Mixed Messages

While popular music and the mass media in France are firmly established areas of enquiry, there have been relatively few academic studies of the youth and popular music press. This book focuses on ‘Salut les copains’ (Hi Buddies/Mates) (1962-76), which achieved a circulation of a million copies within its first year, at its peak sold around twice as many magazines as its nearest competitors, and has now become synonymous with the development of youth culture in 1960s France. In the few existing accounts of ‘Salut les copains’ cultural commentators have tended to view the magazine as a neutral, apolitical vehicle for French ‘yé-yé’ pop stars. However, this full-length study reveals how written texts in ‘Salut les copains’ (editorial, letters and advertising) both supported and challenged dominant ideologies concerning culture, the nation, youth and gender during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s.