Having driven the length and breadth of Western Europe and in parts of the East, one thing has struck me on the long hours on the road: French radio is probably the worst in Europe. Most of it consists of bourgeois chatter, like their television. French radio also has a commitment to 'French' songs, largely meaning songs in the French language and generally meaning rap music, which is not French at all. This has been going on for quite some time; during the 1980s there seemed to be a transition from the indigenous French tradition of the chanson, a modernised form of lyric-driven song that traced its roots as far back as the ancient troubadours of the Middle Ages and sung by the likes of Jaques Brel, Édith Piaf, Dalida, Léo Ferré and Charles Aznavour, who died on Monday; a transition to Black American influenced rap and hip-hop that gained in ascendancy just as the non-White population began to explode in mainland France. Zouk also rose at the time, coming as it did from the French Antilles and was organic to that section of the population, but synth pop, which emerged during the 1970s, was completely overlooked.
