Music festivals are held throughout the year in France. These music festivas attract people from all over the world.

Paris is the city that hosts music festivals all year round. From January to December Paris offers a rich program of classic music festivals. The city homes numerous opera houses, concerts halls, churches and other venues for concerts to take place. Almost at any day of the year a visitor to the capital city of France can see plenty of concerts and other musical events taking place.

The Sully and Loiret Festival represents a small festival of high quality music that takes place in the Château de Sully from late May to June. The festival is mostly devoted to small ensembles and chamber music.

In June the Strasburg International Festival takes place at Alsace. This international festival; is held every year. Major European Orchestras and performers take part in this great music event.

The Festival of Aix en Provence that takes place every July is one of the most popular festivals of traditional music in France. It attracts the most famous European orchestras and the best conductors.

The Colmar Festival is held each year in July at Alsace. It is devoted to one or two of world’s top composers.
The Festival of Orange is a world famous opera festival that takes place in mid of July or early August. It is a small festival held in the exceptional location – Roman amphitheater. Though the festival is rather small, it attracts world-class performers due to its high quality.
The Pablo Casals Festival of chamber music takes place at Languedoc-Roussillon in late July or mid August. This festival is mainly held in the surroundings of historic churches.
Festival of La Chaise Dieu that takes place every August is a prestigious festival of classic music that is held in the medieval abbey.
Thus, coming to France, you are sure to catch one of its famous French music festivals.

Speaking about the famous French music one needs to distinguish its main streams.
Chanson Française represents a typical style of French music. This genre of music is still very popular in France of today. The most important artists of Chason style are Édith Piaf, Georges Brassens, Mireille Mathieu, Jacques Brel, Salvatore Adam and others. One of the most beloved and successful vocalist of these music style is Dalida. During the 70s new artists modernized Chanson genre Alain Souchon, Renaud, Alain Chamfort, etc. The pop variant of chanson that is known as “variété” is represented by such singers as Francis Cabrel,Laurent Voulzy and Jean-Jacques Goldman.
Rock ‘N Roll inroaded the French music scene in 1950s. Inspired by legendary Elvis Presley French stars of Rock ‘N Roll appear: Claude François, yé-yé girls, Richard Anthony, Johnny Hallyday and others. Though rock wasn’t popular in France of 70s the new style in music such as psychedelic rock was on the peak. Alan Stivell gave raise to the French folk rock.
France has become the leading producer of progressive Rock ‘N Roll in 70s. The most well-known band Magma has also created its own music style known as Zehul music. Punk rock had best represented by arisen in 1970s Métal Urbain and Oberkamp.
French most famous heavy metal bands are Gojira, Loudblast, Massacra, Yyrkoon, Anorexia Nervosa, etc. The ‘shoegaze’ black metal also had many bands from France: Amesoeurs, Alcest, , Les Discrets.
French house is a French form of house music that appeared in 1990s. The latest form of Euro disco, also known as New disco or Disco House or tekfunk started its development in the beginning of the 21st century. The First Frencjh experiments in French House were noticed in 1997-1999. Stardust, Cassius and Daft Punk are the first internationally successful artist of this music genre.
Hip-Hop and Raï are other very famous French music genres.

Traditional French music is the folk music of France. If compared to the most of European countries, France is old. The area of France used to be much bigger than its present size. In modern terms France comprised France, Belgium, part of Netherlands, Western part of Switzerland and Germany.
French people were interested in their folk heritage at its early stage in history and many folk songs were collected by Hersart de la Villemarqué and later published in 1839. Authentic folk traditions including folk music were passing from generation to generation, so no folk music passed away by neglect.
The instrumental music of France is very similar to that of Scotland and Ireland. The most typical is fast dancing music known as Couple de Sonneurs, traditionally played on bombard and biniou. Binou resembles a Scottish bagpipe and bombarde resembles the shawn of the middle ages. Bagpipes are also essential instruments in central France and in the South-West of France is a variation of a bag pipe – doha pipe. Basques are people, who inhabit the area between France and Spain where accordion plays a central part in Trikitrixa (Basque folk music).
The island of Corsica used to be a part of France too, however, its traditional music and, especially vocal music is unique. These songs have no strict rhythm. These dirges and lullabies are traditionally sung by female population. However, the most thrilling is Corsican song for three voices known as Paghjella. One needs to hear this, since it is very difficult to describe.
In 1950s France showed more interest in traditional French music. And 1970s have become the age of folk-rock boom. The folk music in France is not static. It has evolved during the centuries and its evolution will continue reflecting social changes. The music of ex French colonies has left its imprint into French cities with the waves of immigrants from Algeria, Morocco, etc. The music of Magreb is fusing with older forms of traditional French music.

French Café can be referred to as a genre of French music. French Café is a classical and modern music that has the ability to transport its listeners to the romantic streets of Paris. French café is also an album that features legendary names in the history of the French music and also singers, who were inspired by chanson, jazz, gypsy and mussette music. The songs of such icons as Brigitte Bardot, Barbara, Jane Birkin. Alongside, there are also modern musicians and singers adding their talent to the classic French sound: Paris Combo, Polo, Sanseverino, Coralie Clement, Mathieu Boogaerts, Enzo Enzo, and Baguette Quartette.
Paris has been a center of café culture for a long time and its cafes has been attracting artists, musicians, bohemians, laborers, etc. French music of this time was inseparably linked to the cafes and music halls.
In the end of 1950s and the beginning of 1960s, French music has underwent a radical change, being impacted by American and British pop and Rock’ N Roll music. Brigitte Bardot, who was internationally recognized in 1960s was a popular singer of the so-called “ye-ye” style. Serge Gainsbourg with his avant-garde music has become an icon and inspiration for many French musicians and artists of all over the world.
Recently, the French music genres, that were popular in the beginning of the 20th century, have been experiencing their return on French music scene. Many contemporary French singers and bands are drawing inspiration from mussette, chanson, jazz and gypsy. Young French musicians are embracing the motives of French music icons such as Edith Piaf, Georges Brassens and Django Reinhardtm, whose style had been earlier treated as that of another era.
French Café music has united the musicians of an earlier age with modern artists, who were inspired by their predecessors to create a nostalgic and progressive music.

France is a very developed country. French music, French singers, bands and music genres are known all over the world. France attracts thousands of tourists to its music festivals. France is the country with taste and French people have their style in music.
France is also open to all the music genres and the songs of world’s famous singers are played on the local radio stations. The tendencies in music in 21th century are changing rather fast. However, pop music will always remain popular. French music charts reflect how popular this or that singer, band and music genre are at a certain period of time. Present French music charts are being composed every week and can be found on music websites, popular magazines on music, fashion and local radio stations. People, who are interested in listening to the most popular music or find what is popular now in France, need just following these charts and be on the top of French music rating. The more popular the singer or the band is, the higher its position on chart will be. French music charts are being created on the base of the questioners, more frequently asked tracks on French radios and music channels and on-line votes for the songs. Usually these charts also state what artists and songs have dropped out of the list of top songs. The most popular French charts comprise 40 top songs in France at a certain period of time, sometimes even 100, but not more.
If you are interested in retro music, music of past you can browse on-line for the best tracks of certain decade and you will find the French music charts of the time you are interested in. This has become possible by the means of internet. There are also French music charts in certain genre of music where one can find the most popular tracks in pop, jazz, rock, chanson, etc.
French music charts reflect music preferences and likings of French people at a certain moment in time.