French music!


French radio stations are fed up with the quota system that enforces 40% of songs played to be of french origin!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-34402849


Which proves my point when discussing which country is better for this and that, Britain or France. English lyrics and music rules OK!


The French still rave over Jonny Alliday!!


Although Celine Dion did some good songs in french...


Paul

I just LOVE FIP it is the best music radio station I have ever heard. We play it constantly here in Sydney Australia.

That's true Bruce though i depends on when you listen to Nostalgie. For example from about 0700 to 1000 (hours may not be correct the breakfast show is mega popular with the over '50s age group and I reckon the station has a stock of about 100 songs which are played ad nauseum every morning. The next show plays their stock of say 100 songs and that's how it goes throughout the day. The evening songs are quite different to the morning list and late nights can be quite 'progressive' for Nostalgie. I find the base station of Nostalgie mega boring but their online services with over 30 channels is pretty good with loads of variation though alas, no classical.

Nostalgie plays the same, maybe 50 tracks, over and over and over and over again! Even " Sea, Sex and Sun " gets monotonous! (on second thoughts. it was that, in 1978!). The best thing that Serge Gainsbourg did was, die!

  1. I would think it's the cultural difference that hits any non native here . My Wifes' husband was a world class musician playing with the Mtp National Orchestra . She likes Maxime Leforestier and really old '50s style folkloric music . The French don't go for rhythmic pop music. I have played in band in France for 10 years now .The classic French pop song has more stops and starts and key changes than the gearbox of an Austin 8 . The language just doesn't have enough nuance for our liking, and "oiseaux" is used in every other song to get a rhyme in ....even she laughs when I start ! So I don't complain about French radio ,just don't bother too much with it . FIP is the closest I get to "enjoying" radio here .

Bob Williams - "Nostalgie have a very limited song play list.."

If you look on their website you will find 34 different stations playing all sorts of music - that's hardly 'limited' I would suggest.

The pirate stations were a revelation. Living on the east coast in the late '60s & '70s I was weaned on Radio Caroline and I remain grateful for the musical grounding they provided for me.

When I am working in the house I listen to British Radio Stations and when I am working outside I always listen to French Radio Stations, some of the stations I listen to are not to bad but some here seem to have a live person in the morning for 1-2 hours and then it seems to be a tape on a loop.

Sorry guys.. French radio is the pits!!!.. as a kid listening to the Light program, with Keith Fordyce, workers playtime and only getting one dose of pop on sunday night.. it was a drag!!.. Then the radio ships came along and took the system by the scruff of the neck and despite the government being the control freaks they are.. tried jamming the stations.. "they are interferring with emergency transmissions".. yeah, so the jamming didn't.. but finally.. they shut them down.. and the Radio 1,2 3,4 sturcture was born.. and took nearly all the dj's from the boats to make the stations modern.. but music is like art.. Dali v's Constable, Van Gough v's Hockney.. different strokes for different folks?.. I am "fortunate".. if you can say that.. in so far as i can listen to radio for much of the day.. and the French stations suck.. Nostalgie have a very limited song play list.. RFM is the same, with a different list but played incessantly everyday.. sometimes i think.. wow!,, they've discovered a singer or band did not make only one or two records.. when in fact they might have 10 albums.. there's no problem with them playing the French music.. they have had a lot of talent and probably still do.. but i struggle to find any station playing a massively diverse selection of tunes.. We have a local station, Radio vallée de L'isle.. they started with a very divesre selection and many English/European language music.. they played indiginous music between 02h and 08h.. so they could have the non stop pop.. but someone must have jumped on them.. and they now play only a few different sounds.. While driving, i find it so hard to find any consistent music stations.. every 20 miles, they drop out and the radio will find yap, yap, yap.. so on goes the cd or usb stick..

What should they play???.. my music base is from Tannhauser, Sabre Dance, to Abba, Black Sabbath, Zepp, Sardou, Mylene Farmer.. and even Halliday.. but while they have the loop tapes with a very narrow selection of records never to be heard on Uk stations [ Supertramp, Ma Baker, and others ].. it not the music, it's the repetive selection every day!!..

Plagerism of music!!.. nicking Pachelbel's canon.. can't believe that.. lol.. so many tunes over time have "stolen" a rift from so many different genre's.. why not?.. some are the most catchy rifts of all time.. applied well, they are fine.. but sorry, i really can't get excited by the thought of listening to some one making bread on the radio.. next they'll be painting a wall.. or maybe as they're cutting the lawn!!..

That's fair comment Mike. If a station like Nostalgie had freedom to play as they wish on FM then nothing much would change because their FM listeners ie majority Baby Boomers and older actually prefer to hear this musical content.

Did you know Nostalgie have at least 35 online stations operating at any given time and all music is played for example, last week they dedicated two stations to non-stop music from David Bowie and Elton John. The smart stations like Nostalgie 'get round' the problem.

French radio stations should be free to play whatever music they wish, if the listeners do not like the music being played then they just have to change the radio channel.

Brilliantly put Vincent, spot on.

Having produced and prenented the longest running Englsh language programme on french radio, I think that the quota system should not be changed. European continental culture is far superior to that of the English speaking world, zhich has been swallowed up by crass comercialism. The variety of music played on french radio leaves the english stations standing. Recently, one member of Stock Aikin and Waterman, one of the world's leading commercial songwriters, admitted on french radio that he and his partners had used Pachelbel's Canon in D, for most of their best hits. Before anyone screams, that famous piece, isn't in fact a canon. When it comes to lyrics, the french and the continentals leave the Brits standing.

Peter, it's the French radio stations that are complaining. They want more freedom and say that the rules don't apply to streaming radio stations so it's not fair. The article is interesting.

A new radio station was launched yesterday www.ex-patradio.fr http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/news/new-expat-radio-station-bringing-banter-to-brits-in-france/ apart from a few technical glitches on their first day, the music sounds alright and there are lots of topical discussions. Yesterday lunchtime someone in the Charente was making bread live on radio!

The vast majority of French people I know of 'a certain age' prefer to listen to their musical heritage. That's why radio stations like Nostalgie are so popular. Why shouldn't the French try to retain their cultural identity ?