From the chanson française to the canzone d'autore in the 1960s and 1970s

The similarities between the chanson française and the canzone d'autore have been often noted but never fully explored. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing textual analysis of song lyrics, cultural history and popular music studies, Rachel Haworth considers the different ways in which French and Italian song is thought about, written about and constructed.

Rachel Haworth is Lecturer in Italian at the University of Hull. She has published work on various aspects of French and Italian popular music from the 1950s and 1960s. Her research explores questions of gender, performance, stardom, legitimation, and value in post-war Italian and French popular music.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Thinking the chanson française and the canzone d'autore; Writing about chanson in the 1950s and 1960s; Brassens, Brel and Ferré as paradigms of chanson; Brassens, Brel and Ferré in their own words; Italian popular music prior to 1960: the Sanremo Festival and the Cantacronache; Italian popular music discourse in the 1960s and 1970s; Relationships and influences between the cantautore and the auteur-compositeur-interprète: Fabrizio De André and Georges Brassens; Relationships and influences between the cantautore and the auteur-compositeur-interprète: Giorgio Gaber and Jacques Brel; Contemporary perceptions of the chanson française and the canzone d'autore; Conclusion: authenticity, authority and influence in the context of the chanson française and the canzone d'autore; Bibliography; Index.