French pop grew primarily out of the cabarets and music halls of turn-of-the-century Paris, and has of course shifted and evolved with new popular trends over the years. The best French pop usually has an elegant, refined sound, but without coming off as distant or unemotional; in fact, the dominant feeling of each song -- romantic longing, nostalgia, sentimentality, eroticism, etc. -- is usually played to the hilt, while retaining the music's Continental stylishness. Prior to World War II, French pop was rooted both in cabaret singing and in the sort of traditional orchestral pop common in the U.S. as well.
