If Emmanuel Macron’s wish is realized, the French touch style will be added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
Last year, Berlin techno landed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list overseen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). If French President Emmanuel Macron has his way, the French touch style of dance music will achieve the same distinction.
In a FG Radio interview that coincided with Fête de la Musique, Happy Hour host Antoine Baduel asked Macron whether he supported such a classification. “We’re going to do that too!” said the Renaissance political party leader in no uncertain terms.
Macron went on to incorrectly state that “we are the inventors of electro,” ironically after telling Baduel, “I love Germany, you know how European I am, but we don’t need any lessons.” While the term electro typically denotes electronic music as a whole in France, there is no evidence to suggest that such a complex international phenomenon is specifically rooted there.
The French touch, on the other hand, did originate in France. Inspired by European disco and house music from the US, it came to be defined by the use of filter and phaser effects that added a certain studio sheen to the records its innovators often sampled. Cassius, Daft Punk, and Stardust are all examples of French touch artists.
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list includes a wide variety of practices, expressions, or knowledge that could be considered part of a location’s cultural identity. Strangely, prior to including Berlin techno in 2024, the French organization gave the distinction to techno in Zürich in 2017 despite the Swiss capitol’s scene being comparatively much smaller.
Fête de la Musique, a nationwide French street celebration, also made headlines this week after at least 145 people reported being attacked with syringes while partaking.
