French music has greatly contributed and played an important role in the development of the European music and cinema. As French people are very fond of music and food, music is all the more popular in the country. Though a lot of music is influenced and brought in by British and American bands, French too have their own original music and genre.
The French have also bestowed a lot to the world of modern western music, jazz, rock and pop. In fact, modern western pop music has influenced music in France in a significant way, and this has resulted in the country seeing the rise of popular French rock, hip-hop, and pop performers.
After the introduction of operas in Italy, they were blended with French ballets and French operas also came up. The masters of French opera during the Baroque period were Jean-Baptiste Lully and his successor Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Spectral music, a form of computer assisted composition, developed by the French has become quite popular in Europe and the United States. French music is a blend of a variety of different music styles. Many great legendary composers have originated from French, and French music has greatly dominated European music and art. Immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia have significantly influenced French music. French hip hop, rock and pop performers are extremely popular in the country. Traditional or folk music basically survived in remote areas or nationalistic regions like Island of Corsica and Bretons. And, folk dances were seen more in the West of France in places like Courante.
There are deep differences between the regions of central France, with the Auvergne and Limousin retaining the most vibrant folk traditions of the area. The Bagpipe is found in wide forms in France compared to any other country. An unrelated unique ethnic group, called the Basques, has a form of folk music which is called Trikitixa. Spiritual or secular and even modern groups of 3 males are called music of Corsica and this music is considered to be extremely harmonious. City of Lorient hosts France’s most popular music festival. The most popular form of Breton folk is the bagad pipe band, which features native instruments like biniou and bombarde alongside drums and, in more modern groups, biniou braz pipes.
During the Renaissance, Burgundy became a major center for musical development. There was even a romantic era which gave birth to many music pioneers. At the end of World War II, French musicians experimented a lot with music and this creativity led to development of many different genres of music in France.
By: Jared Lee
