Tecktonik your mother

Backlash.

Often enough I am pretending that what is happening in France is better, faster, stronger... So it is about time to get things balanced, because not everything is that perfect in my country. Take the example of music and dance. Yes, we do have some cracking artists that have ruled the dance floors in the last years. I am thinking of talents like Air, Daft Punk or even more recently David Guetta.

Want a refresh? Simply click on this widget to hear some of the bespoke tunes.

Those artists are what has been nicknamed the French Touch, or their heirs. They inspired legions of clubbers with a new kind of sound which had not been heard anywhere else at the time. Those guys rule... Or ruled in fact!

I am indeed afraid that their time is over. The sweet beats acid jazz melodies have been seen a layer of dust settling down on their vinyls recently. A new wave of dance floor addicts has arisen. There is a new trend in the Parisian clubs but, call it ageing, hair loss or whatever, I suddenly feel out of it.

Tecktonik.

Tecktonik is a mixture of hip-hop, techno, hair-styling blended in heavy music beats and tunes from the 80s. Here is an example found on YouTube, but there is more here:

As you can see, the principles look rudimentary: rotate your arms like windmills, shake your legs, wax your German-80s-like hair style once in a while... But no matter how weird is a real society phenomenon. For more in-depth knowledge about this, you can read a few articles here and here. I feel my reluctance is legitimate, but again this is probably the expected reaction when a novelty arrives on the scene.

Marketing age.

Clothes, hair style, websites, blogs, fanzine, a Mecca... Everything to become a real fashion. And as a matter of fact the Tecktonik has been siphoned by brands:

- Dolce Gusto (Nescafe and Groupe Seb)


- M6 Mobile:


- L'Oreal:


- Digitaline (Post-production house):


Pay-back.

This reminds me of a quote by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, the founder of Publicis and father of French advertising. Back in 1926, he is 20 when he announced his father that he would not take over the family-business but start a career in what the American were calling advertising instead. His pragmatic dad would have replied: "So what you want to sell is... thin air!" and Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet to acknowledge "I might be selling thin air... But this is the air that makes windmills work!"

It seems that nowadays, in France, windmills are paying their due back!