Yé-yé (French pronunciation: [jeje]) was a style of pop music that emerged from France, Québec and Spain in the early 1960s. The style has expanded out worldwide, due to the success of figures such as the French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. The yé-yé movement had its origins in the radio programme "Salut les copains", which first aired in December 1959. The program gained immediate success and one of its sections ("le chouchou de la semaine" / "this week's sweetheart") turned to be the starting point for most yé-yé singers. Any song that was presented went straight to the top places in the charts. Yé-yé music was unique in a number of ways: first, it was the only musical movement so far to be spearheaded by females; second, it was a mostly European phenomenon. Yé-yé girls were young (France Gall herself was only 16 when she released her first album, and innocent (most of their songs talked of finding the first love, such as Françoise Hardy's "Tous les garçons et les filles" (" All the guys and girls my age know how it feels to be happy, but I am lonely, when will I know how it feels to have someone?"). They were also sexy, in a deliberately naïve way. Gainsbourg called France Gall the French Lolita, and, composed the song "Les Sucettes" ("Lollipops") for her. The lyrics go: "Annie loves lollipops, aniseed lollipops, when the sweet liquid runs down Annie's throat, she is in paradise ".
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(images by: Jean-Marie Périer; scans by me from Seventeen Magazine, TFS, http://www.francoise-hardy.com/, Wikipedia)
