Halliday’s death : Anglo-Saxon viewpoints'

When I began reading English newspapers and watching American TV channels, I realized that from a foreign perspective, it was difficult for them to understand the extent of Johnny Halliday’s phenomenon.

As an example, the New Yorker wrote “French love” as a reference to the singer.

The Guardian entitled its article “Johnny Halliday, the French Elvis”.

The New York Times analyzed this phenomenon from another viewpoint.

In fact, they preferred to draw a parallel with the United kingdom’s Queen. In otherwise other words they wrote he was “a member of an imaginary royal family”. They insisted on his rallying aspect: “[Johnny] was a working-class hero all at once”.

Lots of foreign media like to analyze social traditions in France, more specifically on large events. Once again this topic has caused much ink flow by global media. They produced an analysis of the reasons why the French were so much attached to the singer and why he was a super hero. This way of writing is not a typical Anglo-Saxon way, French media like resort to it too. For example, French media were keen on writing about Donald Trump’s election and advertised him as a global social phenomenon.

One thing got my attention, the photo.

The pictures associated with each article dedicated to Johnny Halliday’s death were old photos. Saying it like that may be a little bit pathetic. In fact it is not at all. This trick questions because in the French press, images are were all recent photographs of the singer. I don’t really know what it means. Moreover I suppose that it may be a way to illustrate the historic career of the singer, when he was at the peak of his popularity in the eighties.

Now, we will analyze how TV channels covered the topic.

Indeed TV channels used the same words as the press. But in fact they brought to the fore that he was “the Founding Father” of French music, more specifically French rock’n roll.

Lots of TV Channels around the world labelled him an icon, a hero, the most famous person of the French rock’n roll music. There were so many words to advertise his popularity, his fame in France, not only in our country but all around the world.

American news TV Channels, like most newspapers called him the “French Elvis” as it was revealed in the French program “Quotidien” on TMC.

On a Canadian TV Channel, a news presenter commented on the impact of Halliday’s death. He said that millions of people would probably be sad when they discovered the news.

As a conclusion, we notice that the Anglo-Saxon media focused on the social aspect of Johnny Halliday’s death, and they analyzed his death as a typical French phenomenon.

Sources : Les Inrocks, the Guardian, the New York Times, BBC news, ABC news, the New Yorker, Quotidien, Time, billboard, the Independent.