jeanbatman wrote:Well, I think it is a bit risky to say something like that. Again, if you count all the american and english folks in the list, you can say you get far-out better chances to get into the list if you speak english (again, Britney !). The honest title of that list looks like : The 901 (?) english langage albums you have to listen to...Equinoxe wrote: Nationality has nothing to do with his recognition,even if he was English or American,he'd still be in the same position
Where's Cesare Evoria ? Viktor Tsoi ? What about Julio ? Oum Kalsoum (The greatest singer of all time) ? Alpha Blondy ? Sonu Nigam ? Gilberto Gil ? Yoshiko Ishii ? and so on...
Like Frankie goes... It's a shame...
Well Given that Britney Spears would even come close to any of those artist you mention says nothing whatsoever about whether your English,French,German italian or whatever nationality,the issue is not focussed on where they come from or what native tongue they speak,its the bracket in which your music is placed,if Jarre was a Rock Musician,who was commercially viable to all,he'd have been a Classic Icon by now if he had achieved the same badge of success in his Genre,irrespective of him being possibly the largest French Export in the world.
I do believe the language in which you present your art is a deciding factor on how accessible your music is and suspect that many of those artists you've mentioned are not a worldwide commercial export to there Art anyway,and part of the reason Jarre doesn't have American success is partly because he decides to do instrumental music,coupled with a lack of promotional values in the said country not because he speaks french,after all what other succesful French Rock stars have achieved the same amount of succes outside of France.there are many many English Artist who have had commerical success worldwide yet find it hard to break America,so the Language/Nationality issue doesn't really come into play.
Jarre has his fair share of followers in the UK and possibly does share a large legion of followers throughout Europe,but not in America,and thats the reason why he doesn't share success in America like he does in the rest of the World,not because he's native Language is not english or that he's not American,but because he's in a small commercially accessible Genre.For him to have survived and done so well as he has for an artist who can still be classed as totally anonymous to most people shows you why,yet at the same time is known by Millions of followers
Britney spears reaches out to the largest slice of the commercial Music pie,the Younger/Teenage generation,shes hardly a legend or a great tower of insipration to many other successful artists,infact in terms of talent she has Absolutely nothing that any young child could be nurtured into if the right people push them.
I think you have to look at the wider picture on Jarres success or lack of recognition and not class his nationality as a weakness,because his music is a universal language so it doesn't matter if he's French,Amercian or English,he'd still be in the same big wide Ocean of Music in a relativly small Genre of Fish.
Jarre always mentions about those factors that he's french doing Electronic music with no lyrics,but times have moved on since those early days of trying to find someone to take on Oxygene and this strange genre of music,yet here he is some 40 years on,can't see how that can still be an excuse.
