What can you do when you’re 15 years old and you live in a red zone on the outskirts of a big city, you’re bored, and you don’t want to train to be either a pimp or a hairdresser? Wladimir, a.k.a. Wally, starts a band with four other long-haired, idle young men. That is how the group Les Etrangers is born, and with it, the trend for fast and slow music.
Through the tale of these apostles of bad taste in hair, clothes and possibly even music, Cyrille Martinez continues his exploration of the ambiguous relationship between society and the world of art. Presented in brief tableaux that are often hilariously funny and always biting; blending false naivety and ironic commentary, the author paints the portrait of an imaginary era that looks like the 1960s, but which also has many similarities with our own.

Leading his young characters from anonymity to success, then from near-stardom to oblivion, Musique rapide et lente intertwines political and social satire, urban saga and an ode to the timeless spirit of rock ’n roll.