Does a real french prog rock exist ?

Does a real French prog rock exist? An overview of a few French bands and their (non)submission to the English model. Philippe Gonin Université de Bourgogne Franche Comté. Centre Georges Chevrier UMR CNRS 7366.

France had to wait May 1968 and the end of the riots to see a large number of groups emerge and which could be considered as “progressive”. The period between 1968 and 1974 represented the golden age of “prog rock” emergence in France. From the beginning, in France as well as in England or in the United States, the notion of progressive rock included psychedelic rock, prog folk, free rock, symphonic rock and more widely, all music that could be called “experimental music”. If music is sometimes submitted to the English model, lyrics, often turned to legends, popular tales and epics, sometimes showed a more specific French influence (Ange). Some of them created their own universe like Gong – but is that rock band really “French”? – and especially Magma which invented a complete cosmogony and thought out a work which was both coherent and spread over several album (like the trilogy called Theusz Hamtaakh). Their music led to a specific stream called “Zeulh music”. While an aesthetic unity seemed difficult, if not impossible to achieve, certain lines of strength appeared and in a restrictive acceptation, “progressive music” brought together bands which played music inspired by jazz, classical music and bands which were more or less under the influence of English groups: Pink Floyd (Pulsar, Wapassou, Catharsis…), King Crimson or Genesis (Mona Lisa, Atoll, Ange, though the latter intelligently freed himself from its English model due to quality texts), whereas the others turned more gladly to Soft Machine or American references like Zappa and the Mothers (Moving Gelatine Plates). Unfortunately, many of these groups had a short-lived career whereas others, as promising as they may have been, quickly drifted towards more openly commercial music. Is this because of a lack of originality? Or because of their submission to a model leading them to only be pale copies/imitators? Or was it due to the music business/industry? The aim of this paper is to determinate if, despite those influences, a real and original French prog rock can emerge from this scene. After analysing the works of bands like Pulsar, Mona Lisa, Moving Gelatine Plates (…), their submission to the English model, and their reception in the French rock magazines, we will focus on bands which seem to be more “original” like Heldon, Gong, Ange and Magma. The last one, on which we will focus at the end of this contribution, may have created the most original music in France, even if it was not really musically and culturally “French”.