A language learners’ forum

Inspired by Carmody's "French Book Reading Resource" thread (https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=10113&start=710, this is a "French Music Discussion" thread.

The idea is to share what you have enjoyed (or not) for the benefit of others, and hopefully to generate a bit of discussion. I don't want to make these hard and fast rules, but I would prefer posts to focus on a single thing (a song, a band, a singer, an album, a genre, a concept, etc), with some detail about it, rather than lists of "here are my favourite singers/songs". Something which people can respond to and discuss.

I'll kick this off with a band I discovered during the Christmas holiday: Ultra Vomit. If you listen to their albums, just be aware that several of their songs have NSFW lyrics.

I was browsing YouTube and watched a video about why French people don't like metal. At the end the guy talked about a few French metal bands which are quite successful, and the name Ultra Vomit was quite a memorable one in the short list. What I didn't realize from that mention is that Ultra Vomit is a comedy-metal band. Their music is great, but generally really silly.

One song that stands out as a great parody is "Quand j'étais petit". I only recently found out that it's based on a rude rhyme that schoolkids chant when adults aren't around.

Quand j'étais petit je n'étais pas grand
Je montrais mon poireau à tous les passants
Ma mère me disait "veux-tu les cacher?"
Je lui répondais "veux-tu me lécher?"

But at the same time it's a great send up of the whole "badass rocker" thing. "Ta gueule ! ... J'fais du rock'n'roll !"

Their second album, Panzer surprise !, has several musical jokes, which basically take some musical themes and combine them in a metal way. E.g. Batman vs Predator is an instrumental song which plays with the theme music from these film franchises. Calojira takes the popular song Face à la mer by Calogero, and combines it with the musical style of Gojira. KAMMTHAAR is an excellent parody of Rammstein (both the musical style and the video style).

Another song that amuses me is Jack Chiraq, from their first album, which just keeps repeating the name in different ways for 50 seconds. It's surprisingly catchy. I presume part of the joke is that they are mispronouncing "Jacques Chirac" in the way most of the world's media would have done.

The outro to their first album contains some of their funniest bits: they are auditioning people to quack for one of their songs, one of the interviewees gets angry, they give him a second chance, someone says "c'est pas mal la, c'est miuex la", and then suddenly they're singing that as lyrics in a half dozen musical styles. Pure musical madness. The whole track is really funny and also great comprehension practice.

Honourable mention needs to go to Pauv' Connard which starts with a road rage incident and turns into a roaring metal groove.

Overall, if you like metal the music is good, if you like comedy they range from silly to laugh out loud to bizarre, and they have several moments which are great for language learners as well.

A couple of their videos:




EDIT: I just realized that what I called their first album might actually be their second album (so says the voiceover on the first track, anyway).

This reminded me of Fatal Bazooka, and their song: Fous ta cagoule. I love this song. Searching for it lead me down a rabbit hole of French music I used to listen to. A lot of rap, like Tu me plais, Kreen & Def Bond, which lead me back to IAM.

I remember listening to Ultra Vomit back in the day. I even ended up in a singalong of "Je collectionne des canards" at Hellfest, which is one of the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Between that and the huge number of great bands that have been coming out of France for the last couple of decades, I can only say that that video about French people not liking metal must have been clickbait!

The CD I most often listen to is "Zest of Zazie", fave track being Rodeo

This is a "greatest hits" type album, that I bought after another poster here, Cèid Donn, mentioned one of Zazie's other songs, which is also on the album, "Je suis un homme"

It's just pop music, but I like it.

Sacre bleu ! This video is not available in my country.
I'll come back with my VPN when I've more time.
The concept of this thread pleases me. Thanks, Jeffers.

I might be too 'old school' for this thread. I do follow (vaguely) new music releases in France largely from encountering them on the radio, but I rarely keep up with them unless the songs interest me or are catchy. Much like current music in English. Last summer I did go through a phase of listening to Izïa's song - Mon cœur. Though largely I like older music: Serge Gainsbourg, other 60s and 70s artists, and earlier 'chansonniers' and singers. First Izia, then something from the 1930s (Frehel):

Now stuck in a motel whose wi-fi is ailing, so I am using my phone, & I am not fluent in phony talk. Will return when able with a few renditions of " C'est si bon" & maybe a song by Zaz.

Le Baron wrote:I might be too 'old school' for this thread. I do follow (vaguely) new music releases in France largely from encountering them on the radio, but I rarely keep up with them unless the songs interest me or are catchy. Much like current music in English. Last summer I did go through a phase of listening to Izïa's song - Mon cœur. Though largely I like older music: Serge Gainsbourg, other 60s and 70s artists, and earlier 'chansonniers' and singers. First Izia, then something from the 1930s (Frehel):

slightly OT, but Izïa is also an actress & I rather enjoyed La Belle Saison recently.

I don't know the first thing about French music, but this song is in Chocolat by Joanne Harris, & I like this arrangement:



I'm not terribly sure on the lyrics, but something to do with ducks as I recall.

My music collection is organized alphabetically, and the next composer I'm going to listen to will be Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) - but but only his instrumental works, which has the advantage that I then can study languages while I listen.


EDIT... and after a mixed Anglo-Italo-Germanic interlude with traces of Slavic (the renaissance composer Fontana, the Irish-English John Field who invented the nocturne, the German-Bohemian Zdenech Fibich, Italo-Brits Ferrabosco father and son, the Germans Fesca and JCF Fischer and the Austrian Foerster) I'm now ready to return to France with the two Forquerays, Jean Françaix and César Franck, only interrupted briefly by the Hungarian Farkas Ferenc. OK César Franck was born Walloon, but he played his Cavaillé-Colle organ at saincte Clotilde in Paris. And after him monsieur Francoeur et les deux Hottetterres. Ye French wawe ne'er abates ere I reach the Italian keyboard master Girolamo Frescobaldi..

And it's all instrumental...