Gainsbourg in a Reggae Style: The Esthetics, Economics, and Politics of Aux Armes et Cætera
Résumé
Gainsbourg’s first reggae album marks a turning point in several ways: aesthetically, it “established Francophone reggae’s pedigree" ; economically, it provided Gainsbourg with his first real commercial success and gave rise to a new persona; lastly, both politically and culturally, it legitimated the participation of a white artist in “black diasporic culture” and the emergence of a new French scene.
The following pages will address the album from these three angles.