ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the presence of the paradox in popular music, an art form that both reflects society and shapes it, through a comparison of the careers and outputs of two French-Algerian artists who gained fame in late twentieth-century France, Rachid Taha and Magyd Cherfi. It focuses on singers with a post-colonial background that builds upon existing research on the place on Maghrebi musicians in France. It also examines the meaning of "race" in French music culture more generally, questioning the widespread conceptualisation of French-Maghrebi music in terms of métissage. The chapter takes research on post-coloniality and popular music beyond rap, deconstructing certain assumptions about the relations between music genres and ethnicity. Moreover, Taha and Cherfi are seen, from outside the national boundaries, as particularly "French," which constitutes another level of ethnic specificity, albeit not a sub-national one. Indeed, they are French ideologically in negotiating their Maghrebi identity in relation to France's republican codes.
