Is It OK To Like Jean-Michel Jarre?

Just curious. Super cool French electronic pioneer or loved-by-your-Dad MOR farty organ tripe?

In a word. No.

His first albums was pretty cool. But not today....

I can say this for many, many bands. Everything was better before.

More hipster points for dropping names like Philip Glass and Steve Reich these days.

Hey now, Philip Glass kicks ass. But Jarre the Younger can go. Synth garbage. His dad's movie scores are great though.

He does all his production work and live performances on BeOS powered kit, which I'm obligated to agree with...

I only ever heard his one big hit and i've forgot what it was called... It's OK to like whoever you want; JMJ was/is a synthy dude after all and that's what comprises a lot of the NO sound...

Now, does anyone remember TOMITA?

I was a hardcore fan of JMJ (and Vangelis) when I was 12. Then, my musical interests evolved towards synth pop: PSB and, later, DM. Incidentally, it is interesting to observe that DM used catchy repetitive sound patterns in many of their hit singles (Just Can't Get Enough, Everything Counts, Question of Time, Strangelove) just like JMJ did in famous pieces like Oxygen 4, Equinoxe 5 and Magnetic Fields 2 and 4.

The discovery of NO at the age of 18 made me realise that the sound of a guitar could be interesting too. Nowadays I don't like JMJ anymore. I consider his art as cheap elevator music. I must admit, however, that his early records were very avant-gardist although they didn't age quite well.

Would you listen an entire album from this guy ?

Old Blue wrote: Is It OK To Like Jean-Michel Jarre?

Is it the man or his music, specifically, OB?

:\pimp3:

The music...

From the above comments, by having Equinoxe in the car and downloading his Aero performance DVD I'm losing a lot of man points, but there you go.

I too got subjected to him by my parents at about the time my musical tastes were forming. I only really know Oxygene, Equinoxe and Magnetic Fields but its fair to say that they cemented my love for electronica.

I'll jump on your slightly embarrassing applecart, OB.

My first JMJ experience was in the soundtrack to Gallipoli and it stayed with me for years.

Of course these days he's regarded as some sort of melodramatic Euro cretin isn't he?

:\pimp3:

I loved his album "Magnetic Fields" when I was a child.

depthcharge wrote: I'll jump on your slightly embarrassing applecart, OB.

Room for one more?

I have most of JMJ's albums but don't listen to them anything like as often as I used to. Still nice to give em a spin once in a while though.

He's still putting on the sound/light shows too, I think he did a gig in Poland recently.

karine wrote:

Would you listen an entire album from this guy ?

Yes! And have done on many occasions. :D Not to mention making compilation tapes years ago.

Why not?

depthcharge wrote:

Of course these days he's regarded as some sort of melodramatic Euro cretin isn't he?

:\pimp3:

Don't know too much about the man himself, but watching the DVD he did come across as a bit of a chien lunatique...

Mind you, he has shagged Charlotte Rampling so it hasn't all been a waste.

I have some old vinyls, I used to like the guy... and I still like the old stuff ("Oxygene" is wonderful), but don't know what's he doing nowadays.

It fit well on the Stockhausen/Kraftwerk typo.

Jean Michel Jarre, along with the Mode and the Minds, make up my three biggest musical influences. (New Order played as big a role as anyone in beginning my quest for more reinterpretations/extended mixes that most artists either don’t feel they need to record, or simply can’t be bothered to.)

If Equinoxe had been Jean’s first release, it would have been talked about even more now than Oxygene is. Equinoxe is possibly my favourite album of all-time, even though it is an instrumental.

Chronologie (part 4) is a monster 4-minute track too, as is Calypso (1), Zoolookologie, Magnetic Fields, and both the original and the 1997 Sunday Club remix of Oxygene (8).