Urban Clashes, Made-up Tongues and Gigs in Mental Institutions: French Forgotten Rock Revolution of 1968

The tremendous effect that May 1968 exerted on the French way of life was broadly documented. The student uprisings, which broke out at the Sorbonne before extending around the nation, accelerated the end of the Gaullism government, politically awakened France's intellectual thought, and generated a wave of avant-garde cinema.

Far less understood – beyond French borders, at minimum – about how the transformative ideas of 1968 manifested themselves in music. An Down Under performer and reporter, for example, was aware of not much about France's underground rock when he found a box of vintage LPs, marked "French progressive rock" during a before Covid trip to the French capital. He became impressed.

Below the alternative … the musician of the band in 1968.

There existed Magma, the large group producing compositions infected with a jazz legend rhythm and the symphonic emotion of the composer, all while performing in an invented language called the language. Additionally Gong, the synthesizer-infused cosmic rock band co-founded by the musician of the band. Another group incorporated protest phrases throughout compositions, and yet another band produced poppy pieces with bursts of instruments and drums and flowing improvisations. "I never experienced enthusiasm similar since discovering German experimental music in the end of 1980s," remembers the writer. "It constituted a authentically subterranean, rather than just non-mainstream, movement."

This Brisbane-native artist, who achieved a measure of creative accomplishment in the eighties with indie ensemble Full Fathom Five, completely fell in love with those artists, resulting in more trips, lengthy discussions and currently a volume.

Radical Foundations

What he found was that the French creative transformation stemmed from a dissatisfaction with an formerly worldwide anglophone establishment: music of the 1950s and sixties in western Europe typically appeared as generic replicas of American or UK groups, like French singers or Les Variations, French equivalents to Elvis or the Rolling Stones. "They believed they must vocalize in the language and sound like the Stones to be capable to create art," the journalist explains.

Other factors influenced the intensity of the era. Prior to 1968, the North African struggle and the French state's brutal suppression of opposition had awakened a cohort. Fresh artists of French rock musicians were resisting what they regarded as oppressive surveillance system and the established government. They became looking for fresh motivations, free of US mainstream content.

Jazz Influences

The answer came in African American jazz. The legendary trumpeter had been a common figure in Paris for decades in the 1950s and sixties, and musicians of Art Ensemble of Chicago had found sanctuary in France from discrimination and artistic restrictions in the America. Further influences were the saxophonist and Don Cherry, as well as the experimental margins of rock, from the artist's his band, Soft Machine and King Crimson, to Captain Beefheart. The minimalist style of La Monte Young and Terry Riley (the latter a French capital denizen in the 1960s) was a further influence.

Frank Zappa at the Belgian festival in 1969.

One band, part of the groundbreaking psychedelic rock groups of the French underground scene, was established by the brothers the Magal brothers, whose family accompanied them to the renowned jazz club venue on the street as teenagers. In the late 60s, amid performing music in bars such as Le Chat Qui Pêche and journeying around India, the Magal brothers met another artist and Christian Vander, who went on to create Magma. A scene commenced take shape.

Artistic Innovation

"Artists including the group and the band had an instant effect, inspiring additional artists to create their personal ensembles," explains Thompson. The musician's group created an whole genre: a fusion of jazz fusion, classical music and neoclassical sound they named Zeuhl, a word meaning something like "spiritual energy" in their made-up language. It continues to attracts bands from throughout Europe and, most notably, the Asian nation.

Subsequently occurred the urban clashes, started following students at the university's Nanterre branch resisted challenging a restriction on integrated student housing interaction. Nearly all group mentioned in the volume participated in the uprisings. Some band members were creative individuals at the art school on the Parisian district, where the Atelier Populaire created the iconic May 68 images, with messages like La beauté est dans la rue ("Beauty is on the streets").

Student spokesperson Daniel Cohn Bendit speaks to the French capital audience after the evacuation of the university in the month of May 1968.