Never mind the Sex Pistols: Here's French Punk or why didn't le punk français go global?

Abstract

If the punk movement is considered to have originated in the United States and developed in the United Kingdom, relatively little attention has been paid to the scene in France from 1975–78. Yet several factors point to the need to address this oversight: the first major punk rock festival was held at Mont-de-Marsan (France) in August 1976 and the first release on the legendary British indie label Rough Trade was by the Parisian punk band Metal Urbain. Key figures such as Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols), Bernard Rhodes (manager of the Clash), and Tony Wilson (of Factory Records) were avid readers of French and other European intellectuals, whose thoughts on personal freedom, the individual, and the consumer society were a major influence on the British punk scene. But was there more to the French punk movement than an early festival, some intellectual concepts, and the handful of bands who crossed the English Channel, only to meet with limited critical and public acclaim? In this article, I examine the areas where French punk exerted significant international influence while also discussing how the music itself failed to take root both at home in France and abroad.