17 research outputs found
Jonathyne Briggs, Sounds French: Globalization, Cultural Communities, and Pop Music in France, 1958-1980
In this book, Jonathyne Briggs provides an excellent and engaging new reading of French popularâmusical history that is expertly researched. It makes an important contribution to the small but growing anglophone literature on an area which still has trouble finding a home among traditional university disciplines. Despite the exploratory, interdisciplinary, and sometimes paradigm-shifting scholarship it involves, research in English on French popular music is still largely ignored by both main..
Ădith Piaf
The world-famous French singer Ădith Piaf (1915-63) was never just a singer. Dozens of biographies of her, of variable quality, have seldom got beyond the well known and usually contested âfactsâ of her life. This book suggests new ways of understanding her. A âcultural historyâ of Piaf means exploring her cultural, social and political significance as a national and international icon, looking at her shifting meanings over time, at home and abroad. How did she become a star and a myth? What did she come to mean in life and in death? At the centenary of her birth and more than fifty years after her passing, why do we still remember her work and commemorate her through the work of others, from Claude Nougaro and Elton John to Ben Harper and Zaz, as well as in films, musicals, documentaries and tribute acts around the world? What does she mean today?
The book proposes the notion of an imagined Piaf
Ădith Piaf
The world-famous French singer Ădith Piaf (1915-63) was never just a singer. Dozens of biographies of her, of variable quality, have seldom got beyond the well known and usually contested âfactsâ of her life. This book suggests new ways of understanding her. A âcultural historyâ of Piaf means exploring her cultural, social and political significance as a national and international icon, looking at her shifting meanings over time, at home and abroad. How did she become a star and a myth? What did she come to mean in life and in death? At the centenary of her birth and more than fifty years after her passing, why do we still remember her work and commemorate her through the work of others, from Claude Nougaro and Elton John to Ben Harper and Zaz, as well as in films, musicals, documentaries and tribute acts around the world? What does she mean today?
The book proposes the notion of an imagined Piaf