Yé-yé

Yé-yé (French pronunciation: ​[jeje]) was a style of pop music that emerged from France, Italy and Spain in the early 1960s. The term "yé-yé" was derived from the English term "yeah! yeah!", popularized by British Beat music bands such as the Beatles.^[1] The style expanded worldwide, due to the success of figures such as the French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.^[2]

History

Salut les copains

The yé-yé movement had its origins in the radio programme Salut les copains (loosely translated as "hello mates"), created by Jean Frydman and hosted by Daniel Filipacchi and Frank Ténot,^[3] which was first aired in December 1959. In fact the phrase "Salut les copains" dates back to the title of a 1957 song by Gilbert Bécaud and Pierre Delanoë, who had little regard for the yé-yé music the radio show typically featured. The program became an immediate success and one of its sections ("le chouchou de la semaine" / "this week's sweetheart") became the starting point for most yé-yé singers. Any song that was presented as a chouchou went straight to the top places in the charts. The Salut les copains phenomenon continued with the magazine of the same name, which was first published in 1962 in France, with German, Spanish and Italian editions following shortly afterward.^[4]

Yé-yé girls

Yé-yé music was a mostly European phenomenon and usually featured young female singers. France Gall, for example, was only 16 when she released her first album, 17 when she won the Eurovision song contest (for Luxembourg). Another later hit by Gall included "Laisse tomber les filles", a cover version of which appeared in Quentin Tarantino's 2007 film Death Proof.

The yé-yé songs had innocent themes such as Françoise Hardy's "Tous les garçons et les filles" ("All the guys and girls my age know how it feels to be happy, but I am lonely. When will I know how it feels to have someone?"). Hardy's song "Le temps de l'amour" was featured in Wes Anderson's 2012 film Moonrise Kingdom.

Unlike other European nations such as Germany, France had a large market for the consumption of French-language songs at the time and were more willing to support artists from their own country, singing in their native tongue.^[5] Early French artists dabbling in Rock n’ Roll and similar genres such as Johnny Hallyday admit that they were creating an imitation of English-language Rock n’ Roll^[6] and yé-yé helped assimilate that music in a unique, French way. Likewise, with the popularity of Salut les copains, the public began to see stars like France Gall emerge.

The singers were also sexy in a deliberately contrived naïve way. The composer and singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg called France Gall the French Lolita and, wanting to exploit her innocence,^[7] composed for her the double entendre song "Les sucettes" ("Lollipops"): "Annie loves lollipops, aniseed lollipops, when the sweet liquid runs down Annie's throat, she is in paradise." The lyrics of the song are blatantly phallic, and the music video essentially features a group of dancing penises.^[8]

Among the yé-yé girls, Sylvie Vartan played the glamorous one. She married the rock star Johnny Hallyday in 1965 and toured in America and Asia. But she remained a yé-yé at heart, and as late as in 1968 she recorded the song "Jolie poupée" (Pretty Doll) about a girl who regrets having abandoned her doll after growing up.

In 1967, the teen yé-yé singer Jacqueline Taïeb won the Best Newcomer award in Cannes at the Midem awards for her contribution of the hit single "7 heures du matin".

Although originating in France, the yé-yé movement extended over Western Europe. The Italian singer Mina became the country's first female rock and roll singer in 1959.^[9] In the following few years, she inclined to middle-of-the-road girl pop. After her scandalous relationship and pregnancy with a married actor in 1963, she developed her image into a grownup 'bad girl'.^[10] An example of her style were the lyrics of the song "Ta-ra-ta-ta": "The way you smoke, you are irresistible to me, you look like a real man".^[11] By contrast, her compatriot Rita Pavone cast the image of a typical teeny yé-yé girl. For example, the lyrics of her 1964 hit "Cuore" complained how love made the protagonist suffer.

In Spain, yé-yé music was at first considered to be against Catholicism. However, this did not stop the yé-yé culture from spreading, although a bit later than in the rest of Europe; in 1968 Spanish yé-yé girl Massiel won the Eurovision song contest with "La, la, la". Subsequently, she failed to maintain her success, and the sweet, naïve-looking singer Karina enjoyed success as the Spanish yé-yé queen with her hits "En un mundo nuevo y feliz" and "El baúl de los recuerdos".

Yé-yé grew very popular in Japan and yé-yé music is in the origins of Shibuya-kei and Japanese idol music. There is a Japanese version of the 1965 Eurovision-winning song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" composed by Serge Gainsbourg and performed by France Gall. Japan has released a DVD copy of Cherchez l'idole featuring Johnny Hallyday, a notable yé-yé singer. One of the more popular yé-yé vocal groups was Les Surfs who appear in Cherchez l'idole performing their hit song "Ca n'a pas d'importance".

At the end of the 1970s there was a brief but successful yé-yé recurrence in France, spreading across the charts of western continental Europe, with acts like Plastic Bertrand, Lio and Elli et Jacno. Lio especially had a string of hits during 1980, the most famous of which was "Amoureux Solitaires". This new brand of yé-yé, although short lived, made good use of the new electronic keyboards and synthetic drums that had surfaced recently with new wave music.

Yé-yé boys

While the yé-yé movement was led by female singers, it was not an exclusively female movement. The yé-yé masterminds (such as Serge Gainsbourg, who wrote several hits for France Gall, Petula Clark, and Brigitte Bardot, but was considerably older and came from a jazz background) were distinct from the actual yé-yé singers. Michel Polnareff, for example, played the tormented, hopeless lover in songs such as "Love Me Please Love Me", while Jacques Dutronc claimed to have seduced Santa Claus's daughter in "La Fille du Père Noël". One of the more popular male yé-yé singers was Claude François, notable for songs such as "Belles, Belles, Belles," a French-language adaptation of Eddie Hodges' "(Girls, Girls, Girls) Made to Love".

Cultural references

• A 1964 Life article titled "Hooray for the Yé-Yé Girls" attempted to introduce three popular female yé-yé singers, Sylvie Vartan, Sheila and Françoise Hardy, to American readers. It erroneously implies that fans shouting "yé-yé" whenever the singers perform is where the term "yé-yé" comes from.^[12]
• In her 1964 essay "Notes on "Camp"", Susan Sontag cited yé-yé as an example of an entire genre being annexed by the camp sensibility.^[13]
• The Italian title of the 1966 film Out of Sight was 007 1/2 agente per forza contro gli assassini dello yé yé.
• American singer April March brought back the Yé-yé sound when she released the EP Chick Habit, a rewrite of the famous Serge Gainsbourg song, Laisse tomber les filles, and also recorded many other Yé-yé inspired songs both in the US and France.
• Yé-yé enjoyed a slight rekindling in the United States in 2012, when French-Canadian actress Jessica Paré performed a cover of "Zou Bisou Bisou" in the fifth-season premiere of the television series Mad Men. Reaction to the song was such that the AMC network released the song as a single, both in digital download and the traditional 33 1/3 vinyl formats.

See also

• Indie pop, a style sometimes influenced by yé-yé

References

External links

• Teppaz and co: French website about sixties yé-yé singers
• Radio Yé-Yé!: A radio station playing yeye songs from the sixties.
• Les Surfs History, Biography, Photos, Videos, Links to merchandise and much more