Klaus Schulze vs Jean Michel Jarre
June 16, 2014 2:56 PM Subscribe
Klaus Schulze vs Jean Michel Jarre - so why is Jarre well known?
My question is why Schulze has more than 40 albums to his name (according to the web) or many more than Jarre at least, but is still the lesser known of the two. I only discovered Schulze recently, but I love his music so far from several different albums. I guess this is a question on musical history.
PS If you can recommend me any artists similar to Schulze and Jarre, that would be nice too.
PS If you can recommend me any artists similar to Schulze and Jarre, that would be nice too.
The relative-fame part: You don't measure fame by the number of albums released, but by the biggest one.
Boston is several orders of magnitude more famous than Guided by Voices, Biggie's bigger than DJ Screw, and Norah Jones shines brighter than Sun Ra.
Jarre's Oxygene sold 12 million copies (thanks, Wikipedia), which, for a modern comparison, is in the general area of Moby's Play. In its day and in its approximate genre, Oxygene was probably bigger than anything this side of Tubular Bells.
Schulze is a legend in his own right, but he never put those kinds of numbers on the board.
posted by box at 3:49 PM on June 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
Boston is several orders of magnitude more famous than Guided by Voices, Biggie's bigger than DJ Screw, and Norah Jones shines brighter than Sun Ra.
Jarre's Oxygene sold 12 million copies (thanks, Wikipedia), which, for a modern comparison, is in the general area of Moby's Play. In its day and in its approximate genre, Oxygene was probably bigger than anything this side of Tubular Bells.
Schulze is a legend in his own right, but he never put those kinds of numbers on the board.
posted by box at 3:49 PM on June 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
I see both names mentioned with about the same frequency. I probably see Tangerine Dream and Vangelis mentioned equally regularly too. I guess that's only one data point, but I'm not convinced Jean Michel Jarre is greatly dwarfing other names in this kind of music.
posted by naju at 4:01 PM on June 16, 2014
posted by naju at 4:01 PM on June 16, 2014
I knew about Schulze long before I knew about Jarre and have always thought of Schulze as being the more well known of the two. So I think it might be more a matter of perspective and how/when you found out about each artist.
It was an interest in krautrock that led me to Schulze and a lot people associated with krautrock seemed to eventually move towards new age/ambient, which is what opened me up to those genres. I don't know all that much about Jarre but my impression is he was always pretty firmly rooted in the world of new age/ambient, coming from the perspective of maybe a more "traditional" composer. So each is probably more famous in their respective genres.
You'd probably also like:
Ashra/Manuel Gottsching. New Age of Earth. Inventions for Electric Guitar.
Harald Grosskopf's Synthesist
posted by AtoBtoA at 4:04 PM on June 16, 2014
It was an interest in krautrock that led me to Schulze and a lot people associated with krautrock seemed to eventually move towards new age/ambient, which is what opened me up to those genres. I don't know all that much about Jarre but my impression is he was always pretty firmly rooted in the world of new age/ambient, coming from the perspective of maybe a more "traditional" composer. So each is probably more famous in their respective genres.
You'd probably also like:
Ashra/Manuel Gottsching. New Age of Earth. Inventions for Electric Guitar.
Harald Grosskopf's Synthesist
posted by AtoBtoA at 4:04 PM on June 16, 2014
Seconding box about Oxygene - it was a big hit at the time.
That said, imho it's really worth checking out Klaus Schulze's collaboration work alongside his multitude of solo albums (I love Blackdance, Picture Music & Timewind). You might try Ash Ra Tempel and Cosmic Jokers for example - fine stuff. There's a wealth of great krautrock - branching out from Klaus Schulze will lead to all kinds of gems.
posted by parki at 4:13 PM on June 16, 2014
That said, imho it's really worth checking out Klaus Schulze's collaboration work alongside his multitude of solo albums (I love Blackdance, Picture Music & Timewind). You might try Ash Ra Tempel and Cosmic Jokers for example - fine stuff. There's a wealth of great krautrock - branching out from Klaus Schulze will lead to all kinds of gems.
posted by parki at 4:13 PM on June 16, 2014
The genre name you might want to look into is "kosmische." It's somewhat more specific than krautrock, and connotes a sort of "floating music" or cosmic music within the genre. This book is excellent too.
posted by naju at 4:18 PM on June 16, 2014
posted by naju at 4:18 PM on June 16, 2014
Response by poster: I didn't expect so many good answers and recommendations.
Thanks a lot guys,
Sockpim
posted by sockpim at 6:39 AM on June 17, 2014
Thanks a lot guys,
Sockpim
posted by sockpim at 6:39 AM on June 17, 2014
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posted by O9scar at 3:34 PM on June 16, 2014