And I honestly don’t know why
Last year, when I reviewed Werenoi’s Carré as the best-selling album of 2023, I thought I would me making an annual column reviewing the best-selling record of the year, where I get to write about someone I don’t necessarily talk about. Because I mostly tend to stay away from French mainstream music on I Only Listen to French Music.
But, alas, the Syndicat National de l’Édition Phonographique [trad: National Guild of Phonographic Edition] – aka SNEP – has announced France’s best-selling and most-streamed record of 2024 is Pyramide 2 by Werenoi. For a second year in a row, the Montreuil-based rapper has topped the charts.
I admit I haven’t listened to the whole thing. Production sounds good but also very unoriginal. And Werenoi’s rapping is still pretty bland. Honestly, I can’t really explain his success. I only know he’s terribly mysterious: he doesn’t do a lot of interviews. Therefore, I’ve failed to find an article explaining everything. The lack of critical media about rap music in France doesn’t help. Pyramide 2 has ALL the famous guests available (Aya Nakamura, Damso, SCH, Hamza, Maes, PLK, Gazo) but it can’t be the only explanation. Please help me!
The podium is completed by another rapper, PLK, with the third entry of his Chambre 140 [trad: Room 140] trilogy. In 2024, Parisian rapper PLK [for “Polak”, a nickname for polish people in France] has released three albums. Starting short with only 25 minutes for the Part 1, the duration increase exponentially at every new entry. That’s 2 hours and half of music in total.
Third place is Indochine! The French rock veterans came back with Babel Babel, their first success in almost 20 years ! It’s a bit of a surprise to see them there. I’ll admit I haven’t listened to this one either, even though I’ve been a fan of Indochine in the past. I need to write something about the Indochine: the band has a very long history since their first record in 1982.
In conclusion, it seems that the only winning strategy is to release an extremely long record (and have the fan base to stream/buy it). Both Pyramide 2 and Babel Babel are around 1 hour and a half, and we already established the Chambre 140 trilogy is even longer. It saddens me.
The rest of the top 20 is filled by rappers (Jul, SCH, Tiakola, Gazo…) but the top 10 has a surprising amount of variétés* singers. I already explained what is la variété française* if you need a reminder. In this very good post, I’ve established that French rap has become the almighty force in mainstream music in France. So it’s surprising to see the returning Zaho de Sagazan and the newcomer Pierre Garnier at the 5th and 6th places. Just above Les Enfoirés annual concert revue. I also need to write something about Les Enfoirés, the longest running charitable scheme in French music. It’s always bad but they make a ton of money for a good cause.
Please note that the only two international stars in the top 20 are Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift. Because France only listen to its own music: 77% of our top 200 best selling records are French!
That’s it for the annual review. Let’s hope someone else gets to be on top next year.
