The 60’s influence on French music

The cultural, social, political and economical changes marked the 60s in the United States, with the arrival of new music genres, protest movements and revolutions both in technology and socially.

But these changes didn’t stop in the US, but also happened in Europe as well, and among other countries, in France.

The country pre-60s in France sees the aftermath of the second World War, with a new republic constitution and the beginning of the decolonization of Africa countries, including Tunisia and Morroco, as well as social new social laws such as the instauration of the minimum wage.

This also marks a period of prosperity for the country, named as the Glorious Thirty (Les Trentes Glorieuses), and of a baby boom which succeeds to the end of the war, which boosts the development of a new youth culture, with its own codes, musics and languages.

This sets the country for a decade of cultural changes unseen before, which ends with the May 68′ Revolution, led by both a workers movement and a youth movement protesting among other things against an authoritarian leadership and American capitalism and consumerism.

But if these American influences were fought against, the musical ones very much inspired this new era of french music!

The french music genre was always a thing of itself, full of poetry and string instruments, and a lot of singers stayed in this genre of what is called “french variety” throughout the 50s – 70s.

One example is Jacques Brel with his famous songs “Ne me quitte pas”, and here is another one from the late 50s:

Quand on n’a que l’amour

But the beginning of the 60s is marked the arrival of one of the biggest french rockstars: Johnny Hallyday

And there begins a trend of adapting and sometimes translating American 60s music to bring to French audiences:

This is a french version of The House of the Rising Sun, but with other lyrics about ending life in Prison.

If Johnny – who even took on an American name instead of his real one Jean-Phillippe Smet – is one of the first, he is not the only one.
Richard Anthony is also famous for his rendition of hits like Hit the Road Jack or even Let’s Twist Again:

Les Chaussettes Noires (the black socks) is also one of the bands which rose at the occasion but are today pretty much forgotten (except for the generation who listened to them), unlike Hallyday.

But if these bands are numerous, of course other artists took their guitar and made more original music, inspired both by these influences, and french music itself.

This is the case of Nino Ferrer, a french musician who wanted to make it to the psychedelic rock hall of fame but instead is better known for his french acoustic ballads.

Other artists even inspired American ones, maybe the most famous of all being Claude François, who scored hits from the 60s to the end of the 70s. One of which is Comme d’habitude, who later made Sinatra’s My Way.

The lyrics are different and much darker as he speaks about the slow end of a relationship.

Finally, even the biggest musicals made their way to France, with their own translation as was tradition!
Here is Hair in French:

As you’ve seen, the french musical domain was pretty shaken up by the 60s and its American influence, even though French music succeeded in the end in remaining original, and pursued its great evolution in the following decades in a lot of genres, rock (I suggest listening to Jean Jacques Goldman for 80s french rock), electro music, and a lot of others.

The songs in this book are the ones my parents used to listen to and sing to, and they are part of the ones I grew up in. I learned to love rock and music in general by listening to the UK great bands, the American ones, but also the French ones, every musical genre bringing its piece to the great musical puzzle, and each one completing the other.

One extra song, out of the 60s, just for fun 🙂