They or they are a worker at Airbus, an electronics cable fitter, a retired SNCF or even a classics teacher… What do they have in common? A Stetson, cowboy boots… a western look. They are part of the 200 people who participate in the country ball organized in the municipal hall of Cubzac-les-Ponts, in Gironde.
And don’t come and tell ’em that country,”it’s corny“… It’s like Johnny Hallyday, summarizes Eric, a passionate fifty-year-old: “There was a time when it was cheesy to be a fan. And this guy, what was he singing? Rock’n’roll and country music.”
A phenomenon “typical of peripheral France”
Jérôme Fourquet, political scientist and director of the Opinion department at the IFOP, was interested in this “practice [loin d’être] marginal or confidential“, since she would touch “4 million people, who have at least one day gravitated in this universe“. So it’s about”a massive phenomenon“, even if he “went a bit under the radar“.
Why ? According to the author of France before our eyes (Threshold), it is “typical of peripheral France“and was therefore somewhat ignored”in the heart of the metropolises” and by “opinion makers, who were more, out of exoticism, interested in what was happening in the suburbs, for example with rap“. It is with the internet and social networks that the trend has developed: radio stations that broadcast country music are found more on the web, and choreographies are shared a lot on YouTube.
Excerpt from “When the country makes France dance”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on April 28, 2022.
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