Françoise Hardy J’écoute de la musique saoûle (Woody Braun Remix) (2019)
In the mid-1970s, Tom Moulton invented the 12-inch vinyl single. Not the technology itself, but he did have the idea to put just one song on one side of the record instead of squeezing in half an album. This made the sound more dynamic, the volume louder and reduced the risk of warping—ideal for disco singles. And that's exactly what Moulton was all about: giving disco remixes of popular soul and funk songs maximum sound power. After all, dance music is, at its core, a physical experience.
Technological and media-related development have always heavily influenced music distribution and marketing. The rich, physical sound of the 12-inch single medium played a big role in fueling the disco boom. In response, the music industry produced more dance floor tracks and remixed songs that weren't danceable enough in their original versions. Today, as (electronic) dance music has entered the mainstream and broken down into countless subgenres, remixes have a more refined function; apart from the fact that they can be purely artistically motivated, they are often intended to make artists and their songs known in different niches.
Another reason the music industry pushes remixes is to breathe new life into old songs and make money from them again. Take today's song, “J'écoute de la musique saoûl” (I listen to drunk music) by Françoise Hardy. This track gave a significant boost to the French chansonnière's career in the late 1970s. In 2019, Warner Music France released a sleek disco version of the jazz-funk track, remixed by Parisian DJ Woody Braun. This remix is one of the rather rare cases (in our opinion) that clearly outshines the original.
P.S. this post was written about two weeks ago; today we found out that Françoise Hardy died the day before yesterday at the age of 80. May she rest in peace.
Start the conversation
Become a paid member of The Rest to gain access to the comments section.