The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Honors College Winter 12-2016 The ‘Darkening Sky’: French Popular Music of the 1960s and May 1968 Claire Fouchereaux University of Maine Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Fouchereaux, Claire, "The ‘Darkening Sky’: French Popular Music of the 1960s and May 1968" (2016). Honors College. 432. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/432 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE ‘DARKENING SKY’: FRENCH POPULAR MUSIC OF THE 1960S AND MAY 1968 AN HONORS THESIS by Claire Fouchereaux A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Degree with Honors (History) The Honors College University of Maine December 2016 Advisory Committee: Frédéric Rondeau, Assistant Professor of French, Advisor François Amar, Professor of Chemistry and Dean, Honors College Nathan Godfried, Adelaide & Alan Bird Professor of History Jennifer Moxley, Professor of English Kathryn Slott, Associate Professor of French © 2016 Claire Fouchereaux All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT This thesis explores the relationship between ideas, attitudes, and sentiments found in popular French music of the 1960s and those that would later become important during the May 1968 protests in France. May 1968 has generated an enormous amount of literature and analyses of its events, yet there has been little previous work on popular music prior to May 1968 and the events of these protests and strikes that involved up to seven million people at its height.