Modern Representation

From these roots is derived the modern representation of the chanson as viscerally oppositional form: left-wing or even anarchist, gritty and participative,’ authentic’. Although Claude Dune ton prefers the term ‘popular’, he implicitly answers this question in his monumental history of pre-twentieth-century chanson: ‘The coquettes of the July Monarchy wreathe great source of the popular song, that is, of the song born among the people and sung by the entire nation; they encouraged in the French their habit of writing saucy verses counterbalancing the tendency to the easily maudlin, the clumsy outpourings of a bourgeoisie wallowing in Romanticism.’11 Chanson’s authenticity, then, stems from its being the voice of popular France, expressive of a national mindset of down-to-earth, irreverent, common sense rather than middle-class gush; the voice in fact of civil society. Following the revolution of 1848, a decree passed under Napoleon III in1852 banned public meetings which did not have police authorization. This helped bring about the demise of both châteaux and coquettes, assisted by two further institutional turning points. One was the creation of the SACEM in1851, which applied to musical performance the principle of copyright already applicable in the theatre. Once songwriters were remunerated for public renditions of their work, there was the prospect of regular earnings from writing and composing. This also encouraged lyricists to write their own melodies and double their money, or to team up with a composer as Delano did. The other turning point came in March 1867 with the lifting of a bacon performance with costumes and props in drinking establishments, originally imposed under pressure from theatre managers who feared competition. Had the ban remained in force, even the familiar cane and boater of Maurice Chevalier, who began his career in such establishments in 1899, would have been prohibited.