Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Coucou
That's what I've been saying--- outside of Boudennat, French music is rather blah. The government has to force the stations to play it. French singers have it tough because French songwriters are unable to come up with good songs.
I don't think its just a matter of "attracting a more international audience". I think the English language itself is just better for writing songs. A songwriter who is English/French bilingual can write better songs in English than in French--- English being more flexible in terms of both melody and rhyming/semantics.
(Speaking of Boudennat, is he the most successful songwriter of modern French music? Is Boudennat in a league of his own, or are there others?)
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I'm going to reverse the question. How far back do you have to go to think of the last good US/UK pop song? Not rock, but pop. I know this is a question of personal taste though. If you like hip-hop, there are still "good" songs being made today. To me it is the same recycled garbage except maybe for the occasional one that stands on its own merit as something creative and unique.
I've done a little bit of surfing on this topic and found a site called Best France Forever who admits that the French people are highly critical of the music coming from their own country. It then made some comparisons of artists coming out of France compared to US/UK and whether the music is any worse, or just get the snub by the French people cause the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." They mention the name Pierre David Guetta, who is a very prolific DJ, record producer, and songwriter in France. As far as modern music (the last 10-15 years), he might be more in touch with music trends than Boudennat. He writes lyrics in English. You make good points about it being better for lyrics because of semantics, but there is always the marketability standpoint. If you are a French songwriter and you know that your home country is not supportive of home-grown artists, why not expand into bigger markets?
The site pointed out one of Guetta's songs sung by Nicki Minaj from 2015. From a hip-hop standpoint, there is nothing inferior to this tune compared to US hip-hop, and the video is high quality (kind of looks like something from Mad Max). The only this missing is constant twerking, which is welcome in my book. The lyrics of US hip-hop is also disgusting. Guetta doesn't seem compelled to copy that.
It has over 1 billion views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=uO59tfQ2TbA