ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a sustained analysis of the discourse produced during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s which surrounds the chanson francaise and the canzone d'autore, and of the singer-songwriters themselves and a selection of their songs. By taking as its starting point Bourdieu's notion that discourse serves to create value within works of art, my study has analysed writing about the two song forms, revealing that, as far as value is concerned, the key concepts which dominate the discourse are authenticity, authority and influence. By examining specific examples of commemorative activities for Brassens, Brel and De Andre, have illustrated the continued importance of the genre rules and rhetoric of these two song forms on the conceptualisation of value and authority today. Frith makes the point that it is necessary to start with the discourses which give the value terms their meaning.
