When I was 16, I thought EDM was the greatest genre on earth. It might be embarrassing to admit to that now, aged 23, but it’s not hard to see why a whole generation of young millennials bought into the genre's vacuous beauty in the first place; there was something quite unifying about it. One spin of “Levels,” a frankly iconic entry in the EDM songbook by Swedish producer Avicii, could transform any wrecked underage festival crowd or a dismal high school house party into a slurring, memorable celebration of a screeching synth and four-to-the-floor beat. Somehow, the once ubiquitous 28-year-old megastar created a formula for sonic euphoria and canned it, cracking it open at every live performance to send crowds of thousands wild.
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But when the news of his death broke on Friday evening, it felt like the first time any of us had mentioned the producer’s name in years. Granted, he'd retired from playing live in 2016, due to health issues reportedly linked to his alcohol intake on the road. By the mid-2010s, lots of listeners had agreed to leave EDM in the past. To music snobs, songs like Avicii’s had become the butt of every pop joke as they watched the genre escape from the nightclubs of Ibiza and permeate the mainstream. It was a strange, if still remarkable thing to witness: by then, we’d replaced sing-along choruses on the charts with behemoth instrumental breakdowns (something that pop stars are still doing to this day). Teenagers were saving up their pocket money to see Tiesto and a bunch of other nondescript white men tear up Creamfields or Electric Daisy Carnival. Dance music festivals overall became havens for fresh-outta-sixth-form kids. Like his stuff or not, you can’t deny that Avicii fuelled some of that temporary madness.Right now, a middle-aged music journalist is piecing together a print obituary laden with Avicii’s dazzling chart statistics (11 singles charting in the UK Top 5) and impressive slots at major music festivals – the most obvious markers of this man's success. Arguably though, the DJ’s more valuable moments are less measurable. It’s the halcyon memories he made for those once-teenage fans, now older, who associate listening to his tracks with their first house party, or memories of sipping painstripper vodka poolside at Mallorca Rocks. It's a tainted glory, for sure, but Avicii’s unambiguous music rarely won him an arselicking from music critics anyway. Instead, this rare and singular legacy feels like one Avicii would have been proud of. For all of EDM’s awful qualities – the way a solid 87 percent sound it exactly the same, and it treated pop songwriting like mere meaningless words designed to be yelled (read: slaughtered by drunk people) over beats – there’s no denying this guy’s work was the tacky glue that held our generation’s messy life experiences together.
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So rather than critique a genre most writers berated anyway, I asked some of the people who embraced EDM’s brilliance to offer up their sweet experiences of it. Here are six once die-hard Avicii fans most potent memories of the DJ – first kisses, Sourz shots and all.Honestly, it’s mad how everyone in London is like, ‘WHO’S THAT?’ about Avicii and I’m like, ‘Fuck me, did you not get wankered off one can to his music in some horrible car park?’. I turned on Avicii as soon as I heard he had he passed away and “Wake Me Up” took me back to a happier time and place. I had just snuck into an over-18s club for the first time and was feeling woozy off two shots of Apple Sourz. He was an icon of his time – [the kind that] high culture doesn’t typically appreciate. So many people have had their first shot, or first kiss, or first pill to his music. In 40 years' time, his songs will make us feel young again. They’re a great gift for him to have left behind.– Andi Buchanan, 21When I was about 15. I had just started drinking, so I was, like, intensely into everything I even remotely liked. Avicii was the soundtrack to some of the best nights of my life at the time, I definitely considered myself a fan back then. Hearing “Levels” takes me back to my first attempts at rolling a joint and sharing it with my friends; to us all chugging from a vodka bottle without a care in the world. But because of that, it also reminds me of the first ‘deep’ conversations I’d have with friends that I don’t really speak to anymore. These parties felt like the first time we could all be independent and say exactly what was on our minds: talking about the future, our problems, our parents. If I could say something to him now, I’d thank him for being the soundtrack to some of my most important life experiences. He was a really talented dude.– Erin Byrne, 20
“I’d just snuck into an over-18s club for the first time”
“Hearing ‘Levels’ takes me back to my first attempts at rolling a joint”
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“I’d just got a bum tattoo in Magaluf when I heard that “oooh sometiiiimes” Etta James sample on ‘Levels’”
“When I saw him live in Ibiza I thought the drug dealers were undercover cops”
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