Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

moviemaker

I thought I would start a topic about Jarre's relationship with Warner Records.

Here is my opinon: Don't walk... Run away...

I think Warner is good at promoting people like Madonna but Jarre is not a pop star. He is a musician, classically trained. Printemps de Bourges 2002 was one of the best things to come from Jarre in a long time. This is the kind of stuff that makes one proud to be a Jarre fan.

I think Jarre has spent too much time trying to make it in that pop world and it doesn't work. His output with Dreyfus, though a small company, was the best. Look at Vangelis, he is on the Sony Classic label, where he should be. And before that East West records. Very respectable. Both Vangelis and Jarre are more like classical musicians and their music should be timeless. Warner was the label of a-ha and they only care about singles. I could be wrong but it just seems like the people surrounding Jarre are giving him bad business advice or something.

What do you think

Jakob BC

The problem is that Warner have to agree with both the music, titles and cover artwork to sell it to the mainstream people they usually go for. It seems like they have had a lot of influence and I don't like that. I hate when music is suited for the Mainstream.

Waaaiiit a second. You're talking about the lack of releases on the CD single format here, right?

First of all - if Teo & Tea had been very succesfull, there would definately have been more single releases, both promotional and commercial.

Second - mind you that in those times of iTunes and the likes, companies don't promote that much using CD singles. Look at the shelves nowadays... do you find as much CD singles as in the past?

JMJ yet has to release an album as succesfull as Oxygene 7-13 at Warner's, and we'll be flooded with CD singles.

And btw, AS IF CD singles is what we want. Look at the DVDs he's put out since he's with Warner- almost every single concert is being released on DVD.......

Jakob BC

Yeah but before the DVD's it was VHS. Concorde, CiC, Lyon, Houston, Docklands, La Defense, Barcelona, Moscow sn I don't really see what's missing

Im sure they would have released the concerts on a DVD if it excisted at the time. So releasing the concerts is not really a new idea

DVD was invented in 1995 and first commercially available in 1997. JMJ was with Dreyfus until 2002... I do think Warner has put out more video material, compared to Dreyfus, relatively.

Jakob BC

Yes but DVD is also something completely different than VHS. Mind that it took a few years before people got DVD players and before VHS was more or less completely replaced by DVD, so it would not have been a good idea to release something that not many would buy anyway. However I still think it was disappointing that 12DOTS, Akropolis and AERO were never released on DVD or VHS. There is a big whole there.

moviemaker

Um... what I'm talking about is not single releases, promotion, etc. at all.

I'm talking about Warner's supposed influence (or pressure) for Jarre to be in the mainstream. I think Teo & Tea seems like a result of that...

I just found it strange that Jarre would work with Francis on some album and then abandon it at the last minute for this. Not terrible but not typical Jarre. It all seems like less of a Metamorphoses of Jarre's music and more like trying to "fit a square peg in a round hole" as it were...

All I'm saying (and the purpose of this thread) is that with Dreyfus it seemed that Jarre followed his heart. With Warner Music, he is thinking too much...

Jakob BC

Yes it is hard to say what a contract with Warner includes. Maybe they gave him a date to finish the album so he had to cancel other plans but this is just guessing, but I remember something about Warner having some strict rules however i don't have nay sources.

moviemaker

Jakob BC wrote:Yes it is hard to say what a contract with Warner includes. Maybe they gave him a date to finish the album so he had to cancel other plans but this is just guessing, but I remember something about Warner having some strict rules however i don't have nay sources.

This makes complete sense. And see Jarre is not a typical pop act (at least he shouldn't be). The album should be done when it's done. Now his lack of prolificness (is that a word?...) concerns me. I mean Vangelis says if he released all the material he produces, there would be 10 albums a year. It takes this long for one Jarre album? This is supposed to be a labor of love... not a contract. Maybe he's too busy playing concerts with playback (not that I care about that) than truly experimenting and creating.

It's kind of like the Coen Bros or Spielberg. They make a movie every two years and they are really fast and reallly good (for the most part) but Stanley Kubrick made a movie once every 5 + years. Yes, they were pretty amazing, (okay we can debate "Eyes Wide Shut" later) but I would have liked to have seen much more (if that makes any sense)...

Muh Nods

hello,

I think the same thing, that warner puts a lot of pressure on Jarre... This could explain the lack of creativity on T&T, which is very surprising from an artist like him! (who seems to be VERY perfectionist). Lastly, I was very impressed by Sessions 2000 et Geometry Of Love, and I expected something as good as these two musical jewels, for the new album! But it was not...

Velodynamic

moviemaker wrote: Printemps de Bourges 2002 was one of the best things to come from Jarre in a long time. This is the kind of stuff that makes one proud to be a Jarre fan.

Second that...

moviemaker wrote:Both Vangelis and Jarre are more like classical musicians and their music should be timeless.

What do you think

...but I think it's a bit hard to draw any straight line between Vangelis and JMJ.
They're two rather different artists imo because I think Vangelis is more into the movie score thing and also much closer to classical music with i.e. piano.
Of course, after the new millenium Jarre has put a classical orchestra on the stage with him...but to me it appeared to be more like yet an other one of his experiments, a cool or crazy idea just to see what would happen with his old electronical master pieces. Going back to his roots I don't think that was the idea from the very beginning even if some of his compositions may have been somewhat inspired from classical music...unconsciously. For me JMJ's music use to be like...a little of this genre and that genre, mixed together and introduced by a drift of synths and painted on a wall. I think that is also why it's so darn hard to put "the experimental Jarre" on the musical market...no specific genre.
...and this is also the great thing that I have always loved about Jarre's music.

moviemaker

Velodynamic wrote:[
...but I think it's a bit hard to draw any straight line between Vangelis and JMJ.
They're two rather different artists imo because I think Vangelis is more into the movie score thing and also much closer to classical music with i.e. piano.
Of course, after the new millenium Jarre has put a classical orchestra on the stage with him...but to me it appeared to be more like yet an other one of his experiments, a cool or crazy idea just to see what would happen with his old electronical master pieces. Going back to his roots I don't think that was the idea from the very beginning even if some of his compositions may have been somewhat inspired from classical music...unconsciously. For me JMJ's music use to be like...a little of this genre and that genre, mixed together and introduced by a drift of synths and painted on a wall. I think that is also why it's so darn hard to put "the experimental Jarre" on the musical market...no specific genre.
...and this is also the great thing that I have always loved about Jarre's music.

But of course...you are completely right about J

rre. I like that he and Vangelis are different and Jarre does not stick to one style. It keeps his music and life, interesting...

Velodynamic

And also I agree that "if" now Warner wants to mold JMJ or put him into a specific genre he really should be running out of there to try to find a production label that'll give him artistic freedom to create music independent of style even if it's a smaller one...could be a really hard nut cracker.

But if he now really wants to "fit in" sÃ¶mewhere and have made that choise himself, he can just sit back (or dance) and enjoy the ride imho.

I don't know if JMJ have said anything about this subject so I guess we're just going on some loose clues and wild guesses here.

I'm not aware of JMJ saying anything about it, but when I was interviewing Patrick Rondat, I asked him in which genre he'd put JMJ, and he replied to me: "I don't think it's a specific genre. I think his style is his name. And that's what every artists wants to achieve someday".

I'd put him either in the pop/rock or electronic music bin...

Jarre Music VS. Warner Music