People who listen to French music are often people who know French, taking French in school as a second language or people who live in Europe and understand French well. However, this is not to say that there aren’t people who listen to French music who don’t understand the language. As a whole, people who listen to French music get a different reaction or vibe to it depending on who you are and how well you know the language among other things such as socioeconomic conditions.

In high school, those of us who took French had to translate some French songs our teacher would choose and then we would get a deeper meaning of the song and it’s message. Often times, we would be confused by the literal translations and then our teacher told us it’s not always a literal translation that the singer is going for. In this case, we came together as a class and tried to make sense of the lyrics. As students, we were also learning new words in the language and making sense of it put together.

In a similar way, I think that listeners of French music come to appreciate the message as a whole, not necessarily the literal translation. As a whole, people who listen to French music might get several messages from a song. Je pense que la musique est original et exceptionnel. I think that people who listen to French music also get a different view on things.

When listening to French music, I imagine that a lot of people think about the context of the lyrics and video. I don’t think people necessarily think about the time of when the song came out or the culture at that time.

As a community spread across the world, I think that people who listen to French music form values in a few ways. I think that people who listen to French music put into their minds the concept of the song and the meaning. I also think that the community uses what they may know about the artist/ how well known the artist is to form values on the music.

French music as a whole has different aspects. The way that people decide to put value to the music is up to them but a lot of people use similar ways to come up with those values. People in the same community will most likely use similar methods to determine values. As a whole, people who listen to French music use a lot of methods to determine the values but use the same few base methods.

The song I will insert today is J’ai cherché by Amir. I will link both the official video and the lyrics video below.

Official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQysGibXphE

Lyric video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBq5A4CAl7k

French music is interesting for several reasons. La musique français est une étape importante pour comprendre société. French music plays with your emotions and the songs can reflect your exact emotions at times. French music can help you understand society better.

Dans cette post, je parle un artist populaire dans France: Stromae. Stromae sings about social problems in society. I think it’s important to note that Stromae is not from France but his music is in French. Pour moi, listening to Stromae’s music plays with my emotions. His music uses pathos to address problems.

In Stromae’s song Tous les mêmes, All the same, he addresses relationships from both sides, from the male and female perspective. In my opinion, this pulls people in to the song to show that relationships aren’t perfect and it doesn’t matter what side of the relationship you look at it from.

In high school, I evaluated this song in my French class as an assignment so I’m very familiar with it as a whole. One way it gets at emotions is by showing how females are treated in a relationship compared to how men are treated in a relationship. I think it’s very interesting that in the video Stromae plays both a female and male while each of his “characters” have different partners. I think this can appeal to the ethos and pathos of Stromae.

Je pense que le video pour Tous les mêmes est intéressant pour un raison en particulier. Since Stromae acts as two different people, we get this sense that he is perhaps more involved in the situation and has done his research about the problems. I also think it’s interesting how each of the relationships are portrayed. The language used in the song helps others relate to what is going on in the video.

Stromae has a way of portraying what his point is in all of his songs. In this song, Stromae uses repetition of phrases to get the point across. He repeats “Tous les mêmes” or “all the same” a good bit to emphasize the fact that in a relationship, both partners have the same rights. I think this is ironic in a way, because when you think about it, a lot of times people are controlling or won’t let their partner do things like go out with friends.

This is just one way that French music plays with your emotions. When I first heard “Tous les mêmes”, I was very drawn towards the message of the song. French music, like most music, has an important meaning behind it that may be difficult to understand at first. When you evaluate a song, a good place to start is the lyrics and video.

I think that French music has a way of getting social issues known in a very unique way. It’s important to note that not all French music is about social issues. One other note is that people won’t get the same meaning of the song.

Above is Stromae. Below, I will link a video to the official video of Tous les mêmes and a video with the lyrics translated to English. The first link goes to the lyrics video. The second link goes to the actual video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhwCX065Fvs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAMWdvo71ls

This last link is a link to an interview with Stromae if you want to read it and get to know him better after reading this post.

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/meet-stromae-the-most-famous-pop-star-youve-never-heard-of