Jean-Michel Jarre - 70

[JerGoertz]

Oxygene is still a classic for me.... When I first was discovering electronic/new-age music back in highschool. Him and Mike Oldfield, classic geezers of the frontier!

[chk071]

Ok, to be honest, i probably was a bit harsh there. Let's just say that i'd rather categorize him as a "Electronica" artist, than an Ambient artist. I don't really think his music was Electro Pop either. Opposed to Kraftwerk, whom i actually would call Electro Pop.

[fluffy_little_something]

Space elevator music

[himalaya]

The vintage Jarre that I love so much is simply 'Electronic Music'.

It seems there are a lot of young folks here who do not know that before 'Electronica' the actual term was Electronic Music. Jarre never was 'New Age' but he certainly did touch upon Pop, and in his synth-heavy guise, it could potentially be called Electronic Pop. But still, Oxygene, Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields, Zoolook, and parts of China, are pure, unadulterated, classic 'Electronic Music'.

However, I realise that there are albums which are very Pop/Dance in nature, although I conveniently keep these out of my mind.

[WolfKay]

The band Space was also from that time and country, and made similar music.

Yes, the band Space was a direct source of inspiration for Daft Punk, for instance, both musically and visually.

Another French band from that time was Space Art, who inspired bands such as Air, along with François de Roubaix.

[Vortifex]

..

[himalaya]

Yeah! I f****ng love it!

Sounds I grew up with....

[Delta Sign]

Yeah, back in the day it was called electronic music, however, that term includes so much different music today, it's maybe not sufficient anymore
I don't know if I'd call it new age either, to be honest. New age always implies at least some "real" instruments to me. Like, if there is no bearded hippie playing a flute or a tabla he got from a thrift store, it's not new age
Pop always implies vocals to me.
However, those kind of definitions are completely useless, restricting and subjective anyway. I'm sure JMJ didn't think "I'm going to make a *insert genre" track now!". His music (at least some of it) was so got because he did not do that.

As I said, I love some of his music, while I really can't stand most of it. The layers of cheese are often a bit too thick for me

[fluffy_little_something]

The band Space was also from that time and country, and made similar music.

Yes, the band Space was a direct source of inspiration for Daft Punk, for instance, both musically and visually.

Another French band from that time was Space Art, who inspired bands such as Air, along with François de Roubaix.

Any particular reason France was so good at that kind of music back then?

[low_low]

Jarre never was 'New Age'

Not turning this into a religion thread (New Age isn't a religion anyway) but New Age beliefs are so ingrained in the culture now that most people who hold those beliefs probably don't even know they are New Age beliefs. Even commonly held beliefs such as believing that the world is an interconnected living thing, or that human beings are extensions of some common life force, etc ... theself-help movements, emphasis on self discovery, individuality, self-expression, the focus on making the world a better place through introspection and personal discovery of your "true self", all that stuff is straight out of the Human Potential Movement, the New Age movement, etc. Young people all around the western world hold those beliefs and most of them have no idea where they came from, or that there was ever a movement in the west that made these kinds of ideas popular. Yoga, massage, people talking about Zen beliefs, meditation, spiritual growth, none of that &^%$ would be a thing in the west at all if it weren't for what happened in the 1970's and 80's.

I'm not promoting those ideas, I'm simply acknowledging that it was (and still is) a thing. Someone above said that New Age is a term that is so vague that it doesn't mean anything, and I would counter that I think it's more the case that so many people now accept New Age beliefs as everyday commonly held ideas, that it SEEMS like it's vague and doesn't mean anything anymore - in western culture you're now immersed in it. There was a time when all that stuff was shocking and contentious and people fought openly about it.

That aside ... NASA named an asteroid after Jarre!

[WolfKay]

Any particular reason France was so good at that kind of music back then?

Well, France hosted many great electroacoustic music pioneers in the 50's and the 60's (Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis, to name a few), just like Germany did (Karlheinz Stockhausen…).
In the 70's, the new generation in both countries was eager to pull electronic music out of the academic studios and blend it with disco, rock or new wave music.
Jarre studied electroacoustic composition in Paris with Schaeffer, so he was a perfect link between the academic world and the more mainstream side of electronic music.
The funny thing is that while the popularity of Jarre was growing, his music became globally less attractive; however, at the same time, many academic French electroacoustic composers (Bernard Parmegiani or François Bayle, for example) constantly produced lots of exciting and fascinating works.


There were many good electronic acts at that time in France indeed, though none became as successful as Jarre, and most were probably not as talented as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream in Germany…
Some of them were great though (Kas Product…), but have been unfairly ignored.

[Firebird]

[Amram]

After 120 years (long live) , what will be with all the synths , collection he got?

[himalaya]

After 120 years (long live) , what will be with all the synths , collection he got?

All those synths will be locked in Zoo(look) surrounded by Magnetic Fields. It will be a time of lucid Équinoxe, and we will breathe pure Oxygene.

[k-tronix]

After 120 years (long live) , what will be with all the synths , collection he got?

All those synths will be locked in Zoo(look) surrounded by Magnetic Fields. It will be a time of lucid Équinoxe, and we will breathe pure Oxygene.

But when is the rendez-Vous?