Dans la rue des tenues charmantes

Est-ce que je parle français ? Non.

If you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up any time after I was 14 , I would have given you an impression of uncertainty, as all young folks should, but if you asked me again and again or as earnestly as you could, I think I would have told you I wanted to be a night-time radio DJ. Inspired by the unlikely likes of Robin Williams, Mary Anne Hobbs, and dozens of unnamed selectors in my local radio stations, picking music for somebody else felt so special (and I was not yet jaded by the horrors of capitalism). When I share music with people, anyone really, I think about all those DJs blasting it out onto the waves "I love this, I hope you do too".

La chanson

Indochine - 3e sexe

L'ambiance

You're in a car on your way home, rain drizzling on the windows as you look outside, the song before this comes to an end and the deejay announces "This one's for all the lovers out there" and the synth drum kit plays into the night.

Le contexte

I'm gonna be real with you: the dozens, possibly hundreds of times I've heard this play on the radio, I didn't know the song, I didn't even know the performers or the title, I don't think the deejay knew that this song is about new wave androgyny or gender identity. I mean...it's literally the title (read: the third sex), but we were in Peru, we didn't understand French, the radio DJs just thought it was for lovers because it was in French.

I honestly don't think it would have played on the radio in the 90s as much if people did know (also lends evidence to my theory that the kids who went to the all French school in Lima retained RIEN DU TOUT). It did strike the chord of new age and synthy, which was all the rage, and existed on the same radio station about as often as New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle, Virus's Luna de Miel, and The Human League's Don't You Want Me.

Note de la rédaction

I don't know French, if I've misinterpreted this song gravely, let me know however it is you know how to reach me. I used Google Translate for the section headings and any preference for slang being French from France is solely because the band is from France and that felt appropriate.