Top French Music Influencers
Get an inside look at French musical artists who made an impact in the world of music.

French Music Influencers

2023-03-07

A key part of understanding a country’s musical culture is knowing who the best of their country are. In France’s case, it actually holds a lot of the most influential people on the planet musically.

However, to know what qualifies as a top music influencer we have to understand what kind of metric is being used to see if an influencer qualifies.

Influence, quality, impact and fame. These will be the metrics used to define if a music influencer is deserving of being included in the conversation of who is at the top.
Now, this list is by no means in order, the names mentioned here can be considered all equally as great as each other as each of them is very different than the other.

As an indie artist, you can use these names to research who they are, maybe in the process of doing so you can find a kind of formula to success derived from them. Or, you can also try to contact some of the clubs mentioned to try and perform there to grow your audience locally.

In all cases, this article will highlight who I see to be the top French music influencers locally and internationally.

Daft Punk

Starting off strong, we have the French DJ duo Daft Punk. Consisted of the two members Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo in Paris in 1993.
Combining elements of house, pop, electro, rock and funk music, they made unique music with the time gaining them international success.

With a couple hit singles like “Get lucky” (2016), “One More Time” (2001), “Digital Love” (2001), Daft Punk earned multiple Grammys over the years for their music and revolutionized the whole music scene with their production.

In their late career, they collaborated with the Canadian artist The Weeknd for his album “Starboy” to produce one of his biggest hits “Starboy”.

As an artist, after defining success, you should do what you enjoy. Part of it is finding your sound as an artist. And I believe that if you are a producer or an aspiring DJ then trying to use Daft Punk as an inspiration could be a great boost to knowing what you enjoy to do.

Link to Get Lucky by Daft Punk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCHdMIEGaaM

Link to Starboy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na4j8AVgA

Link to Digital Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4whD6uAryMs

David Guetta

Also known as the grandfather of EDM for a lot of people, David Guetta is actually a French record producer, DJ, and songwriter coming from Paris.
With hit songs like “Love Don’t Let Me Go” and “When Love Takes Over” David Guetta has also found international success like Daft Punk has.

His success started off in Europe (Belgium and France especially) in his early career then he started to branch out more collaborating with American artists to try and appeal to their audience, which worked.

Winning two Grammys and being nominated many times for many different awards, winning best house DJ for 2 consecutive years and best international DJ the year prior for the DJ awards. We can see that his repertoire of awards and nominations are nothing to take lightly.

To be called a grandfather of a genre of music we can safely say that he was extremely influential directly or indirectly to many EDM artists, making him eligible to be considered as a top music influencer.

Link to Love Don’t Let Me Go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WA9NXXAntc

Link to When Love Takes Over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zudbz4hOcbc

DJ Snake

With another DJ coming to this list, we have the famous DJ that produced many hits like the song “Turn Down for What” and “Taki Taki”.
This DJ is also a French artist coming from Paris but gaining international success and earning many awards like an MTV Music Video Award in 2019.
DJ Snake focused his production on House, Trap songs and EDM and is respected as one of the most influential DJs and one of the best producers of his time, ranking 16^th on DJ Magazine’s top 100 DJs of all time.

Link to Turn Down For What: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU

Link to Taki Taki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixkoVwKQaJg

Nikos Aliagas

Changing genres, Nikos Aliagas is not an artist but a tv show host known for being the host of the French reality show star academy.
Now, what is the show “Star Academy” you might ask? Star academy is a reality show originating in France giving singers a platform to grow their audience while putting a reality show twist on it.

Getting guest stars like Mariah Carey, David Guetta, Madonna, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, etc. this show got aspiring artists a platform to get their music out on.

Another show that Nikos Aliagas hosted was the voice, another music show where anyone can participate and try to see if their vocal ability and musical talent is enough to be acknowledged by extremely influential artists like Mika or Garou.

Whilst he is not an artist, we can safely assume that Nikos is heavily influential in France since he has a huge network, being a host of 2 of France’s biggest shows must’ve gotten him connections that normal people can only dream of achieving.

Now for an aspiring indie artist, you can always try and participate in the voice and if you get noticed by the judges you can even get a good career boost.
For example, one of the most famous bands in the 2010s, one direction, was formed because of their participation in the X Factor with one of its judges, Simon Cowell.

Clubs in France

If you want to get your name out locally, performing at clubs is also a good way to start, which is why I have compiled a couple of clubs throughout France to serve you as a guide on where you can try and perform and try to grow your network.
Now for the sake of quantity, I will only include the name of the club and its location in France to include as many clubs as I can.

La Station – Gare Des Mines (29 Avenue De La Porte d’Aubervilliers, Paris, 75018)

Rex Club (5 Boulevard Poissonnière, Paris, 75002)

Club Le Ménéstrel (17 quai Romain-Rolland, Lyon)

La Java (105 rue du Faubourg du Temple, Paris, 75010)

Les Cabaretiers (43 Rue Molé, Troyes, 10000)

Discothèque B-Floor Lille (13 rue Geoffrey-Saint-Hilaire Club, Lille, 59000)

Le Bazar Marseille (90 Boulevard Rabatau, Marseille)

Le Bikini (Rue Théodore Monod, Ramonville-Saint-Agne, 31520)

Link to clubs and discos in France: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g187070-Activities-c20-t109-France.html

Conclusion

To conclude this article, as an upcoming indie artist in France you should learn from how other’s succeeded maybe finding your sound in the process or finding a formula to gain success.

In addition, performing clubs is a big part of an indie artist’s promotion and networking so using these clubs as a goal or an opportunity is very important. To perform at the clubs listed above you can always try and message them on their social media or e-mail them asking to perform. You can also hang out at clubs and talk to other artists that may have a bigger network than you so they can help you perform at smaller clubs working your way up to bigger performances.

Keep in mind, performing is important but socializing with other artists is also as important.

Sources:

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/french-djs.php

https://www.favikon.com/blog/top-10-french-influencers

https://www.timeout.com/paris/en/clubs/la-station-gare-des-mines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikos_Aliagas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Academy_(French_TV_series)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft_Punk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Guetta

https://lastation.paris/

https://www.timeout.com/paris/en/clubs/rex-club

https://www.timeout.com/paris/en/things-to-do/best-clubs-in-paris