Hot French Music?
 

What's the latest craze these days?

Personally, I am into acid jazz. Any ideas for clubs to go to in Paris while I am there?

Also looking to bring home CDs for my 20-year old SDs, as well as my rock and roller DH.

What does everyone recommend?

I don't really know where to go for acid jazz, as I don't like it, but if you just want to know what is currently popular in CDs for young people, why not just go into a music store (Virgin or FNAC) and listen to/buy some of the current best-sellers? They have those listening stations and current top sellers marked just like in such stores in the US, if that's where you are from.

I suppose, but there are so many styles and differences between what's "cool" for twenty-somethings and what's not. Here in the states, the age group that often dictates "top 40" lists are teeny boppers; not young adults.

Lately here they are into Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix-very retro but also the current stuff that I have no idea what the bands are.

Anyone with clues out there?

Well if you're going to be in Paris, you really should pick up the latest in the long solid series of Hotel Costes releases . I think they're up #9 now. It's mixed by Stephane Pompagnac (sp?). Very cool laidback chillout music - not exactly acid jazz but similar enough.

Les Nubians. The duo (they're actually sisters) from Bordeaux combines neo-soul and jazz with their beautifully sultry voices. They have two studio CDs - Princesses Nubiennes and One Step Forward. On both CDs, there are a few songs in English but most are in French (those are always the best ones). Princesses Nubiennes, the first CD is the best, but both are excellent. The songs "Demain," "Les Portes de Souvenir," "Sourire" and "Makeda" are standout tracks on "Princesses Nubiennes. "La Guerre," "Si Infidele," and "Temperature Rising" are the best on "One Step Forward."
C'est belle.

The French hip hop scene is quite interesting, especially in context of the riots last year that began in the areas outlying Paris.

NTM -- Paris Sous les Bombes and
IAM -- L'ecole du Micro D'argent

are both groups and CD's that I really like, I gave another NTM CD (forgot the name of it) that was also a DVD to a friend. It had a couple of music videos that were really interesting, typical of the early U.S. rap videos where the camera focuses largely on the ghettoized spaces that the performers are from -- so lots of shots of public housing projects, their neighborhood, residents of the community in the background, etc. Illuminates another aspect of Paris and French policy that we don't normally consider as tourists. Don't want to get into a political debate -- but wanted to throw the names of a couple of groups out there. I had a great time spending hours in a music store in Paris.

Very insightful, fishee. I will give a listen.

I adore Les Escrocs,kind of French folk rock and if you can understand the words, hilarious.

French rap, hip-hop and underground. In case your 20 yr old likes this kind of music.
Merlin, La Cosca, Neochrome, Da Faul, Diomay, ... That's some of what I see in my 23 yr old son's CD rack.

My son (23), who is French, and all his friends love Techno, House, Acid House and Trance. Actually he's lived here in the U.S. now for a few years and has perhaps evolved a bit musically but i think folks 20 or so are still into this type of music more than others.

They go to Technovals (sp?) - the Woodstock-like festivals that take place in farmers fields all over France and attract thousands.

Nearly no one seems interested in good ole rock and roll or Johnny Holliday.

Johnny who?

It's odd, but the American group Scissor Sisters is huge in France, Belgium, etc. and virtually ignored in the U.S. Their latest "tube" (single), I Don't Feel Like Dancing, is all over MCM (a French music video channel). It's techno/dance music and they do very clever videos.

Isn't that funny?! They played a small club here a few months back and I did not know what to think from their publicity photos.

I do find them very entertaining and their songs quite catchy. From their name, I thought they were ex-hairdressers, but when I looked them up on Wikipedia, found out it means something completely different. ;-)

Anyway, even though they're American (from Kentucky, no less!), they are a bit of a "craze" in Europe.

Good music can also be heard at Culture Biere on the Ave. Champs Elysees.

I'm not a big fan of Euro-pop, which can be even more mundane than it's American counterpart. I do however really enjoy some of the current groups that are doing the tradtional French bistro jazz with a more contemporary twist - Paris Combo and 8 1/2 Souvenirs are two groups that come to mind. The Putameyo 'French Cafe' collection is also great listening. When my daughter was in Paris a few years ago, rai music, which is a form of Algerian pop, was really hot. I don't know if it still is.

"It's odd, but the American group Scissor Sisters is huge in France, Belgium, etc. and virtually ignored in the U.S"

Same goes for Dépêche Mode, enormous in France, haven't sold a record in the UK in donkey's years.

I'm still at loss for why Johhny Holliday is still a super rock stock in France. He's actually from Belgium and for years sought to portray himself as an American i think. The David Hasselhof of France (or Belgium).

It's Halliday, not Holliday. Why ponder a star's appeal? Half the world thinks Presley was revolting and ridiculous. There is no accounting for taste, even the Romans knew that - de gustibus etc.

But that's old history. If you go to France and want to get into something you don't hear back home, check out the cross-pollination music scene from North Africa - research the word Rai - there are some very awesome sounds drawing on the traditional Algerian, Moroccan and other north-african styles, with hip hop beats and techno sounds and everything else, a very creative scene.

Look for names like Cheb Hasni, Cheba Maria, Chaba Zahouania, Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami, Cheb Kader, Cheb Nasro, Nouri, and on and on - these are more or less established artists, you will find lesser knowns doing gigs that can be just as exciting.

Then look for exiled musicians from Mali - again an exciting scene not really known elsewhere.

Pursuing these styles will get you into "boîtes" - "joints" - that may be in suburbs where people will tell you that you don't belong, because it is an emigrant's music, but if you behave respectfully and are there for the music, not bragging about what you like so much but willing to listen and appreciate, you will notice how music can be a unifying thing.

There may be language difficulties - again, how you deal with the situation will tell how equipped or not you are for these enriching cultural exchanges.

Here are a few more leads for your musical explorations:

www.fatimagroove.com/

Fatah Tinda (appears at www.lentrepot.fr/musique03.asp - see below)


Clubs:

Abracadabar, 123 av. Jean Jaurès, (19e)
Bab-Lio, 9 rue du Baigneur (18e)
L'Entrepot, 7/9 rue Francis de Pressensé (14e)

Check out the what's-on paper L'Officiel des Spectacles (comes out Wed.) from any newsstand, then look under heading CONCERTS - Monde/Traditionnel and Autres Musiques.

BTilke,

Do you qualify Scissor Sisters as techno ??? Here they are being announced on the radio as "The New BeeGees"... just a joke of course, but at least "I don't feel like dancing" could almost be a BeeGees single... I love it by the way :-)

I also love the French lounge music like Hotel Costes. A bit older is the dance music of bands like Air, Daft punk,... And how about the CD by ex-top model Carla Bruni? Suprisingly good...