He is a pioneer in the electronic , ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanied by vast laser displays , large projections and fireworks. Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents and trained on the piano.
From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including street performers, jazz musicians and the artist Pierre Soulages. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 18 million copies. More albums followed, but his concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world.
Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events. As of , Jarre had sold an estimated 80 million albums and singles. For the first eight years of his life, Jarre spent six months each year at his maternal grandparents' flat on the Cours de Verdun, in the Perrache district of Lyon. Jarre's grandfather was an oboe player, engineer and inventor, designing an early audio mixer used at Radio Lyon.
He also gave Jean-Michel his first tape recorder. Jarre struggled with classical piano studies, although he later changed teachers and worked on his scales.
These early jazz experiences suggested to him that music may be "descriptive, without lyrics". Soulages' paintings used multiple textured layers, and Jarre realised that "for the first time in music, you could act as a painter with frequencies and sounds.
