Since posting about sombreuil roses, I've been wandering around just missing French and everything to do with it.
This morning I had one of those "D'oh!" moments.
Given that the family has a resident technophile, we have satellite radio. That means I can listen to French radio! Le rawk! Le rol!
Back in high school, our French teacher sometimes played French popular music for us. I felt like the artists were both trying to copy and yet also trying to rebel against the British/American formula. Rather than being a fruitful sort of tension, it was destructive. In my opinion, it created somewhat watered-down music that lacked a strong sense of its own identity. Sort of Wham! meets Edith Piaf, which actually could have been great (that's what solo George Michael is, after all; listen to "Moment With You"), except in this case the collision brought out the worst rather than the best in each other.
The French music I'm hearing now is a lot more confident. They seem to have decided once and for all to copy the Anglo style rather than rebel--but copy really damn well, to the point where they own it. With that new feeling of authority, French pop's inimitable Frenchness (a certain lightness, and always a more philosophical stance) can speak to foreigners in a whole new way. I think that if they keep going, they'll beat Anglo pop on its own turf.
God, the British will just DIE.
