BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Hi, I'd like to list all the tracks that can be considered as non-melodic tracks.
What do I mean ? I'm speaking of tracks where the melody is not the main part of the recipe, especially in the recent years.

imho:
Chronologie 7
Magnetic Fields 1.2
Magnetic Fields 3
Waiting for Cousteau
Oxygene 11

Bordering non melodic
Equinoxe 2
Tokyo Kid

Almost all tracks from Oxymore
Moon Machine
Wooloomooloo

I'd add Ethnicolor 2 and most (if not all) of Sessions 2000 to the list

Magnetic Fields Pt. 1 - Concerts in China (is this cheating since this is a joke of a track on the album?)
Laserharp - Concerts in China
Dive (first half) - Zoolook
Wooloomooloo - Zoolook
Ethnicolor II - Zoolook
Waiting for Cousteau - Waiting for Cousteau
Chronologie Pt. 7 - Chronologie
Silhouette - Métamorphoses
Interiour Music in its entirety
Sessions 2000 - most of it, March 23 is the only track I think of that has a clear melody
Near Djaina - Geometry of Love
Gossip - Téo & Téa
Amazonia in its entirety

There's more stuff in there, but these are the ones I think of off the top of my head. I can't agree with Oxymore being there when, despite it being this experimental and all of the place, quite a few tracks have a very obvious melody going throughout.

My remarks
* Equinoxe 2 - absolutely not IMO
* Silhouette DOES have a clear melody
* Diva - BOTH parts are very much non-melodic
* Ethnicolor 2 does have a melody played by that fake cello
* Near Djaina - hmm, debatable I'd say
* from Oxymore I'd say that MAYBE (huge "maybe") Animal Genesis could be "melodic"
* Wooloomooloo does have a melody IMO
* MF3 - tough one, it does have that lead sound
* MF1.2 - debatable, IMO it has a melody to follow

I'd add
* Fifth Rendez-Vous part 2 (possibly part 3 as well)
* possibly Oxygene 15, maybe Oxygene 16 - this is a tough one like MF3
* Oxygene 20 probably barely qualifies as melodic
* Exit (obviously)
* Zero Gravity remix
* Herbalizer
* Web Spinner
* The Architect
* Switched on Leon
* Rely on Me
* The Train and the River
* What You Want
* Why This, Why That, And Why (there is that background melody during the chorus (?) so not sure)
* VR Concert 1 (from Alone Together)
* VR Concert 2 (from Alone Together)
* Azimuth
* Don't Look Back
* possibly Melancholic Rodeo (it's just an improvisation that is not particularly easy to "play in your head")

These is no objective way to determine which of his tracks are "melodic" or "non-melodic". It's just a very complex topic and every person will give you a completely different list.

What counts as a "melodic" track? Obviously, we are talking about electronic music. Traditional instrumentation doesn't apply. It's the art of noise, literally. It's all about the sound. And melodies are parts of the sound design. You can put focus on it, but you don't have to. You can use classic melodic structure. Or not. So melodies are always the main part and also, never the main part.
Melodies contain notes. Notes on the trational solfeggio system. What is more melodic? Track where you have the most number of notes? Or the most variation of the melodies? Or it is all about having a classic pop stucture in the main melody, even if it's actually simpler?

If you want the melodic variation and complex melody lines, then for example, May 1 from Sessions 2000 is actually one of the most melodic tracks Jarre has ever done. It's way more melodic than anything from Oxygene, that's for sure. I can easily play Oxygene 4 on a piano, but definitely can't do that with May 1. The same is true about Near Djaina Or The Train and The River, that's an other great example. Those piano heavy Jarre tracks are obviously more melodic, with more notes than his "classics". But if you don't count those and you want to focus on tracks with pop melodies, then actually most of JMJ's tracks are non-melodic in that sense.

Electronic music comes from impressionist classical music and also from moderist composers. Not from 400-500 year old baroque or Beethoven or anything that "those" comments like to bring up, but from the the atmophere and ambience focused classical music, which wasn't about some very complex melodic structure. In electronic music, melodies are often there to give the sound design itself a structure. For example, you have many layers of noises and all kinds of recorded sounds, but you need to have structure, so you give it a simple, repeating melody line. So in that sense, it's actually very melodic. But often, it uses like 5 notes without much variation.

This is why those "classical music Jarre" comments make no sense to me. Jarre has never been a classical composer, when you look at the notes and only the notes, he is so far away from the complexity of actual Mozart compositions that it's crazy. He never had music with the melodic complexity of actual classical music. Let's take Rendez-Vous 2. The sound design is similar to classical music, because it sounds "orchestral". But the actual melody is actually way too simple for actual classial music, not matter many choir sounds it has. That's why I never really liked that style of music, I think electronic music should have it's own sound design instead of imitating classical music, which is what JMJ did 99% of the time. Using certain type of influences from classical music is importand and great, but he also uses influences from world music and jazz too. Toyko Kid is melodic, but it's a jazz melody, C'est la Vie is melodic, but it's a world music type of melody.

The sound design matters the most. For example: is WfC melodic? You could say that it's definitely non-melodic. But at the same time, it has an obvious piano melody that keeps repeating. It's very simple, very short. But the sound design is no minimalistic, so simple that you can't miss it. Now, what about Zeitgeist? It clearly has a very catchy and recognisable melody line, simple, but memorable. But the track and the album is so noisy and layered that you might not be albe to focus on it or realise that there is a melody.

Actually, what I really love about electronic music is exactly the fact that you can't really draw a red line and say what's more melodic and less melodic. It's way more complex than that.

OMG

Well then we just determined it subjectively. Every person will give a different answer? Yes, that's the point of a discussion forum.

+ Aor Bleu, of course

Some good calls with those already listed
I would also consider:

- Oxygene Part 5 second upbeat sequencer section - it's a great piece but to me it sounds more improvised than definite melody.
- Variation III (the live performance section after Oxygene Part 5)
- The last section of Equinoxe Part 7 (i.e. the bit not normally played live, except for Concerts in China and Docklands)
- Arpegiator
- Night in Shanghai
- Zoolook effects (twelve inch single track)
- Ron's Piece
- The first bit of Industrial Revolution Part 1 (the bit that didn't get played at Concert for Tolerance)
- Second section of Calypso 2
- Globe Trotter
- Second section of Chronologie Part 1
- Middle ambling section of Oxygene 7, possibly also the last slow section of Oxygene 7 (the bit that was used at start of Souvenir of China during Oxygene 97 tour)
- Oxygene 9
- Oxygene 12 (other than the repeating sequence)
- Zero Gravity
- Watching You
- Amazonia and Oxymore
- The second side of Music for Supermarkets other than the Diva bit

But could familiarity with any piece of music through repetition make it more melodic to the listener ? (Mind predicting what sounds/notes are coming next)

Darren P wrote: Mon Jul 14, 2025 5:42 pm But could familiarity with any piece of music through repetition make it more melodic to the listener ? (Mind predicting what sounds/notes are coming next)

This was my thought, too. Some of the nominations on here for non-melodic were interesting, as I thought to myself "But I can hum along to that one, so that means it's melodic, right?" but as you say, familiarity plays a big part here, no doubt.

Happiness is a Sad Song takes the cake in terms of it having almost no musical elements whatsoever, most you get is some harmonic droning in the middle section and some demonic sounding choirs. Still one of my favorites from JMJ's musique concrete era though.