Top 60 Jean-Michel Jarre Quotes

Technology does not always rhyme with perfection and reliability. Far from it in reality!

CDs are not as good as vinyl, and you buy one in the supermarket along with the yoghurt.

When I did the first ‘Oxygene’ in the vinyl days, I had a structure in mind divided in 2 parts fitting the A&B sides of an album.

For me, electronic music is the classical music of the 21st century.

With the violin, for example, one understands culturally that the sound comes from the instrument that can be seen. With electronic music, it is not the same at all. That’s why it seemed so important to me, from the beginning of my career, to invent a grammar, a visual vocabulary adapted to electronic music.

For me, electronic music is like cooking: it’s a sensual organic activity where you can mix ingredients.

The characteristic of ‘Oxygene’ is a mixture of innocence and ambition, of trying to do something different in a different way.

People don’t realize enough how important and influentical John Carpenter has been in electronic music. He did his soundtracks by himself, using mostly electronic and analog synthesizers. He’s a cult figure with DJs these days for good reasons.

My mother, who was in the Resistance in the Second World War, passed away at 96, and it was like she was 60. I almost have to apologise for my genes.

I collect robots. They’re mainly Japanese, American, and especially Russian – small robots, big robots, and old toy robots made between 1910 and the Fifties.

It’s sometimes better to have a father figure to rebel against than nothing, than just a black hole or an absence.

If music is to continue to support the livelihoods of artists, it cannot be taken without the permission of artists.

I studied classical music in the Conservatory of Paris.

As a musician, I have always strived for my albums and live performance to render a sound as close as possible to perfection.

Peace is neutral, and not very sexy.

I wanted to find a bridge between Musique Concrete, electro-acoustic music, and proper rock music.

The major rock instruments and classical instruments were designed for performance, for sharing the music with an audience, and then later people put microphones on them and recorded them. But for electronic music, the opposite was true – they’re designed in laboratories, and later, we tried to put them on stage.

I want the Dead Sea, like Masada, to be part of UNESCO’s world heritage.

Governments can help support European music by promoting public awareness that when people take music that doesn’t belong to them, they undermine the future of those very artists whose work they enjoy.

Our senses have changed, even though our emotions have not.

Think about when you listen to a song on the radio. You are not paying for it; it’s not illegal to do it, because the rights have been paid for on top, beforehand, by the radio station, by the network. We have to find exactly the same kind of system with the Internet.

What is important to me is that the world understand that the problems of the Dead Sea concern not only residents of the region but humanity.

Saying that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.

I have played a few times in Barcelona, including the fantastic Olympic Stadium. It’s undoubtedly one of my favourite cities in terms of the people, arts, food, architecture and design.

One of the first things I created was music for the Paris opera’s ballet troupe. That was the first time that electronic music was played at the opera. I really like the relationship between the music and the choreography.

Bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, who I respect, have a very robotic, dehumanised approach. They’re almost an apology for machines. It’s very German.

When I was at the Group for Musical Research, with this idea of discovering electronic music, I quickly realized that that it was a very interesting and exciting approach to music, but I also saw that it was very intellectual and quite dogmatic.

If you get rid of music, images, videos, words and literature from the smartphone, you just have a simple phone that would be worth $50.

‘Oxygene’ was one of the first, if not the first, popular electronic music album.

When I compose an album, I don’t think about how to adapt it on stage.

With electronic music, you are not confined to the acoustics of a concert-hall, and that inspired me to bring my performances outdoors.

I don’t necessarily like anniversaries that much.

The whole ‘Electronica’ project is about the ambiguous relationship we have with technology: on the one side, we have the world in our pocket; on the other, we are spied on constantly.

I did the first ‘Oxygene’ on an 8 tracks tape recorder with very few instruments, with no other choice than being minimalist.

I am not someone who is afraid; I am someone who reasons.

Snowden has demonstrated true love for his country. He has done something to improve the lives of people.

Generation after generation, there is this never-ending, contemptuous, condescending attitude to the next generation or the next way of thinking: music, art, politics, whatever. And I have never been like that.

I thought we had opposite visions of electronic music. Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk had a very robotic, mechanical approach. I had a more impressionist vision – a Ravel/Debussy approach.

What may not have value to you today may have value to an entire population, entire people, an entire way of life tomorrow. And if you don’t stand up for it, then who will?

I remember, for my fifth birthday, Chet Baker sat me on the upright piano, and he played just for me for a few minutes. I can still remember the pressure of the air on my chest. It was my first physical contact with sound.

I’m convinced that the earth is much stronger than us.

Suddenly, we are putting ourselves as the next dinosaurs. It’s rather dark; we have narrowed our dreams. It is time to restore our visions. And so it’s not a nostalgic idea; it is based with this unconscious need to restore a kind of dynamic for tomorrow.

From the outside, being an artist seems like a dream life, but there are much darker aspects to it.

Electronic musicians are quite like writers or painters. They are quite isolated in their home studios. We often don’t have that the opportunity to collaborate with that many people, like in rock or jazz.

I just had one occasion in my life when suddenly my private life was everywhere, and that was an accident and beyond my control.

I understand more when I travel why people believe that the French are arrogant.

Technology is neutral, but it all depends on the way we use it.

I would say to anyone starting out that if their priority in life is happiness, then don’t be a musician.

Creative industries are more important than the car industry, luxury jewels, and fashion.

I used to play in rock bands. Then I went to the first school of electronic music in the world. It was in Paris headed by one of the most important people involved in electronic music.

This project, ‘Electronica,’ is about working with people who are a strong source of inspiration to me.

At the time, ‘Oxygene’ was considered a totally ‘far out’ concept… What was ‘in’ at the time was disco, hard-rock, and the early days of punk… and moreover, ‘Oxygene’ was instrumental. And I was French!

I have always been of the opinion that when those in power are promoting actions and ideals that risk harming or impeding us, people should stand up to this.

Early music in all kinds of movements is always a mixture of innocence and ambition.

I think that in any language when you have a real relationship, and there is love and respect between people, infidelity is always something difficult to accept – whether you are Chinese, British, French. I think that is a universal concept… or problem.

I’ve always been involved in the visual aspect of my work, and moreover, it’s very important in days where technology allows us to push the boundaries even more than when I started out.

I wanted to create a bridge between experimental music and pop.

I was recently realizing that I’ve probably spent 80 percent of my life in studios! It’s very difficult to do that and still have a private life; it’s very difficult to do anything else.

When I began making electronic music, the only thing I was thinking about was creating music that I really liked. I didn’t think about what effect it would have; I was busy doing it.

We all think we are connected to the world now, but we are not talking to our neighbours any more.