French chanson

What is French chanson? In an article published by L’Express in March 2010, in anticipation of that year’s Victoires de la musique ceremony,¹ the journalist Gilles Médioni addresses this question. His answer suggests there is more to chanson than just the broad idea of ‘words set to music’ that the term can sometimes signify:

C’est à la fois des rimes riches, de la poésie musicale, une vision du monde. Et son contraire: du vent, du rien, du toi + moi. Mais c’est bien sous le même terme générique que se rassemblent les artistes. Protéiforme, la chanson française se démarque des autres (italienne, espagnole, anglo-saxonne. . .) parce qu’elle évoque des thèmes souvent inattendus. Et le champ des possibles est illimité.²

His definition resonates with a broader, well-established discourse about chanson that is the product of media texts, critical commentaries, album reviews, music-industry material, and fan contributions. Taken as a whole, this discourse suggests that there is a more specific meaning to the term chanson than simply ‘popular song’ or ‘words set to music’, for it stresses that it is a particular genre with its own set of ‘rules’.³ It holds that chanson is a quality, crafted, and even artistic form of popular music; that it is a ‘literary genre, a form of poetry set to music, with claims for high-cultural status’; possesses ‘educational and enlightening qualities and [is] able to improve its audience, thus making art available to the masses’; that it represents the feelings and world view of its listeners through the persona of the singer-songwriter; and that it constitutes ‘a universal cultural product, appealing to all (within France at least)’.⁴ The elements of this discourse that can be seen in the extract from Médioni include: the reference to the genre as poetry; its ineffable richness; the particular world view it offers; its indefinable, immeasurable qualities suggested by Médioni’s words ‘rien’ and ‘vent’; and the unexpected themes that it explores. The lack of further definition or more precise explanation of these ideas is also characteristic of the discourse, and points to the multiple meanings that the term chanson can embody.

This multiplicity, or indeed polymorphousness, of the genre has been highlighted by scholars of chanson. David Looseley has analysed the ‘promiscuous use’ of the term chanson,⁵ and Peter Hawkins has observed:

Chanson is not just a popular variety of poetry, not just a commercial product of the mass media industry, not just a reflection of popular taste, nor even a variety of folk-song. [. . .] Precisely because of its ambiguous, hybrid status, and despite its apparent naturalness, chanson is a deceptive and elusive phenomenon. This elusiveness is of course part of the fascination, and one of the main reasons for writing about it.⁶

Here, Hawkins highlights various significant elements of chanson discourse that govern how the genre is perceived and received. These in turn have informed the various approaches to the study of chanson that have been adopted by scholars. Indeed, critical studies of French chanson have developed considerably in recent decades and one of the strengths of the field is the diversity of approaches adopted. Chanson has been variously analysed as: poetry or, more broadly, text; a popular music product; an artefact that contributes to, and through which to read, the cultural history of France; a means by which to examine the country’s contemporary socio-cultural context; and a lens through which to explore the French socio-political landscape. The present essay discusses these diverse approaches as a means of tracking the development of chanson studies in an academic context, from the emergence of the first scholarly works in the late 1960s to the present day. It will also argue that the methodologies and disciplinary contexts that inform chanson studies can offer a broader model for modern languages research in the twenty-first century, at a time when there is increasing engagement with multidisciplinary and transnational approaches.

Given that the aim here is to trace the development of chanson as a field of scholarly enquiry, this essay...