Do we still sing about agriculture?

The cultural shift has been complete and irresistible: variety artists stay far from the land and, with a few exceptions, they know and say little about the agricultural crisis.

There are not many songs that sum up the crisis that farmers are going through as well – and have been going through for years – as the one that the group Oaï Star released in 2006, which clearly expresses all the ambiguity of the crisis: when we we are delighted that the price of fruit is falling and that we are getting a good deal at the supermarket on cherries or apricots, it is a farmer who is sinking into suffering and who – perhaps – will give up everything.

Popular music no longer talks about farmers and agriculture very often, probably because, for the most part, artists live far, far away from it. This was already what Michel Delpech said in 1977, about his father’s family in Loir et Cher.

In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:

Oaï Star, Noise and uproar, 2006

Michel Delpech, The Dormouse and Cher, 1977

The Charlots, Be erotic, 1970

Armand Mestral, Sowing, 1895 (1954 recording)

Armand Mestral, The Song of the Golden Wheat, 1882 (1954 recording)

Juan Trip, Wheat, 1999

Ridan, The Farmer, 2004

Juliet, Return to nature, 2001

Charles Aznavour, And I stay there, 2015

Hugues Aufray, In the heart of my country, 1995

Jean-Louis Murat, Sell ​​the meadows, 2012

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And you can also find the podcast on this link Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.