In France, music reflects a diverse array of styles. In the field of classical music, France has produced several prominent 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 electronic music.
Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall, known professionally as France Gall, was a French yé-yé singer. In 1965, at the age of 17, she won the tenth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", representing Luxembourg. Later in her career, she became known for her work with singer-songwriter Michel Berger, whom she married in 1976. Her most successful singles include "Résiste", "Ella, elle l'a" and "Évidemment".
Jacques Dutronc is a French singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, and actor. Some of Dutronc's best-known hits include "Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille", "Le Responsable", and "Les Cactus".
French rock is a form of rock music produced in France, primarily with lyrics in the French language.
Alain Bashung was a French singer, songwriter and actor. Credited with reviving the French chanson in "a time of French musical turmoil", he is often regarded as the most important French rock musician after Serge Gainsbourg. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s with hit songs such as "Gaby oh Gaby" and "Vertige de l'amour", and later had a string of hit records from the 1990s onward, such as "Osez Joséphine", "Ma petite entreprise" and "La nuit je mens". He has had an influence on many later French artists, and is the most awarded artist in the Victoires de la Musique history with 12 victories obtained throughout his career.
Victoires de la Musique are an annual French award ceremony where the Victoire accolade is delivered by the French Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The classical and jazz versions are the Victoires de la musique classique and Victoires du Jazz.
Vilain Pingouin is a rock band from Quebec, Canada.
Ariane Moffatt is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Known for working across multiple musical genres, Moffatt's music combines elements of electronica, jazz, folk, and pop. A francophone, she is bilingual and has recorded tracks in both French and English. Her 2002 debut album Aquanaute went platinum in Quebec, earning 11 nominations at the 2003 ADISQ Awards and winning three Félix awards. She is known in Quebec for two well-received singles from Aquanaute: "La barricade" and "Dans un océan".
Isabelle Boulay, is a Canadian singer.
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.
Maritie and GilbertCarpentier, a married couple, were artistic producers of very popular variety TV and radio shows in France and in many French-speaking countries, from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Claudine Luypaerts, better known as Maurane, was a Francophone Belgian singer and actress.
Volume! The French Journal of Popular Music Studies is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal, created in 2001, and "dedicated to the study of contemporary popular music".
Christine Charbonneau was a French Canadian singer and songwriter.
L’Homme à tête de chou is a concept album by Serge Gainsbourg, released on Philips Records in 1976.
The Victoires de la musique classique are an annual French classical music award event founded in 1986. The awards are the classical equivalent of the popular music awards Victoires de la Musique and the Victoires du Jazz. Most of the awards are for actual performers, orchestras, composers, etc. as opposed to the Diapason d'Or given to recordings, though there is an Enregistrement français de musique classique de l'année.
The Éditions Mélanie Seteun are a publishing association dedicated to "taking popular music seriously, especially within the French-speaking world. They publish Volume! the French Journal of Popular Music Studies, book collections, and participate in several activities promoting their field of study in France.
Denise Benoît was a French actress and singer, active across a wide range of genres on the stage, radio and television. Other members of her family were musicians.
Jean-Pierre Bourtayre was a French composer. He worked for numerous performers, such as Jacques Dutronc, Michel Sardou, and Claude François.
