Serge Gainsbourg and Le Défi américain.

This article discusses how the singer-songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg, responded through the medium of song to the new socio-economic model which the USA came to represent, especially during the 1960s. Although certain songs express an ambivalent attitude towards the promotion of the société de consommation as well as the proliferation of American mass culture in France, these particular processes of modernisation are ultimately viewed as inexorable. The collection of songs discussed in this article makes an original contribution to perennial debates regarding France's relationship with the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]