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The 15 greatest synth icons: Carlos, Hancock, Jarre and more

5 – Jean-Michel Jarre

His name may be synonymous with synthesizer naffness, but let’s not forget that Jarre has sold an estimated 80 million records. Breakthrough 1976 release Oxygène remains the most successful, but Jarre’s sound has continued to evolve since then, and his spectacular live shows are world-famous. If you haven’t seen him playing the laser harp, you haven’t lived.

Source: https://www.musicradar.com/news/15-ultimate-synth-icons

That's high, considering the "naff" comment. At least they understand his impact on the electronic music despite their own prejudice.

A bit of a weird article, IMO. Well, personally I'd def. have Vangelis in the Top 5 and PSB instead of Depeche Mode, but those are still personal opinions (even if many would agree with them).

However....

Co-founder Florian Schneider is no longer involved, but new material is said to be in the pipeline.

That's either a really weird of saying that Florian Schneider is dead... or they haven't done the research and found out that he died in 2020.

My quick take (Wendy Carlos could be higher though as she's so relevant to synth music).

15 – Brian Eno
14 – Vince Clarke
13 – John Paul Jones
12 – Gershon Kingsley
11 – Mike Oldfield
10 – Herbie Hancock
9 - Giorgio Moroder
8 – Wendy Carlos
7 – Daft Punk
6 - Klaus Schulze
5 – Vangelis
4 – Rick Wright
3 – Tangerine Dream
2 – Kraftwerk
1 - Jean-Michel Jarre

Finaero wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 1:02 pm A bit of a weird article.

Fluff article really.

I would start from 1939.

jeanbatman wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 1:22 pm My quick take (Wendy Carlos could be higher though as she's so relevant to synth music).

15 – Brian Eno
14 – Vince Clarke
13 – John Paul Jones
12 – Gershon Kingsley
11 – Mike Oldfield
10 – Herbie Hancock
9 - Giorgio Moroder
8 – Wendy Carlos
7 – Daft Punk
6 - Klaus Schulze
5 – Vangelis
4 – Rick Wright
3 – Tangerine Dream
2 – Kraftwerk
1 - Jean-Michel Jarre

That's a pretty decent list.

JmJ for me is num1 not because of what JmJ did musically with synths.

Instead because of JmJ opening up Electronic music to be embraced by general masses Worldwide.

A direct effect of which is the success of every Electronic musician : Vangelis, TDream, KWerk, DMode, Psb, Prodigy, Enigma, Daft Punk, you name it.

As a result of these two factors, Electronic music is a massive industry for companies as Korg, Roland, Yamaha,
Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, Erika Synths, Boutique synths makers, various Software makers.

For these reasons, I would say JmJ is single most important person in history of Electronic music.