This article was first published on the public account: ECO ECHO Music
With the rapid growth of the EDM market, many DJs have swept the world's nightclubs in one night and are quickly crowding the ranks of the top 100 DJs. However, most of this model has nothing to do with luck, nor is it a sudden sign-in to the lottery, but a bloom of several years of hard work. Zedd is a good example of a decade of cold window no one asked, and it became famous in one fell swoop.
Born in 1989 into a Musical Family in Russia, Zedd began learning piano at the age of 4 and drumming at the age of 12, and incredibly, he formed a metal band Dioramic at the age of 13 (2002), which was signed by the record label Lifeforce Records in 2009. In 2004, when Zedd was 15 years old, the band won the local Local-Heroes-Bandcontest in Germany.
However, by chance, Zedd came into contact with the music of the French electronic duo Justice, and he had the idea of making electronic music. Although his EDM songs became famous in the world, you would never have guessed that he would have played death rock before this. Zedd later mentioned that he was listening to Daft Punk when he first came into contact with electronic music.
Later, after hearing the music of the French electronic duo Justice, he felt that he was very distinctive in both timbre and arrangement, and then in 2009 he began to teach himself to produce electronic music, spanning progressive house, dubstep and classical music.
In 2009, he began to use the Zedd name to debut, and in the early days he mainly did Remix and a little creation, and the most played was Remix Lady GaGa's "Born This Way". Lady Gaga, a global idol singer who has a crush on Zedd, made an official mix for Lady Gaga in 2011, and before making this album, she just auditioned Zedd's sample song and did not hesitate to call her agent: "You have to sign this young man, I want to make the next album with him, take him to my concert tour."
Gaga's affirmation led Universal Records to sign Zedd immediately, and Zedd then appeared at Lady Gaga's Asian concerts, which also played a crucial role in the accumulation of popularity and resources in Zedd's career. Although Zedd became famous because he worked as an album producer for Lady Gaga, he actually became famous earlier when Zedd's "Slam the Door" climbed to the top of the Beatport charts.
Zedd's first album, Clarity, was released in 2012, which was later released in a special edition in 2013 and featured the single with Halee Williams.
The album has many songs with the singer, including "Spectrum", "Lost At Sea", "Clarity", "Fall Into The Sky", "Follow You Down" with his precise and solid production, easily touching many electronic fans. Zedd blended his classical influences from childhood, the inspiration he brought from his time in Justice to mix, and his experiments and explorations in electronic mixing to make himself into the mainstream music scene.
Zedd has always been good at adding singular colors to music, such as in the song "Follow You Down", Bright Lights slowly chanted with her slightly hoarse voice, combined with the cheerful beat of the synthesizer to create a psychedelic effect; the same single "Clarity" with British singer Foxes reached number three on the AMERICAN electronic dance album chart and No. 8 on billboard Hot 100. It also won the 56th Annual Grammy Award for Best Dance Music in 2014 and the European EBBA Awards, and the song shows the lover's intransigence in the face of a doomed relationship.
Another single with Matthew Koma, "Spectrum", not only swept Europe and the United States, but also became popular in Asia through the cover of the South Korean SM Entertainment group. Spectrum uses the MV to depict a story of twists and turns between a human male and an alien woman. Through lyrics and MVs, the most authentic emotions and feelings of human beings are expressed, whether it is love, loss, satisfaction or anxiety, it is a new experience and journey.
A few years before the album's release, the young producer had already remixed songs from The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga and many other big names, and his outstanding musical talent made Zedd, who was only in his early 20s at the time, quickly become a rising star in the field of electronic music.
In September 2013, "Stay The Night" was released with Hayley Williams, and at that time, Zedd's prelude to Bullid up to Drop was really very exciting, so that the hot "Z trend" at that time continued.
The single received Platinum Record Certification, as well as the MTV Best MV Award and the AMERICAN ASCAP Pop Award. In the same year, he participated in the production of Lady Gaga's new studio album ARTPOP, and created three popular singles "Aura", "Donatella" and "G.U.Y.".
In July 2014, Zedd began to paint his own color in the electronic music industry, and Zedd, who was full of heterosexuals, then collaborated with pop diva Ariana Grande on the list of the most popular electronic single Break Free at the time, and the two also appeared in the same frame in their music videos. It was also the first time Ariana Grande, who was in charge of the vocals section, had tried electronic music as a pop singer.
The year was the peak of Zedd, and Break Free went straight to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100! Youtube hits a staggering 1 billion hits. On December 18, Zedd released his first solo documentary on his solo tour Moment of Clarity.
In February 2015, they collaborated with selena Gomez, the most suitable female vocalist, "I Want You To Know", and the source of their collaboration was only a chance encounter on a toilet, the two people's studios were diagonally diagonally diagonally diagonally on the street, and according to them, after this inexplicable encounter, the new super red single March "Beautiful Now" was created the next day.
This song is a must-have song for every nightclub in China, and it is also one of Zedd's favorite opening songs. The song's MV tells five stories, namely a woman who wants to drown herself, an old man climbing a very deadly and dangerous mountain, a man's home being robbed, a thief played by Zedd who steals alcohol in a supermarket and is caught, and a woman committing suicide by lying on the track.
The song can also be said to be acclaimed and popular, in addition to reaching the first place in the Billboard dance music rankings, it was also selected by 13-19-year-old teenagers as the party song at that time, selling more than 1 million copies in the United States. The single once again took first place in the Billboard Hot 100. The second album, True Color, won the first place in Billboard's electronic dance music.
In 2016, Riot invited Zedd to compose the official theme song "Ignite" for the 2016 League of Legends World Finals, and also performed as a guest at the scene of the finals to perform the opening performance of the competition. "Candyman", released on February 26, caused a sensation at the time after the release of the song.
Many entertainers are not only stars, but also philanthropists, and Zedd has used charity performances to provide disaster relief resources to the Philippines after the Storm of Petrel hit the country. And this isn't the first time he's contributed to philanthropy, as Zedd has maintained a great personal relationship with Linkin Park band members, especially lead singer Chester Bennington.
After Chester Bennington's suicide in 2017, in order to commemorate his deceased friend, Zedd took the initiative to participate in Chester Bennington's charity charity performance and performed as the band's drummer at the performance. Although the atmosphere of the event was unusually depressing, the very significance of the performance itself was undoubtedly to allow everyone to get together and release their emotions. All proceeds from the show will go to the Music For Relief Foundation Association, a charitable foundation created after Chester Bennington's death.
In 2017, a similar fundraising concert was held at LA's "Staples Center", and all the proceeds of this performance were donated to the ACLU. The event brought in Don't let me down female voice Daya, Closer's Halsey, Imagine Dragons and Skrillex.
In July 2017, Zedd and singer and former One Dierction member Liam Payne released the single "Get Low," a song full of summer and tropical feel that Zedd said was one of his most Urban works to date. It's also a style that's far removed from the traditional EDM than STAY, with the constant repetition of drums, the brisk style and Payne's male-fueled voice throughout the song. The single "Stay", released in February with Canadian singer and songwriter Alessia Cara, has seen 440 million hits on YouTube.
In January 2018, when everyone thought ZEDD was exhausted, "The Middle" appeared, and Zedd brought in Maren Morris, the singer who just won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance in 2017, and The singer Of Comeing Home, Gray.
Zedd has accomplished a lot of incredible things in his career, however, The Middle's achievement was to break the previous record held by The Chainsmokers and the late Avicii, occupying the number one spot on Billboard for the best electronic dance music that lasted for 28 weeks. By comparison, The Chainsmokers' Closer lasted 27 weeks, and Avicii's Wake Me Up lasted 26 weeks.
In March, Billboard named Zedd 7th in its 2018 dance musician ranking "Billboard Dance 100." In April, he collaborated with his friend American composer Brian Tyler to release the song "One Strange Rock". Released in July, "Happy Now" was released, and this time Zedd found a singer who was not well known, Elle.
On July 3, Zedd held its first Zedd In The Park with Whitehan, Medasin, Oliver Tree, Brownies & Lemonade, with 16,000 tickets sold out. On September 27, he collaborated with Canadian singer Shawn Mendes on the first mix of the single "Lost in Japan". The single quickly moved to the top 40 charts. The two collaborated on "Lost in Japan" at the 2018 American Music Awards on Oct. 10, and performed the song again on the Victoria's Secret lingerie show on Nov. 8, 2018.
In 2019, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the release of Matthew Koma and Zedd's classic single "Spectrum", Matthew Koma exposed Zedd's little-known side in a long article on social platforms, mainly accusing Zedd of his selfish behavior when the two worked together.
The article is a bit long, and the more important ones are: Matthew said that the lyrics of the song "Spectrum" were written by himself, and Zedd said in an interview that he wrote it; Zedd also owed him money for the song "Spectrum" for several years; when collaborating on "Find You", Zedd said that he did not want to hear Matthew Koma's voice; and the lyrics and melody of "Clarity" were written by Matthew Koma Zedd, on the other hand, blamed himself; Matthew Koma felt that his voice was not quite suitable for the song "Clarity", so he matched Zedd to find Foxes to sing. In the end, the song was so successful that Zedd didn't appreciate it, not even inviting Matthew Koma when he took the Grammys; Zedd could only play the piano in C keys, but he had the title of "genius classical pianist".
This was a big melon, and this article also received sympathy and support from Iron Uncle Tiësto, Nicky Romero, Bebe Rexha, Rukes and others at the time.
On February 14, he cooperated with Fruit Sister to release "365". In April, she performed on Coachella's main stage and performed live with Fruit Sister, Alessia Cara and Maren Morris. On May 1, Zedd announced his "Orbit Tour" and began touring in the fall with Swedish duo NOTD and British DJ Jax Jones. In September, Zedd performed as a live performer for the Overwatch League's Second Season Finals for fans. On September 27, the single "Good Thing" was released with American R&B singer-songwriter Kehlani.
Zedd meets all the advantages that an electronic music producer would normally have – a very rich, natural, and innovative approach to orchestration ideas, timbre rhythm details, and more.
"I wanted to create a story, a mini-movie. A lot of the electronic music is very simple, that's not bad, but there are a lot of electronic sounds that don't have musicality, and what I want to do is put the influence of classical music and jazz on me into the electronic music. ”
(Some of the pictures are from the Internet, invaded and deleted.) Walking hot single manufacturing machine: Monkey Zedd