The French Misfits or the Effects of Globalisation

                There are a lot of French singers that choose to sing in English. I gather that this is common behaviour for all non-English speaking musicians as this language has become international and potentially offers them a broader audience. But does this tactic work unfailingly? Personally I doubt it: I’ve rarely heard someone other than a French person telling me about The Dø, The Bewitched Hands, Emilie Simon, Camille, or Mig (although I admit that barely anyone in France has ever heard of the latter either). And has anyone ever heard of Ben L’Oncle Soul? His album is partly in French and partly in English, “Soul Man” [see video above, or here for the French version] exists in the two languages because, although original in French, it was rerecorded in English…to me, this shows how some artists go to great lengths to appeal to a wider audience.

But the dream of becoming worldly famous is not the only reason driving bands to write in English. I’m not sure whether you rosbifs know this, but to French people – and I’m pretty sure to many others – English is cooooooool. It’s the language. It’s trendy, it’s stylish. Everyone admires a French person that can speak English. So to French people, singing in English is neat (why do you think I sing in English?) You can say whatever you like and no one cares nor understands. It just sounds good. Some might argue that English is more fluid, sing-able or suitable for music but these are just excuses for laziness.

Writing well in French (or maybe in your native language) is much harder and many artists don’t even try. I think it’s so hard to avoid making French lyrics sound fake and stupid. For some reason, putting two words together in French is to me so challenging, but when I write in English I don’t even think about it, I just write, I’m freer and I guess many foreign musicians share this feeling. When people tell me that they are so impressed that I can write in my second language, I keep trying to explain that it is easier to do so… but no one understands! I believe that writing in another language distances oneself from the direct meaning of the lyrics, and as a foreigner you don’t get all the connotations in each word. Consequently some lyrics in English that might sound stupid to you, will sound ok to us, and it’s much much easier to sing lyrics that sound ok to you rather than trying really hard to make French lyrics sound good.

But there is one other thing that explains why so many artists choose English for their lyrics. Globalisation has an enormous impact on music and even though the French government is famous for trying to regulate its effect on French culture (musical TV shows and radios are legally obliged to play 40 to 60% of French songs), English and American music still prevails in France. I have to say that trying to restrict the diffusion of foreign bands on the radios or forcing French artist to write in French is not as stupid as it sounds: they just want to save our musical culture, although what often happens is that French bands that write French lyrics make American music (e.g. M. Pokora, the Justin Timberlake lookalike [pictured above]). Globalisation is just unavoidable. Besides spotify, deezer, bit torrent, youtube and all these new ways of discovering music, the radio restrictions have just a tiny impact and the war for French culture is almost lost. Speaking for myself, there are very few French bands and singers that I listen to and for that matter that have “influenced” me. Of the covers I sometimes play at my gigs, barely two are French. It was just last summer that I found interest in Sylvie Vartan, Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy, France Galle and company. To me, they had always been the old-fashioned singers that my mum and aunts used to listen to. And I still haven’t given a try to Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Charles Aznavour or Barbara, the stars of the pure chanson française [=a term used to define a genre that includes French songs which show that an effort has been made into writing the lyrics, maybe in the way poetry would be written, I would simply translate it as “French folk”]. We do have such an interesting musical background, which I too often neglect… There has been at some point “la nouvelle chanson française” with Bénabar, Arthur H, Vincent Delerme, Jeanne Cherhal, Albin de la Simone et autres, but those are already out of date and I don’t think anything will ever be cooler than the bands that use English as their main language.

Cocoon – Hey Ya

Cocoon – a French band that became famous after publishing a folky cover of ‘Hey Ya!’ on youtube  – explained in an interview that “pop and folk are types of music that have to be sung in English, otherwise they would be called chanson française”. So basically, these guys don’t want to write in French because it sounds like French folk and what they want to make is folk music… fair enough. But do genres really have a dedicated language? I do think that jazz is a very difficult genre to translate in French… “Les feuilles mortes” has always been a chanson française to me, while “Autumn Leaves” became one of the most popular jazz standards! And now people don’t want be labelled chanson française because it’s not cool, it’s out-dated. Cocoon added that their aims were not “to renounce French language but just to travel, to say that [they] love the English language and their culture and that [they] are anglophiles.” Eh, it must feel good to hear that guys!

Olivia, the singer & lyricist of The Dø explained: “English is my musical language, it’s what I’ve listened to all my life.” She also said: “I’ve always sang in English and when you make music, you don’t address yourself to only one nation. I’m Franco-Finnish and I’ve always lived in a double culture with many others all around me and English has always been the natural language that I’ve used for singing, I’ve never asked myself [which language to choose.]” The Dø also claimed something that I quite like but that somehow discredits all I have said above: “Americans don’t care about where we come from. Actually, rare are the ones that know that we are French. Even here in France, half of the people that come up to us speak in English. It is about music, not about flags. (…) We play rather British music, so whether we own a passport of this colour or that one, the public – American, English, Turkish, Mexican – does not care.”

Anyways! I hope I’ve sparked your interest in the Anglo-Franco musical mystery tour. I am not going to pretend that I am an expert in French music; after almost 4 years in the UK, my knowledge of what is hype out there across la manche has been reduced to very little… you will see that I did not include in this series of articles successful French bands such as Daft Punk, Air, Phoenix or Justice, for my defence I’ll say that I am just going to talk about some bands that I actually know and like (or not). I’ll tell you more next week.

To be continued…