The Pop Corporation

There’s a lot to be said for the fanciful things said by politicians and generally, you can’t trust them as far as you can throw them. They take credit for all manner of stuff while they had their fingers up their bums, so nothing should surprise us.

However, we had to have a little sit down and a breather when Emmanuel Macron said something this week.

Emmanuel Macron has said he wants French electronic music to be awarded with UNESCO World Heritage status, which is fine, because French electronic music is great. In fact, it is one of our favourite genres – from Jean Michel Jarre and Roger Roger, through ’80s French zouk, to French Touch disco and house with Daft Punk, Etienne de Crecy, Alan Braxe and Mr Oizo.

Now, UNESCO is the agency of the United Nations which has the nice job of awarding places prizes through culture, the arts and all that fun stuff. They get to recognise places for their “cultural heritage”, which must be a sweet gig, honestly. Jamaica was given such a gong for inventing reggae, for example.

However, it hasn’t been without controversy. Recently, Berlin was given an award for techno, and to anyone with the most passing interest in these matters, the award should have gone to Detroit. Once again, it seemed, working class black creatives were overlooked.

Be prepared to have that same conversation again. That’s because, during an interview with radio station Fréquence Gaie, Macron said that France should be added to this list. He said: “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.”

Read that again: “We are the inventors of electro.“

Now, maybe this is just a slip-of-the-tongue, and he didn’t mean electro. Maybe he just meant ‘we invented a type of dance music that should be seen as culturally significant’, and more to the point, a type of music that has endured, and deserves to get some kind of award, albeit one correctly titled.

However, when you think about ‘electro’, you think of black, American artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Warp 9, Whodini, Hashim, Mantronix, early Def Jam, Grandmaster Flash, Newcleus and so many more.

Even Herbie Hancock – better known broadly for his jazz records – has a better claim for an electro title than the French. Listened to ‘Rockit’ lately?

And again, Detroit being overlooked, with the did-it-invent-techno electro banger of from Cybotron.

The thing is, you imagine there’s going to be some residual embarrassment from French musicians when they hear this, as they’re very keen to wear their influences on their sleeves, giving praise to the ’80s musicians they helped to give a renaissance to.

It’s not like Daft Punk released a song underlining all their influences in the first place, is it?

So, did the French invent electro? Of course they didn’t. However, should there be some kind of acknowledgement for France’s often overlooked contributions to electronic music?

Sure, why not! Just don’t call it electro.