If there is one sound that has come to represent something about quality in today's dance music industry, it is the French sound. You can't go to a club today without hearing those distinctive filters, that unmistakable disco vibe, and the crisp, sharp beats. French electronic music has established itself as more than a fad; it's about quality through experimentation, and it's showing no signs of going away.

As with all house music, it began with disco. By the late 1970s, disco music had developed into a definable genre, and the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever shot disco into the public spotlight. The fundamentals of house music today can be traced back to legendary nightclubs such as The Paradise Garage and Studio 54, where disco's short lived notoriety really took off. As disco eventually found itself demoted to smaller venues, the likes of Frankie Knuckles were developing something new. Although Frankie stayed close to disco's roots, other DJs were pushing a sound influenced by alternative genres: reggae, euro pop, hip hop, new wave, etc.

House music became an underground revolution, and as it began to move away from focusing on songs for radio play, the tracks got longer, the baselines more inventive, and the parties more vibrant. With the advent of drum machines in the 1980s, house music began to take form.

Over in France, during the 1970s there was what is commonly referred to as Euro disco, which was essentially any disco music that didn't come from the UK or the US. Acts such as Abba were at the forefront of this genre. After a short stint as space disco and the disco backlash in 1979, the term "Euro disco" disappeared altogether and was replaced by just "disco". Throughout the 1980s, disco was a major musical force in France, dominating the radio waves and the clubs. This, along with the influence of P-funk, paved the way for French house music, but it wasn't until Thomas Bangalter came along that things really began to move.

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo met in 1987, and after a brief fling with indie rock, they started to study the graces of drum machines and formed Daft Punk. 1995's 'Da Funk' (a classic, still played to this day) led to an album deal with Virgin and the release of Homework in 1997. The album is widely regarded as one of the most influential works of electronic music to come out of the 1990s. Daft Punk proved to French people (and the French music industry and media) that dance music was there to stay, and it could be successful. The album's success was a huge surprise and demonstrative of the fact that electronic music had a broad fan base, transcending boundaries.

To see who influenced Daft Punk's music, all you have to do is listen to the track 'Teachers' from Homework. It lists artists and DJs who Daft Punk learnt something from, taking their sounds and making them into something new: DJ Sneak, DJ Rush, Waxmaster, Hyperactive, Jammin Gerald, Brian Wilson, and the list goes on.

Daft Punk inspired countless other artists to produce a new form of music that developed into the filtered disco sound that became the norm. After Daft Punk came outfits such as Stardust (also Bangalter), Cassius and Bob Sinclar. This was when the music really began to sell commercially, and as a result the quality was diluted and it became more like pop music. While people started getting bored of the French scene, UK producers were stepping up and coming out with all new sounds that put some of the French music to shame.

One band that shot to fame shortly after Daft Punk released Homework was Air. 1998's Moon Safari was an instant classic, peaking at number 6 in the UK charts. For close to ten years now, Air have championed a blissful, electronic sound, adding another string to the French music industry's bow.

Even before French house music had taken its form, Laurent Garnier was playing at legendary UK clubs such as The Hacienda in Manchester. After a strong period of playing out in the late eighties, with sets encompassing everything from deep house to Detroit techno, Garnier began producing and defined his own style, distancing himself from the latest trends and fads in France. Tracks like 'Crispy Bacon' and 'The Man with the Red Face', along with epic, multi-genre DJ sets, have solidified Garnier's status across the world.

Nadel Paris is an American citizen born and raised in France. Canada loved her immediately from Toronto and Vancouver to Quebec. With her experience Nadel shares important information on Music Genre, performing art. Visit her here: http://www.nadel-paris.com/