Rock bands always reach a point in their careers when their guitar riffs lose their youthful, rebellious urgency. From then on, the best they can hope for is to accompany their original fans into middle age while fresher performers are deified by a new generation of teenagers.

In 1995, after nine years as a radio station focused on rock music, France’s Skyrock knew it had suffered a similar loss of edge. The “grunge” phenomenon that culminated with the suicide of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in 1994 felt like the last flourish of a raddled format, says Pierre Bellanger, Skyrock’s founder. “Rock wasn’t identifying itself with the new generation any more.”