The French have always been in the forefront when it comes to electronic music. In fact, the pioneers of electronic music were all French gentlemen. It is difficult to say why, but the French have produced good electronic music all along and today, they have surpassed Britain and America in producing quality electronic music compositions. If we talk of the present, there are some great talents, both old and new, that are creating some wonderful electronic music. Some of the leading names are Daft Punk, Justice, Digitalism, Agoria and NoiseGun. The current crop of musicians owe their success to Pierre Henry who started the trend by creating a track called Messe pour le temps present in 1967. Many of the present day artists are greatly influenced by Pierre Henry.
With the advent of smaller, cheap synthesizers many musicians started to compose electronic music in the 70’s. Jean Michel Jarre made electronic music very popular with his album Oxygene in 1976. He was the person who brought electronic music to films, and Vangelis owes his success (Blade Runner) to Jean. His influence is clearly felt in the music composed in all genres in the 80’s. While 80’s produced more disco music than electronic music, one notable exception is Depeche Mode, who came from Britain and rocked the music industry in France by creating memorable electronic music. He created a wave of synth pop music and there were various artistes who tried to copy his style. This phase in the French electronic music is also referred to as Cold wave. Though none of the bands could recreate the magic of Depeche Mode, Kas Product became widely popular across Europe, especially because of its Goth music. Taxi Girl was another band which produced good music and became famous in France. The composer of this band, Mirways made some famous songs for the New York electro duo Fischerspooner.
The 90’s saw the French electronic music reaching its peak and this music became famous all over the world. 90’s also saw the emergence of Daft Punk, Air, Etienne de Crecy, Cassius, Alex Gopher and Sporto Kantes. A young DJ, Lauret Garnier created waves with his electronic music and churned records after records. Initially there were numerous compilations from Buddha Bar and then came the robotic music from Daft Punk. 90’s is also known for some soft, soothing music by Air.
French are credited with creating a subgenre of music which is called lounge music. Buddha Bar is a classic example of this kind of music. It created mass hysteria among music lovers all over the world in the early years of 2000. In between music which is also called mid-tempo was also popular during this period and the main artists behind it were Etienne de Crecy and Dimitry.
As of today, there are many artists keeping the flag of electronic music high in France, the most prominent among these being NoiseGun and Agoria. Looks like electronic music is here to stay with more and more artists joining the bandwagon.
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