Serge Gainsbourg
Chanson, Musical Artist
1928 – 1991
Who was Serge Gainsbourg?
Serge Gainsbourg was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French popular music, he was renowned for his often provocative and scandalous releases, as well as his diverse artistic output, which embodied genres ranging from jazz, mambo, world, chanson, pop and yé-yé, to rock and roll, progressive rock, reggae, electronic, disco, new wave and funk. Gainsbourg's varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize although his legacy has been firmly established and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.
His lyrical work incorporated a vast amount of clever word play to hoodwink the listener, often for humorous, provocative, satirical or subversive reasons. Common types of word play in his songs include mondegreen, onomatopoeia, rhyme, spoonerism, dysphemism, paraprosdokian and pun. Through the course of his career, Gainsbourg wrote over 500 songs, which have been covered more than a thousand times by a wide range of artists.
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- Born
- Apr 2, 1928
Paris - Also known as
- S. Gainsbourg
- Lucien Ginzburg
- Gainsbarre
- Julien Grix
- Gainsbourg
- Lucien Ginsburg
- Parents
- Siblings
- Spouses
- Élisabeth Levitsky
(1951/11/03 - 1957/10/09) - Françoise Pancrazzi
(1964/01/07 - 1966/02) - Jane Birkin
(1968 - 1980/09) - Caroline von Paulus
(1981 - 1991/03/02)
- Élisabeth Levitsky
- Children
- Religion
- Agnosticism
- Judaism
- Nationality
- France
- Profession
- Lived in
- Paris
- Died
- Mar 2, 1991
Paris - Resting place
- Montparnasse Cemetery
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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"Serge Gainsbourg." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/serge_gainsbourg>.
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