After the big boom of French rockers and ye-ye girls and bubblegum Pop of the 1960s, pop music made in France seemed to be doomed to bad mainstream Eurodance and hip-hop, and Punk-Hardcore for the underground lads.
It wasn’t until the mid-noughties that a fresh new wave bubbled under the 37 Paris bridges, heavily announced by the Rock&Folk magazine as ‘le renouveau du rock’, creating what was later called the ‘nouvelle scène rock française’.
Of course that a lot has changed since the EMI golden years in France; there were no more Chats Sauvages, no Françoise Hardys, and definitely no Gainsbourgs to write more-than-fabulous songs about lollipops; besides that, and as weird as it may seem when we’re talking about the host-city of mai ’68, the new French Rock Revolution didn’t come from the working class, nor did it have any revolted young boys and girls singing about the social and political situation of their country. Bands like Plastiscines, Les Shades or The Parisians, with early visibility given by a compilation called ‘Paris Calling’, had members that came from the rich Paris’ arrondissements – like the 16ème -, which motivated some of the critics to call them ‘spoiled rich children with expensive instruments’. The tender age that most of these so-called ‘children’ had at the time provided a new nickname for them – they were often called ‘bébé-rockeurs’ by the national press.
Like every major or minor music movement, the survival of determined genre heavily depends on its innovative sense – even if it was simply recycled in the right time – and, of course, its quality; since 2006 and the birth of ‘Paris Calling’, some of the bands kept up with their work, but some faded fast with the fad. Both BB Brunes and Plastiscines released albums – and provided follow-ups -, as well as The Parisians and Les Shades, but by 2010 many of these new bands had splitted-up or were simply swallowed by the music industry that no longer left them room for a relevant visibility.
As we enter a new decade, Plastiscines are working on a third album without the bassist Louise Basilien and BB Brunes have participated in a tribute to Alain Bashung, while an EP fully in English was being released; but will they be able to find a comfortable place in an almost exclusive English market, or will they fade like smoke into the sweet life of Paris’ upper class? Les jeux sont faits; ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.
Plastiscines’ Pas Avec Toi (About Love, 2009)
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