Shepp, Arno, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago. She is also a novelist, playwright, poet, and actress. Early life The daughter of two teachers, Brigitte Fontaine developed her taste for writing and drama very early. She spent her childhood in small villages of Finistère, then in Morlaix. At 17 years old, she moved to Paris to become an actress. In 1971, she was one of the women who signed the Manifesto of the 343, publicly admitting to having an abortion at a time when it was illegal in France. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serge Reggiani
Serge Reggiani (born Sergio Reggiani; 2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-French actor and singer. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight. After studying acting at the Conservatoire des arts cinématographiques, he was discovered by Jean Cocteau and appeared in the wartime production of '' Les Parents terribles''. He then left Paris to join the French Resistance. His first feature film was ''Les portes de la nuit'' (" Gates of the Night"), released in 1946. He went on to perform in 80 films in total, including '' Casque d'or'', ''Les Misérables'' (1958), '' Tutti a casa'', '' Le Doulos'', '' Il Gattopardo'', '' La terrazza'', '' The Pianist'' (1998). Reggiani also triumphed in the theatre in 1959 with his performance in Jean-Paul Sartre's play '' Les Séquestrés d'Altona''. In 1961, Reggiani co-starred with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier in the film '' Paris Blues'', filmed on location in Paris. In 1965, at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara (singer)
Monique Andrée Serf (9 June 1930 – 24 November 1997), known as Barbara, was a French singer. She took her stage name from her grandmother, Varvara Brodsky, a native of Odesa, Ukraine. Barbara became a famous Cabaret, cabaretière in the late 1950s in Paris, known as ('the midnight singer'), before she started composing her own tracks, which brought her to fame. Her most famous songs include "Dis, quand reviendras-tu ?" (1962), "Ma plus belle histoire d'amour" (1966) and "L'Aigle noir" (1970), the latter of which is said to have sold over 1 million copies in just twelve hours.''The Inner Voice of France'', BBC Radio 3, December 2011, presented by Norman Lebrecht Early life Born on Rue Brochant in Paris to a Jewish family, Barbara lived in northwestern Paris as a child. She then lived in Roanne starting in 1938, and in Tarbes starting in 1941. Barbara was 13 years old when she went into hiding during the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Ferrat
Jean Ferrat (born Jean Tenenbaum; 26 December 1930 – 13 March 2010) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. He specialized in singing poetry, particularly that of Louis Aragon. Biography Ferrat was born in Vaucresson, Hauts-de-Seine, the youngest of four children from a modest family which moved to Versailles in 1935, where Ferrat studied at the Jules Ferry College. His Russian-born father (naturalized in 1928) was forced to wear the yellow star and deported to Auschwitz in 1942, where he died. In the early 1950s, he started in Parisian cabaret. After that he avoided any particular musical style, but remained faithful to himself, his friends and his public. In 1956, he set ''"Les yeux d'Elsa"'' (''"Elsa's eyes"''), a Louis Aragon poem which Ferrat loved, to music. Its rendition by popular artist André Claveau brought Ferrat some initial recognition as a songwriter. His first 45 RPM single was released in 1958, without success. It was not until 1959, with publisher Gérar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Léo Ferré
Léo Ferré (; 24 August 1916 – 14 July 1993) was a Monégasque poet and composer, and a dynamic and controversial live performer. He released some forty albums over this period, composing the music and the majority of the lyrics. He released many hit singles, particularly between 1960 and the mid-1970s. Some of his songs have become classics of the French chanson repertoire, including " Avec le temps", "C'est extra", "Jolie Môme" and "Paris-Canaille". Early life Ferré was the son of Joseph Ferré, French staff manager at Monte Carlo Casino, and Marie Scotto, a Monégasque dressmaker of Italian descent from Piedmont; he had a sister, Lucienne, two years older. Ferré had an early interest in music. At age seven, he joined the choir of the Monaco Cathedral and discovered polyphony through singing pieces by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria. His uncle, former violinist and secretary at the Casino, used to bring him to performances and rehear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
