Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[thhedk]

Those are video clips.

Seconded. 'Nice' to see the "Michel Geiss recorded Oxygene and Equinoxe" sentiment starting to reintroduce itself after so many years, though.

Haha, never heard that rumor before, but it is weird that JMJ has SO many difficulties playing even shortly after he made the songs

If you are refering to the early videos, they are NOT meant to be taken as literal performances. They are only made to show off Jarre's equipment and make him appear fresh, new and mysterious. In the mid 70s, the thought of a 100% synthesizer based artist was very alien to people in general. So the videos were made like that to emphasize people's curiousity.

I don't think anyone believes that Jarre is doing a real performance in the RV-IV video either...

[Robi]

His pre-Oxygene period is as melodic as post-Oxygene albums. Why would anyone think he would have needed a backup composer for his albums?

[jeanbatman]

(...) Some people used to speculate (...)

I'll wait another 30 years if some guy/girl on his death bed shows up and whispers me: "I... I... composed the whole thing !"

[Finaero]

I don't think anyone believes that Jarre is doing a real performance in the RV-IV video either...

I'd like to know who thinks any other music video has had any live music played whilst the filming was in process. Especially the "band plays a generic rock song in the middle of a road" type videos. But even then, I've never found those "artist/band plays instruments" videos that interesting to begin with. The original Oxygene 4 video is pretty interesting as a time capsule from the 1970s but the 1989 penguin video still maintains a greater degree of creativity (even with the cheap 'footage reverse' parts). Not to mention that I think the highlight of the Equinoxe 4 video is not Jarre playing but the funky robot! I wish it would make a cameo appearance on his gigs someday. Wink.

[Finaero]

Haha, never heard that rumor before, but it is weird that JMJ has SO many difficulties playing even shortly after he made the songs

I've got to admit, the discussions on the old JarreUK Forums (circa 2003) and the Jarre.net Forums got pretty... wild. Especially on the older version of the latter where there wasn't nick registration (some, like JMJ, Rimbert and the admins couldn't be used by others) so people could just post stuff under the nick 'Michel Geiss' and say "btw I composed this kthx".

But I guess it's sort of a natural thing for people to speculate on how much of a certain work has been done by one person when anyone collaborates with someone else. It did get quite out of hand back in the day, though.

[jeanbatman]

I'd like to know who thinks any other music video has had any live music played whilst the filming was in process.

IMHO none except moments of Variation III and bits of Orient Express.

Not to be too off-topic, but Gaga does play live. The difference here is that Gaga has got musical talent, most of the other girls mentioned in your post have not.

I get your point. Jarre cited her once. But nearly all of her recent hit singles has been accused of plagiarism by music professionals.

[thhedk]

Of cause he didn't play live on the old videos that was not what i ment, but he played a lot of strange notes like he didn't knew the song.

[AERO62]

Maybe this is offtopic, but I'd say he played the solo parts during industrial revolution and calypso pretty good at the concert in Vienna.

- He looks so young here

[thhedk]

Maybe this is offtopic, but I'd say he played the solo parts during industrial revolution and calypso pretty good at the concert in Vienna.

- He looks so young here

Yes this part is his best playing, he remembered many of the notes, but still a bit clumbsy and alternative

[GlennFolkvord]

The reason for not playing outside of Europe is that he simply can't sell tickets, unless it's a special one off. While he did do good business in the US with Oxygene, Equinoxe and Rendez-Vous, he's just never been big there.

I'd like to narrow it down to; promotors dont think he can sell tickets.

You dont need to be chart-big to sell enough tickets for a short arena tour. JMJ would appeal to his fans (there are some in the US), to synth nerds and musicians, to laser show geeks, to listeners of electronic music in general, and to people who are casual concert goers with a mind open to other genres than country and R&B and who might know JMJ's reputation. I am sure fans of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Enya, Enigma and Vangelis also feel they dont get enough concerts in their genres and would appreciate Jarre as a replacement. In a big country like USA, these ticket buying groups make up large audiences. There is no need to target the general audience.

Whenever JMJ *has* played outside Europe - Asia and Africa - there have been plenty of fans, including Marocco, which admittedly was free but thousands of local people did trek into the desert to see the concert and you dont do that unless you think you will enjoy it. And JMJ is not particularly big in Marocco.