There are no other artists in the history of EDM music that can fuse country and progressive house together than Tim Bergling aka Avicii. His previous tracks “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother” brought EDM a step closer to country music. It may not be the kind of country music we have known but, Bergling gave us a taste of the future of what music may sound like.
Photo Credit: Tim Bergling aka Avicii/ edm.com
EDM and Country Music Together
But can we really call his songs “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother” as EDM country? Did Avicii consider his music as a step closer to country? In an interview, Avicii said that EDM is losing its touch. It becomes unoriginal, and the beat sounds all the same. Maybe this might be the reason why Avicii fused two big genres in music. He wanted to stand out. He wanted to be remembered by the music he made instead of doing what other music producer does.
“If I wanted to make a quick buck there are far easier ways of doing it. What I want is to provoke people. If you want a hit song, all you need to do is rewrite an old song. It might have been proven to work but you won’t be remembered the same way.”
Avicii’s Take in Labeling Music
But does even Avicii himself called his singles “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother” country EDM? The truth is, even if people try to put a label into each song, Bergling doesn’t consider his two singles as Country EDM. The reason why he doesn’t consider it as country EDM is that Bergling doesn’t want any labels on his music. Because if there’s a label given to a piece of certain music, the song becomes repetitive and boring. People will only create songs the same as what is found or known in that genre. Instead, he produced songs that came from different forms of music.
“My music stems from all forms of music, whether it’s considered country EDM, blues techno or jazz trap doesn’t really matter to me anymore.”
“Wake Me Up”
Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” was written by Aloe Blacc, the singer of the track, and Mike Einziger. The song was the first debut on a music festival where people became confused about the music they were hearing. It was a tragic moment because people who heard it didn’t accept it at first. However, the song eventually charted the top of different charts in and outside of the US. “Wake Me Up” is a combination of EDM, country, and a touch of soul music. Meanwhile “Hey Brother” was a fusion of bluegrass, country pop, and dance music.
“Hey Brother”
“Hey Brother” was one of the tracks from his True album. In this song, Bergling collaborated with the bluegrass singer Dan Tyminski. The song became extremely popular that it was able to infiltrate the Country Airplay charts in the US. Despite that many claims that Avicii’s music would only ruin real country music, it was still played on country radios. The reason why they think it will ruin country music is that the pressure it gives to country artists to create songs similar to the sound of Avicii’s.
However, just like what Bergling said, his songs are not labeled as country music at all. Instead, this is just his way to express what kind of songs he was into at the moment.
What do you think of Avicii’s crossover EDM songs?