Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Pwned by French Music Duos

I have recently been working on some research for an art project I want to do centered on the evolution of music genre, and I realized something kinda crazy. When it comes to electronic music, the French totally OWN me. And not just any French, but French music duos. Like, SERIOUSLY own me - no joke. As I was researching some of my favorite techno on Wikipedia yesterday I kept being struck by the similar beginnings of the articles:

AIR:
Air (sometimes spelled with all capital letters as AIR) is a French (from region Île-de-France) music duo, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel.

CASSIUS:
Cassius is a French house music duo consisting of producers Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francard, better known as Philippe Zdar and Boom Bass.

DAFT PUNK:
Daft Punk is an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975).

JUSTICE:
Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé (born 21 May 1979 in Besançon) and Xavier de Rosnay (born 2 July 1982).

MODJO:
Modjo is a French house/pop musical duo made up of producer Romain Tranchart and vocalist Yann Destagnol (aka Yann Destal). They had major success with their hit single "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)".

And then, running a close second in total tally, were some UK duos:

BASEMENT JAXX:
Basement Jaxx are a UK house music duo. The duo consists of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. Basement Jaxx rose to popularity in the late 1990s.

SASHA & DIGWEED:
Sasha & John Digweed are a pair of DJs from the United Kingdom. John Digweed had been DJ-ing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha, who had been working the past few years in various acid house clubs and raves.

ORBITAL:
Orbital are an English electronic duo from Sevenoaks consisting of brothers Phil Hartnoll and Paul Hartnoll whose career lasted from 1989 until 2004 and have now reformed in 2009.

UNDERWORLD:
Underworld is an English electronic music group, and principal name under which duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980.

My favorite solo DJs aren't nearly as homogenous - Morillo's from Brazil, Ferry Corsten's from the Netherlands, Sharam is Iranian-American, and so on and so forth. Just thought the above was a funny coinkydink. I give up France, I am your house music bitch.

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