Outside looking in: European popular musics, language and intercultural dialogue

This article briefly outlines some theoretical and methodological approaches to European popular musics specific to modern languages research. Outlining aspects of the relationship between languages, cultural studies and popular music studies, it suggests that the epithet ‘European’ cannot be appended to ‘popular music’ without some form of transformative reaction taking place. It illustrates this argument with reference to French popular musics specifically, looking at taxonomy, the notion of chanson and cultural history. It concludes that, as outsiders looking in, scholarly linguists are professional interculturalists. They do not simply ‘interpret’ between monocultures that need to ‘converse’: they actually are the ‘conversation’.