The more I listen to XM in the car, the more I tune in "World" music and thus the more I listen to French artists who mash up various styles very nicely with a bent toward techno (a weakness of mine going back to early Kraftwerk--everybody's Daddy, including Madonna's).
Plus, French is hard to beat as a lyric delivery method.
Plus, quite frankly, as my first foreign affair (before Romanian, German and Russian), it reminds me of my youth in a harmless fashion--you know, before I read "mode" and only thought "ice cream."
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Comments (6)
...but you haven't lived until you've heard rap sung in Turkish; seriously, it's a fantastic language for that.
And speaking of such things- however obliquely ;) -have a great thanksgiving.
Michal
Posted by Michal Shapiro | November 22, 2006 7:35 AM
Try listening to Edith Piaf. The most moving of all French torches.
Posted by robert gerwig | November 22, 2006 5:14 PM
re music? i heartily recommend manu chao. punch up "me gustas". chao is the very model of a a modern mashup, drawing on french, iberian, mesoamerican, arabic ... a very global beach sonic. btw, django reinhardt trumps edith piaf, anyday.
cuurent unsolicited read recommend: yin sumida's "grand strategy' mahan book, and yang richard ford's 'lay of the land'.
as a native, apologies for the lambeau field smackdown last week.
Posted by christo | November 23, 2006 12:07 AM
check out Radio Deliro on Itunes....French variety from the 50's-70's with a percentage of Bach thrown in....quite nice background.
Posted by bill standley | November 23, 2006 2:13 AM
Django vs Piaf? what's the point? Piaf was one of the greatest chanteuses of all time, and Rheinhardt was a seminal jazz guitarist. Both equally worth listening to for different reasons. it's like saying chocolate is better than steak.
Posted by Michal Shapiro | November 24, 2006 4:38 PM
When I hit Europe in '79 on my way to Poland and points East, I hung with a French thirtysomething physician from Blois who had a parallel life as a leader/bass guitar player in a rock band. After watching a rehearsal I noted the impact of songs that they would do in English compared to songs in French. The English was more effective to my ear in the rock genre. When I asked him why they did most of their songs in English, he confirmed what I felt. For the hard driving stuff the more compact, squared-off, hard English was effective. But for the lyrical material the French was the ticket. And, since people around the world sort of "expected" to encounter rock in English, English, especially the black-influenced variety, had insinunated itself into and become synonymous with the forms of rock, blues, etc.
Posted by Warren Roche | November 25, 2006 11:58 AM