I feel that the French language is supremely unsuited to Rock. French is a language of subtle inflection, many sounds are so much like another. I played in a French/American rock band for 3 years. The writer who composed a lot of the music went through agony when he tried to write lyrics in French. Rap, on the other hand is a form custom made. It allows the rapid fire wordplay, the language games of the language to come into full flower. There are a few artists in French rock who have made the language work, but rock is not a French art form. German is so much more suited to ROCK N ROLL! That said, The Hollies piece is pretty cool, they handled the lyrical translation and poetic flow nicely!
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Normally, I prefer it when the French pop singers rip off Anglophone pop stars (e.g.,Sylvie Vartan).
Also, I used to collect translations of film titles.
I feel that the French language is supremely unsuited to Rock. French is a language of subtle inflection, many sounds are so much like another. I played in a French/American rock band for 3 years. The writer who composed a lot of the music went through agony when he tried to write lyrics in French.
Rap, on the other hand is a form custom made. It allows the rapid fire wordplay, the language games of the language to come into full flower.
There are a few artists in French rock who have made the language work, but rock is not a French art form.
German is so much more suited to ROCK N ROLL!
That said, The Hollies piece is pretty cool, they handled the lyrical translation and poetic flow nicely!
I have to agree with you.
Rap is indeed better in French--although I find it far to repetitive after a while.
French can do rock, but it just isn't the same as the Germanic languages (includes English)
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