HAOL, Núm. 11 (Otoño, 2006), 51-64 ISSN 1696-2060 MUSIC, YOUTH AND MORAL PANICS IN FRANCE, 1960 TO PRESENT Chris Warne University of Sussex, United Kingdom. E-mail:
[email protected] Recibido: 18 Abril 2006 / Revisado: 12 Mayo 2006 / Aceptado: 17 Mayo 2006 / Publicación Online: 15 Octubre 2006 Abstract: French society since 1945 has been inequity of the distribution of wealth and characterised by a generally negative social opportunity across age groups, with those discourse on youth, frequently precipitated by following the baby-boomers inevitably falling specific anxieties that relate to the emergence of on the wrong side of the equation 1. apparently new groups onto the social scene. This article undertakes a comparative study of If the general tone of social representation of two such moments, when moral panics and an French youth has been marked by a certain accompanying discourse of control developed in caution, even a certain pessimism, then it is also relation to the apparence of new forms of true to say that the evolution of this social popular music in France: rock’n’roll in the early representation has been marked by a series of 1960s, and techno in the mid-1990s. On the ruptures and breaks, where new youth groups basis of this comparison, it draws some emerge spectacularly on to the social scene. conclusions about the relationship between France has passed through a succession of regulatory authority and the ordinary citizen in moments where interventions by specific groups France, and about the evolving role of the state. of young people have acted as a focus for Keywords : popular music, France, Fifth debate, discussion and questioning about the Republic, youth, techno, rock’n’roll.