Emmanuel Macron has explained that he wants French house music or French house to be included in the list of UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage.
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He announced this on the occasion of the Fête de la Musique – an international festival in which musicians worldwide: inside, choirs and DJs appear free of charge in various places.
In an interview with the radio station Fréquence Gaie (FG), the French President said: “I love Germany – you know how European I am. But we don’t have to let us do anything from anyone. We are the inventors of the Electro. We have the ‘French touch’.”
From daft punk to Phoenix
To understand: French House, or also called French touch, is a form of electronic dance music that was created in the mid-1990s in France and reached its climax in the 2000s. Starked filter and phasing effects as well as numerous samples from the disco era are typical.
The genre became world famous by Daft Punk, but artists such as Bob Sinclar, Cassius, Modjo, Etienne de Crécy and Justice also significantly shape the movement. Bands like Air that give the sound a spacy retro note, or Phoenix, which connect the French House with indie rock, also make up the success of the genre.
According to “Musicradar”, the British producer Stuart Price deliberately played with a French name as Jacques Lu Cont to benefit from the French touch hype. His early works led Madonna to hire him for her album Confessions on a dance floor, which was strongly influenced by French Touch.
What is on the UNESCO list
The UNESCO list of the intangible cultural heritage recognizes forms of expression from all over the world that contribute to the cultural diversity of mankind. Music styles such as Jamaican reggae and Irish harp music are already included. German techno was recently recorded, which might have inspired Macron to advance.
According to matching media reports, Macron himself is more of a lover of classical music, but seems to take the UNESCO list very seriously. So he has already managed to have the baguette and mountaineering in the Alps entered there. However, it remains open whether the UN organization agrees that French producers were the “inventors” of the Electro.