Zut alors! Zere ees zo much more to know about zees musique zen I can tell you... Zo, here are ze links to many other helpful sites... Please feel free to let me know of others zat you would recommend.
Links
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The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project of UC Santa Barbara recently acquired the Edouard Pecourt collection of French cylinder recordings, dating back as far as 1898. It may take them a while to digitize the material and get it online, but when they do, it'll be a real treasure trove for folks who are into really old French music. (If you're feeling generous, you can also donate money to the university to help digitize specific cylinders... Here's a link with more info...)
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The French Music Database is an American-generated site which includes entries for over a hundred artists, ranging from expatriate jazz legend, Josephine Baker, to ye-yesingers and numerous chanson artists such as Edith Piaf, Jean Sablon, Jacques Brel, et al., as well as contemporary rock and pop musicians. Unfortunately most of the Database entries are not very dynamic, or well edited -- album titles are given, but they are not organized by year, etc. Still, as a work in progress, it's pretty cool, and may provide valuable information to beginners and fanatics alike. Hopefully more of its pages eventually will become better fleshed out, as is the Sylvie Vartan page (which I've set a link to from my site...). For a healthy list to start your reseaches into French language music, though, this is a great place to start.
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Satan Belanger is a very cool, not-for-profit website devoted to Quebeqois rock, psych and new wave... There are countless free downloads and MP3 files that document the French Canadian rock scene, particularly of the 1980s... You might also check out its sister site, Mucho Gusto Records, which specializes in hippie-era French psychedelia...
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Also keep an eye on the Franco-Folie website which is an outgrowth of the Montreal-based music festival of the same name. As of press time (February, 2001) the site isn't actually up and running, but I'm curious to see what it's like when they do get it up there...
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Chanter.com is a semi-bilingual site which has audio links, lyric transcriptions, links to French-language radio programs, and an extensive list of links to hundreds of artist websites.
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Retro-garage chantuese April March shares some of her influences in a Frenchie Music 1-2-3 guide on the Check This Out! e-zine website... With the BUST magazine seal of approval!
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Disc-O-Logue is a mammoth undertaking by someone at the National Library of Canada, which tries to keep track of French Canada's prodigious musical output. Quite a resource!
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French Scene is a nice site started in 2008 with an appropriate abundance of YouTube video links and nice, friendly advice on various artists and albums... It's contemporary... and it's in English! Whoo-hoo!
Chanson Links
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Odile Lavault, of the Baguette Quartette, has posted an excellent list of recommended records... More comprehensive and knowledgable than mine, I would hazard to say...
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Here is kind of a complicated musical explanation of musette accordeon playing -- very concrete and descriptive. If I were not so musically illiterate, I am sure I'd "get" more of this excellent article.
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Accordian.com is a commercial website that has another rather brainy explanation of musette music, it's history and social context, etc...
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Finally, here's an article I wrote about the Baguette Quartette that gets a little into the history of musette... It might also be of interest.
French Music Index
French Rock Records
Slipcue Main Page
