For years, France fought to move beyond its sleepy image abroad as the quiet heart of fine dining and museums by heavily promoting its growing club scene, festivals and underground music culture.
But now French DJs, club owners and festival bosses are warning the nation’s ability to party is under threat from tough new restrictions on decibels and basslines.
Pioneering DJ Laurent Garnier and Jean-Michel Jarre, the godfather of French electronic pop, are among a group of music figures who have published an appeal in the daily Libération warning that new rules on lowering noise risk silencing performers and killing nightlife.
A public health decree published by the centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron in August was designed to help reduce hearing problems linked to loud music at clubs, concerts or festivals. It lowers the maximum sustained sound level by three decibels, to 102, and puts limitations on the volume of the deep basslines found in house, techno or drum’n’bass.
In their open letter, club professionals warned the decree risked curtailing the unique experience that is the French music scene after dark. The rules would “quieten down fun, muzzle music and stop artistic work living in its physical dimension”, the signatories pleaded.
“Public health worries us as much as the next citizen,” they added. “But we fear that artistic freedom is being sacrificed.” They complained that noise restrictions on amplified music were “an attack on the moral rights of performers over their work”.
They argued that powerful basslines that make people want to dance delivered a sensation “just as keenly felt as a beautiful voice is by other music fans”.
The rules are expected to come into force across France next year and will affect festivals and venues with a capacity of more than 300 people. Clubs and venues will be obliged to put up signs warning of risks to hearing from loud music as well as providing free hearing protection such as earplugs. They will also have to create quiet areas where the public can rest their ears from the music or else provide gaps in the music where the decibel level stays at 80 or lower.
Paris, which a decade ago was nicknamed the “city of sleep” for its relatively small club scene, has since seen a surge in venues in the city centre and the northern outskirts and promoters were keen not to hinder their growing success – particularly of small venues.
But music figures said it would be particularly difficult for smaller clubs across France to conform to the new rules.
A spokeswoman for the CSCAD union for music venue-holders and festival organisers told the Guardian: “This is a threat to our whole cultural aesthetic. It threatens works played and performed by artists at festivals and concerts everywhere, all types of music. You can’t ask a drummer to drum ‘softly’ even if they are playing with an orchestra.”
She acknowledged that it would be very difficult to overturn the decree but said dialogue was needed.
“We know there are health issues linked to hearing. That is worrying for the industry and we see younger audiences standing very close to speakers,” she said. “But it’s extremely important that we all sit down and talk through these measures that are almost impossible to apply. Even the fact that the decree mentions the word ‘discotheque’ – that term doesn’t exist anymore. This is going to affect all gigs and night-time music. We want to sit down and think about these problems together.”
French hearing associations estimate that between 6 million to 8 million people – 12-13% of the population – have hearing problems. Specialists say listening to loud music on headphones is the cause of increasing health problems, particularly among young people, while some experts recommend wearing earplugs at concerts or in loud clubs.
