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Jean-Michel Jarre's ability to reinvent his style on almost every album, keeping up with the times and taking risks instead of sticking to a winning formula. His discography might be the most diverse in terms of styles in electronic music history. What's his secret?
Jean-Michel Jarre is usually mentioned as just a "70s artist", along with Vangelis and Kraftwerk, but honestly, after listening to the entire discography, it feels quite unfair to Jarre, because he is so much more. Vangelis and Kraftwerk - as much I respect their early albums - never really moved away from their winning formula after the early/mid 80s, never really took risks or had innovations after that era. Jarre, on the other hand....
People often call David Bowie the chameleon for reinventing himself according the latest technological and cultural envionment and honestly I think Jean-Michel Jarre is the David Bowie of electronic music. He could've just keep making analog space music in his entire life for Oxygene fans, but no. He reinvented his music in every decade, took risks and pushed forward instead of playing it safe for the existing fanbase. Not all his albums are equally good, but he is never really predictable.
At age 75, he is still active and energetic. When you look at what he has done in the last 60 years, you can find so many different things: old school analog space music albums, weird avant-grade sampledelica albums, commercial dance orinted music, very experimental dark techno music, future jazz/lounge album, multi-collaboration album, vocal pop, calm atmospheric ambient, oriental/world music, symponic new age, etc. You have a different album for each mood or taste or generation. I wonder what makes him so open minded. *What do you think his secret could be?*
I mean, the guy is 75, but he still has a new release every year and usually something surprising, not endless versions of old classics, like 99,99% of old music legends do. He is active on Instagram, Twitter and even Tiktok, he is big fan of Nine Inch Nails, Eminem, The Chemical Brothers, but also countless young underground artist, like NSDOS, Deathpact, Nina Kraviz and others.
If you don't know his music apart from Oxygene maybe, then: yes, I know 23 studio albums might be intimidating for new listeners, but my point is that unlike some artists, that's actually 23 diffferent expeiences. There are only a few examples of two albums being a bit similar, but overall, you won't be bored. In fact, the biggest problem with his later albums that they were released under his name and not somebody else's. Because people who dislike Oxygene/Equinoxe will assume that all his works are very similar, so they won't even give a chance to albums like Zoolook, Metamorphoses, Sessions 2000 or Oxymore, which are so radically different. And most people who did like Oxygene expect something similar, so they are disappointed by Jarre moving away from that style.
To show you what I mean, here are his albums, each of them are described by the stylistic influences you can hear on them (based on official sites, official reviews, etc.):
​
1. Deserted Palace (1972): electro-pop, experimental, space music, musique concréte
2. Les Granges Brulées (1973): soundtrack, expertimental electronica
3. Oxygene (1976): space music, electro-pop
4. Equinoxe (1978): space music, electro-pop
5. Magnetic Fields (1982): space music, synth-pop, experimental ambient, sampledelia, ethnic
6. Zoolook (1984): experimental, sampledelia, avant-funk, art pop, jazz-funk, worldbeat
7. Rendez-Vous (1986): new age, electro-pop, ambient jazz, experimental
8. Revolutions (1988): new age, symphonic industrial, world music, synth-pop, synth-rock, ethno-jazz
9. Waiting for Cousteau (1990): ambient, calypso, world music
10. Chronologie (1993): new age, trance, techno, instrumental hip-hop, experimental
11. Oxygene 7-13 (1997): space music, trance
12. Metamorphoses (2000): downtempo, world music, techno, breakbeat, ambient, progressive house, dream-pop, electro-pop, experimental
13. Interior Music (2001): ambient, experimental, spoken word
14. Sessions 2000 (2002): future jazz, experimental, lounge, electro jazz, ambient
15. Geometry of Love (2003): chill-out, lounge, ambient
16. Printemps de Bourges 2002 (2006): electroacustic, experimental, downtempo
17. Teo & Tea (2007): EDM: trance, house, drum & bass, downtempo, techno, ambient
18. Electronica 1 – The Time Macine (2015): electro-pop, synth-pop, trance, downtempo, electronic rock, space music, trip hop, experimental, synthwave
19. Electronica 2 – The Heart of Nose (2016): synth-pop, downtempo, psytrance, spoken word, hip-hop, soundtrack, IDM, minimal techno
20. Oxygene 3 (2016): downtempo, minimal techno, ambient
21. Equinoxe Infinity (2018): downtempo, new age, techno, ambient, space music
22. Amazonia (2021): ambient, experimental
23. Oxymore (2022): experimental techno, electroacustic, industrial techno, musique concrète
​
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Jean-Michel Jarre is usually mentioned as just a "70s artist", along with Vangelis and Kraftwerk, but honestly, after listening to the entire discography, it feels quite unfair to Jarre, because he is so much more. Vangelis and Kraftwerk - as much I respect their early albums - never really moved away from their winning formula after the early/mid 80s, never really took risks or had innovations after that era. Jarre, on the other hand....
People often call David Bowie the chameleon for reinventing himself according the latest technological and cultural envionment and honestly I think Jean-Michel Jarre is the David Bowie of electronic music. He could've just keep making analog space music in his entire life for Oxygene fans, but no. He reinvented his music in every decade, took risks and pushed forward instead of playing it safe for the existing fanbase. Not all his albums are equally good, but he is never really predictable.
At age 75, he is still active and energetic. When you look at what he has done in the last 60 years, you can find so many different things: old school analog space music albums, weird avant-grade sampledelica albums, commercial dance orinted music, very experimental dark techno music, future jazz/lounge album, multi-collaboration album, vocal pop, calm atmospheric ambient, oriental/world music, symponic new age, etc. You have a different album for each mood or taste or generation. I wonder what makes him so open minded. *What do you think his secret could be?*
I mean, the guy is 75, but he still has a new release every year and usually something surprising, not endless versions of old classics, like 99,99% of old music legends do. He is active on Instagram, Twitter and even Tiktok, he is big fan of Nine Inch Nails, Eminem, The Chemical Brothers, but also countless young underground artist, like NSDOS, Deathpact, Nina Kraviz and others.
If you don't know his music apart from Oxygene maybe, then: yes, I know 23 studio albums might be intimidating for new listeners, but my point is that unlike some artists, that's actually 23 diffferent expeiences. There are only a few examples of two albums being a bit similar, but overall, you won't be bored. In fact, the biggest problem with his later albums that they were released under his name and not somebody else's. Because people who dislike Oxygene/Equinoxe will assume that all his works are very similar, so they won't even give a chance to albums like Zoolook, Metamorphoses, Sessions 2000 or Oxymore, which are so radically different. And most people who did like Oxygene expect something similar, so they are disappointed by Jarre moving away from that style.
To show you what I mean, here are his albums, each of them are described by the stylistic influences you can hear on them (based on official sites, official reviews, etc.):
​
1. Deserted Palace (1972): electro-pop, experimental, space music, musique concréte
2. Les Granges Brulées (1973): soundtrack, expertimental electronica
3. Oxygene (1976): space music, electro-pop
4. Equinoxe (1978): space music, electro-pop
5. Magnetic Fields (1982): space music, synth-pop, experimental ambient, sampledelia, ethnic
6. Zoolook (1984): experimental, sampledelia, avant-funk, art pop, jazz-funk, worldbeat
7. Rendez-Vous (1986): new age, electro-pop, ambient jazz, experimental
8. Revolutions (1988): new age, symphonic industrial, world music, synth-pop, synth-rock, ethno-jazz
9. Waiting for Cousteau (1990): ambient, calypso, world music
10. Chronologie (1993): new age, trance, techno, instrumental hip-hop, experimental
11. Oxygene 7-13 (1997): space music, trance
12. Metamorphoses (2000): downtempo, world music, techno, breakbeat, ambient, progressive house, dream-pop, electro-pop, experimental
13. Interior Music (2001): ambient, experimental, spoken word
14. Sessions 2000 (2002): future jazz, experimental, lounge, electro jazz, ambient
15. Geometry of Love (2003): chill-out, lounge, ambient
16. Printemps de Bourges 2002 (2006): electroacustic, experimental, downtempo
17. Teo & Tea (2007): EDM: trance, house, drum & bass, downtempo, techno, ambient
18. Electronica 1 – The Time Macine (2015): electro-pop, synth-pop, trance, downtempo, electronic rock, space music, trip hop, experimental, synthwave
19. Electronica 2 – The Heart of Nose (2016): synth-pop, downtempo, psytrance, spoken word, hip-hop, soundtrack, IDM, minimal techno
20. Oxygene 3 (2016): downtempo, minimal techno, ambient
21. Equinoxe Infinity (2018): downtempo, new age, techno, ambient, space music
22. Amazonia (2021): ambient, experimental
23. Oxymore (2022): experimental techno, electroacustic, industrial techno, musique concrète
​
#music
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