Stardust's Music Sounds Better With You might crystallise just a few moments of euphoric clubbing for some. Nevertheless, for us Frenchies, it was what brought French music back into

the game. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view Despite cult followings abroad for the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, MC Solaar or Jean-Michel Jarre, not many French musicians have made the

international charts. Not because there's a lack of enthusiasm for innovation from the French, but because the language barrier was difficult to overcome in an Anglo-dominant music

world (Abba or A-ha would have never met the same success if they sang in Swedish or Norwegian). Reading this on mobile? Click here to view Groundbreaking 1980s French indie acts such as

started playing house music from Chicago and Detroit to eager French crowds. A crew of emerging DJ/producers such as Etienne De Crécy, Philippe Zdar (later of Motorbass and Cassius), DJ

Gregory, Shazz and Kid Loco starting making techno music, inspired by their roots in rock, hip-hop, funk, disco and jazz. In the mid-90s, downtempo acts such as Air, La Funk Mob and St

Germain triggered interest outside of the country. When Music Sounds Better With You – a collaboration between Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter and his friends Alain Braxe and Benjamin

Diamond – hit the charts in 1998 and sold two million singles, the world finally started to take French pop seriously. Albums by Air, Daft Punk, Cassius and Phoenix all contributed to

putting French music back on the map again. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view This first wave inspired a second generation of French beatmakers in the noughties, from the

electroclash of Miss Kittin and the Hacker to the dark minimal sounds of Ivan Smagghe (originally part of the group Black Strobe) and the banging beats of Justice, DJ Mehdi, Kavinsky, Mr

Oizo (who scored another UK number one with Flat Beat) and Para One: the beats get harder, louder and punkier but the pop element remains. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view Now, a

third generation of exciting young French producers are taking the genre to another level. Surkin, Bobmo, Brodinski, Gesaffelstein and the Club Cheval collective are originally from all

areas of France but have congregated in Paris. Thanks to the power of the internet and nurtured by French labels such as Ed Banger, Because, Citizen, Kitsuné, Sound Pellegrino and Record

Maker, this innovative young generation have been able to release their records around the world. Madeon, a 17-year-old DJ/producer from the north of France, became widely popular last year

thanks to a live mash-up on YouTube where he mixed 39 different tracks into one song called Pop Culture. As a result, he played at Coachella festival this year and toured with Swedish House

Mafia. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view At the mainstream end of the spectrum, David Guetta, Bob Sinclar and Martin Solveig have fed commercial dance music to the world with

chart-topping club hits and bling collaborations with American pop stars. Even a notorious St Tropez nightclub owner called Jean Roch got to produce a track with Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton.

No one saw that coming. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view Outside the dance music scene, the international success of indie-pop bands M83 and Phoenix – who won the Grammy for best

alternative act in 2010 – has opened up a path for bands like Housse de Racket, the Shoes, The Dø and Pony Pony Run Run. Also on the rise are Woodkid – the dark electronica alias of pop

video director Yoanne Lemoine – and General Elektriks, an electronic pop solo project by Quannum-affiliated producer Hervé Salters. They have all made the decision of singing in English to

conquer a more international market. Reading this on mobile? Click here to view Meanwhile, in the vein of la chanson française, a traditional form of music where words usually overpower the

melodies, artists such as Katerine, Alister and Lecop modernise the genre and reinvent a new way to play with the language. They make pop music sound good in French. Reading this on mobile?

Click here to view Hip-hop arrived in France in the early 1980s with the growing underground popularity of American graffiti culture and a vastly popular TV show called HIP HOP. Acts of the

1990s such as NTM, IAM, Assassin, Little MC, Ministère AMER, Les Sages Poètes de la Rue, 113 and MC Solaar are the foundation of today's French hip-hop scene. As a reaction to the

commercial hip-hop played on French radio these days, a crew of rappers including Oxmo Puccino, Dr Jazz and SI – mostly second generation immigrants growing up on the outskirts of Paris –

release more organic productions qualified as "old school". Young white rapper OrelSan, born in Normandy, is another name to watch. After releasing polemical single Sale Pute

(dirty whore) in 2009, on which he directs his verbal venom at an ex-girlfriend who cheated on him, the rapper sparked a small political earthquake dividing the conservative parties and

freedom-of-speech defenders. It's about time: French music is not just about love and roses. LIVE ACT TO WATCH – HOUSSE DE RACKET Parisian pop-rock duo who put on a great live show.

Their last album Alesia was produced by Philip Zdar of Cassius. DJ TO WATCH – BREAKBOT Signed to Ed Banger, this DJ/producer can transform a dancefloor with everything from old disco tunes

to banging techno. VENUE TO WATCH – LA CIGALE Modernised by Phillipe Starck in the 1980s, this fin de siècle concert hall has played host to everyone from Prince to Red Hot Chili Peppers to

Justice. CLUB TO WATCH – SOCIAL CLUB Home of the Paris bloggerati, expect to hear banging techno and electro from the likes of Para One, Breakbot and the Club Cheval collective. HANGOUT TO

WATCH – LE SANS SOUCI A great dive café where you can hear alternative rock, new wave and pop. No big-name DJs, just good music. Always packed. _Mimi Xu is the publisher of Trax Magazine and

DJs under the name Misty Rabbit._