The heritage obsession

The history of rock and challenges of ‘museum mummification’: A French perspective

Authors

  • Philippe Le Guern Chemin la Censive du Tertre Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.33412

Keywords:

archive, France, heritagization, museum, popular music

Abstract

This article considers the particular shape of popular music heritagization in French archives, museums and broader culture. Drawing on Derrida’s Archive Fever and Huyssen’s notion of heritage obsession, the article asks what has encouraged the rapid growth of pop and rock heritage in general, before examining a number of case studies in Paris, Laval and Avignon to build up a picture of French museum practices towards popular music heritage. Specifics of French policy and culture such as the Fédurok agency are explained, and the contrasts between AngloAmerican and French treatments of popular music heritage are delineated, with Francophone experience defined precisely by its differences from this established reading. Thus, in providing a sociological model for understanding the rock music heritage obsession in France, it is those cases that fall outside of the canonical understanding of rock music such as bal-musette that are argued to be key to French popular music heritage.

Author Biography

  • Philippe Le Guern, Chemin la Censive du Tertre

    Philippe Le Guern is Full Professor in Communication Studies at the Université de Nantes (France), member of the Centre Atlantique de Philosophie and also of the OICRM (Faculty of Musicology, University of Montreal). He is head of two national research programs about music and the digital technologies and a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

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Published

2017-04-07

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Le Guern, P. (2017). The heritage obsession: The history of rock and challenges of ‘museum mummification’: A French perspective. Popular Music History, 10(2), 154-170. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.33412