This article appears to contradict the article Music of France#Popular music. Please discuss at the talk page and do not remove this message until the contradictions are resolved.(July 2006)
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.
Like Spanish Zarzuelas and Italian operettas, French songs are today still part of a dynamic French social movement which has for centuries – since the French Revolution – moved audiences with elegant and often poetic lyrics combined with realism around social and political themes. Renaud is one of the best known singers in the genre, alongside committed singers such as Maxime Le Forestier, Marc Ogeret, François Béranger and Bernard Lavilliers.
From the 1990's and 2000's, a new generation of singers walks in the footsteps of their ⁸elders, from Bénabar to Juliette Armanet in the 2020's.
References
^Sweeney, Regina M. (2001). Singing Our Way to Victory: French Cultural Politics and Music During the Great War, Wesleyan University Press. p. 23. ISBN0-8195-6473-7.
Further reading
Coulomb, Sylvie, and Didier Varrod (1987). Histoire de chansons, 1968-1988: de Julien Clerc à Didier Varrod. [Paris]: Éditions Balland. 383 p., profusely ill., chiefly with b&w photos.
Lipsik, Frank (1977). Dicionnaire des variétés, de A à Z: la vie et les tubes [i.e., disques de 45 t.p.m.]: de toutes vos vedettes. [S.l.]: Éditions Mengès. 188 p., ill. with b&w photos. ISBN2-85620-019-2
Moulin, Jean-Pierre (text), and Yvan Dalain (photographer)(1962). J'aime le music-hall. Lausanne: Éditions Rencontre. 205 obl. p., profusely ill. with b&w photos. N.B.: Photo-documentary of the music hall phenomenon, mostly in Francophone Europe.