Genre research project 11/1357: French pop

Françoise Hardy - "Bati mon nid" (La question)

French pop music is the pop music sung in the French language. It is usually performed by singers from France, Belgium, Quebec, or any of the other francophone areas of the world. The target audience is the francophone market (primarily France), which is considerably smaller and largely independent from the mainstream anglophone market.

The first distinct French pop music styles that emerged were the French rock and the yé-yé, which originated in France during the 1960s. They were influenced by the American rock & roll of the 1950s. In the early days, this style of French pop music was easily distinguishable from the earlier category of French music called chanson in English. Eventually the early French pop music and the chanson styles crossed over and combined.