Avicii: The DJ Who Took Em to New 'Levels'

In this report, I am going to research more depth of my presentation topic, present more about how EDM evolve from the old America music such as hip hop, disco and dub. Furthermore, this report will be consist of three part which are history of EDM and relation with American music, how the music show about America society and of course the genius who combine EDM and folk, country music and etc. which seems impossible, received a lot of critics. Besides, I will express my personal opinion on how Avicii’s EDM impact today’s music, youngster and society.

Avicii was not his real name, his real name was Tim Bergling. He was born on 8 September 1989 at a town name Stockholm located in Sweden. At age of 16, he had already started to produce his own remixes music on some electronic forum. This small action had led him become Avicii today. He pour out all the effort and continue his production, his hard work was paid off in year 2011. His remix music “Levels” had level up his prominence and make the world start wonder who is this boy. In my opinion, “Levels” would be so famous not only because it sounded amazing at club or festival, but also the uniqueness of the vocal and MTV. Firstly, the synth melody and beat drop give life to this music, then he using the effect of echo and the drums. There is no singer in the entire music but in the mid of the music, Avicii lift Etta James' inimitable voice from the 1962 R&B classic "Something's Got a Hold on Me", it was surprisingly calm when “ahhh I got a good feeling ..” In addition, there is no single lyrics in the music but there is MTV presented with someone is out stress by work, combining the scene with the music make “Level” one of the well-known music in this world.

We will talk about greatness of Avicii blended EDM with different genre of music such as country, folk, blue and etc. but before that let us see the core of EDM. When we say EDM, what will pop up in youngster and old folks mind are the same, it is music for club, dance and shake in the festival. The reason is legit because wide range of EDM was remixed for nightclub and festivals.

How EDM were produced?

It was a kind of playback by Disc Jokeys, which normally short form as DJ. When you are using several tracks and segueing them, it will be call as remix. The origins of Electronic Dance Music go back to the 1960s .Bands such as Silver Apples created electronic music that could be danced to. In 1969, Gershon Kingsley released "Popcorn", considered by many to be an early example of Electronic Dance Music. EDM genres have evolved over the last 40 years from electro, techno, house, trance, drum and bass etc. EDM had widely affected by Dub, Hip hop and disco. Dub music, a Jamaican music stemming from roots reggae and sound system culture. It is a remixed reggae tracks that emphasized rhythm, fragmented lyrical and melodic elements, and reverberant textures. The production require tap editing, this is what I believe it’s then become important element of EDM.

Hip hop music has played a key role in the development of electronic dance music since the 1970s. EDM learned the technique developed by DJ Kool Herc playing two copies of the same record on two turntables, which is famous in Hip Hop. Lastly, disco had use a lot of drum machine impacted EDM todays, prior to George McCrae's early disco hit "Rock Your Baby", it is first record to use a drum machine in year 1974.

Impact of EDM spread widely in both Europe and American Society due to the mainstream idea of people in media. Mainstream media outlets, and the record industry, remained hostile to EDM. “ Like all the dance music in history”, EDM was perceived drug related music. This becomes more true after Rave and Club culture go popular. There is a lot of incident happened in club but I believe this is nothing to do with music but human, time and venue themselves.

Club is a place operating in night time in a dark condition, this give ease of drug trading underground. There is number of death case due to drug at club under EDM music hence brought people this kind of impression to public. One of the famous examples is drug-related deaths during Electric Zoo 2013 in New York City, United States. This impact Future Music Festival Asia 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, prompted the final day of both events to be cancelled because concern about issues above. Many EDM music festivals were banned due to this case.

In American society, governments at state and city level to enact laws and policies intended to halt the spread of rave culture. Thanks to media, there is a lot of effort done to rebrand EDM in public eyes in the early 2010s, rebrand American rave culture. In fact there is still some umbrella term by government to be use in EDM to prevent bad vibes spread among youngsters today. Avicii had changed people’s perspective on EDM by spreading positive vibes in his lyrics, such as “live a life you will remember” from “The Nights”, encouraging people to seize opportunity to live a meaningful life. In addition, no longer present EDM music with the MV of people are partying, rock in the festival and drinking. His MV “Broken Arrows” hit 58 million views in YouTube, an inspiring new video, chronicling an Olympic athlete's comeback story. The main character of this video is Richard Radomski, a fictional Olympic athlete suffering from alcoholism. Because of this problem, he doesn’t spend enough time with his daughter and his sporting career is in danger. After he managed with help from his daughter to overcome the problem, Richard win the gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics. As the video’s opening said, the script is inspired by a true story: Dick Fosbury, an American athlete who competed in the high jump, managed in 1968 to win a gold metal after he invented the “Fosbury Flop.” So, who say EDM cannot be inspired and spread positive things in the world? Then, his debut studio album True featured a blending of music genres, including folktronica.

While making the album, Bergling wanted to fuse the electronic music genre with soul, funk, blues, folk and country, as he felt that EDM had become too focused on "dirty drops". Country music has more family-friendly lyrical content. More and more EDM dance DJs and producers have been bringing in country singers as featured vocalists on their recordings lately. I personally love combination of EDM and country music so much, it is a really amazing combination, when you can put some loving emotion of country music into a dance music with full of energy (So you can dance with emotion and not like a robot).

The legacy of Avicii ended on April 20th after his body found in Muscat, Oman. Throughout his career, Avicii dealt with numerous health problems. He refuse to go on operation for a few years to complete his dream but worsen his health .In 2014, he had surgery to remove his gallbladder and appendix. These issues eventually led Avicii to retire from touring in 2016, though he continued to make new music. Heroes come and go, but his music and inspiration always living with us, with all due of respect , Rest in Peace, Avicii who taught us to live a life to remember.