Electronic music has been added to the French Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
The country’s contributions to the genre, which is often referred to as French touch, includes landmark work from the likes of Daft Punk, Justice, Air, Cassius, Phoenix, Étienne de Crécy, M83 and Alan Braxe.
Now, the genre has made it onto the French Intangible Cultural Heritage list, which represents the first step towards UNESCO heritage status.
The list of intangible cultural heritage allows signatory states of the UNESCO Convention to register “practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills that communities recognise as part of their cultural heritage” – everything from music and craftsmanship to culinary skills, traditional games and sports.
The addition of electronic music to the Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, acknowledges that the artform is shaping France’s artistic identity.
“Electronic music has a rightful place in our national intangible heritage,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said, following the ministry’s labelling of clubs as “places of artistic expression and celebration”, per EuroNews.
Special mention was given to Jean-Michel Jarre who released the seminal album ‘Oxygène’ in 1976, using early synthesisers and no vocals.
The record has been credited for inspiring the French Touch sound that came after it, and in 2021, Jarre was presented with the French Legion of Honour, the country’s highest order of merit. He has also served as a UNESCO Ambassador for the country since 1993.
“I’m glad to see that electronic music is finally taking its place within world heritage, especially after more than three decades of commitment as a UNESCO Ambassador and spokesperson for intangible culture,” Jarre said in a post on Instagram, marking this “historic milestone for electronic music.”
The news comes after French President Emmanuel Macron called for French electronic music to be granted UNESCO cultural heritage status back in June.
UNESCO, the United Nations agency that promotes peace and security through culture, arts and sciences, publishes a list of intangible cultural heritage that aims to protect “practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills that communities recognise as part of their cultural heritage”, and in the past this has been bestowed upon music genres such as Jamaican reggae, Mexican mariachi and Cuban rumba.
Berlin techno was another music tradition that was added to the UNESCO list in 2023, and in a recent interview with radio station Fréquence Gaie, the French President suggested that French touch should also be added to the list.
“We’re going to do that too,” Macron said (via Euronews). “I love Germany – you know how pro-European I am. But we don’t have to take lessons from anyone. We are inventors of electro. We have that French touch.”
Some traditional French musical styles are already on the UNESCO protection list, including Gwoka, the Guadeloupean song and dance practice, and the musical art of horn players in the country and their vibrato breath control technique.
Daft Punk are the seminal French touch artists, with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo having formed the act in Paris in 1993. Their blend of house, funk, techno, synth-pop and disco made them major global stars, with albums such as ‘Homework’ (1997) and ‘Discovery’ (2001) being considered as all-time classics of dance music.
Their final album was 2013’s ‘Random Access Memories’, which included the giant hit single ‘Get Lucky’. They announced their official split in February 2021 with a video titled ‘Epilogue’, in which one of the robots self-destructed while the other walked away into the desert.
