ABSTRACT
Ethnodoc has acquired professional-standard skills in music heritage, both in terms of the process of collecting music and songs and in archiving and digitising this material. Ethnodoc is a non-profit organisation based in western France that has been collecting an oral repertoire and discography of regional folk music since the beginning of the French folk revival in the early 1970s. The popular music/heritage pairing in France constitutes a paradox. Do-it-yourself (DIY) initiatives relating to the archiving of popular music are underdeveloped in France, a country where popular music is still not considered a cultural heritage, either from a public policy perspective or by the French people. The lack of recognition by institutions of the history of this music, events that have marked it and how and where it is performed are seen by music professionals as a glaring injustice in relation to other cultural forms.
