French rock is a form of rock music produced primarily in France, but also in other francophone countries.
One of the difficulties for French rock has been that, during the 1960s and 1970s, it was a copy of variety music, contrary to the English Easy listening music which was the primary source of money in the French music scene at the time.
In the next decade, the 1970s, France saw the arrival of Alan Stivell's Breton folk-rock as well as a wave of progressive rock bands like Ange, Shylock, Magma, Eskaton, Atoll and Pulsar. French punk rock also appeared, including bands like Oberkampf and Metal Urbain. It was during this period that a few other variety music artists - Catherine Ribeiro, Jacques Higelin, Bernard Lavilliers and others - flirted with Rock, but without completely changing over.
Things changed course in the 1980s. The changing of the political culture was accompanied by an explosion in youth culture. This helped the emergence of a distinct French rock that could match the lucrativeness of American and British rock music. At this time, French progressive rock was peaking, with the bands Dun, Terpandre and Emeraude achieving the most success. Telephone (pub rock), and La Muerte (psychobilly) also took French rock to new levels.
In the following lists, artists and groups are classified by their decade of origin, even if their career spans multiple decades, or if they took time to become famous.
The 1960s
- Danny Boy et ses Pénitents
- Dick Rivers
- Eddy Mitchell
- Françoise Hardy
- Johnny Hallyday
- Les Chats sauvages
- Les Chaussettes noires
- Les Pirates
- Sylvie Vartan
The 1970s
Before Punk
After Punk
The 1980s
The 1990s
The 2000s
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