Archive for Music Industry

The Quick Rise of Martin Garrix


Martijn Garritsen, better known by his stage name Martin Garrix, has revolutionized the music industry in recent years, specifically the ways in which artists market themselves. In a period of three short years, Garrix went from an unknown DJ and producer to the #1 DJ in the world and a global icon.

Garrix’ career took off in 2013 when he released the club hit “Animals,” a single that jumped to the top of many dance and pop charts in Europe and America. Receiving over one billion views on YouTube to date, this track opened many doors in Garrix’ career, enabling him to work with major artists such as Ed Sheeran, Usher, Avicii, Khalid, and others. Propelling himself into the spotlight at the young age of seventeen allowed Garrix to market himself based on his youth in addition to the strength of his new collaborations. Furthermore, working with mainstream artists created more exposure than Garrix would have gotten from solely doing his live shows.

As he became more popular, Garrix began changing his style to incorporate more elements from pop music, broadening his audience in the process. He started his own record label – STMPD Records – just last year, the mission of the label being to help up and coming artists get their music heard. With a new record label, promised collaborations with more global artists, and his position secure at the top of DJ rankings across the world, Garrix shows no signs of slowing down. In bringing about change in the ways record labels market their younger artists and get them exposure, Martin Garrix transformed the music industry while simultaneously bringing dance music into the mainstream. These effects can be seen in recent years as younger artists are commonly receiving opportunities to collaborate with bigger artists because of the ways in which their management chooses to market their talents. Garrix’ raw talent and business savvy created the perfect storm as he experienced one of the quickest surges in popularity that the music world has ever seen.

A “Seven Nation Army” Could not Hold Jack White Back

Jack White, famous for being the lead singer of the White Stripes, still impacts the world with his music and brilliant mind. Despite the early 2000’s band breaking up, Jack White continues to crank out his own solo albums, one of which he released this year and climbed to the top of the US 200 Billboard.With deep, often strange lyrics, and screeching, distorted guitar melodies, Jack White tops his performances off with color coordinated clothes, instruments, and lights. Along with producing his own albums, he opened up Third Man Records in 2009, a combination of a record store, studio, and concert venue. After opening up another branch of Third Man in Detroit in 2015, White felt inspired to extend it into a large vinyl-pressing factory in 2017 called Third Man Pressing, making it the only place where records can be made-to-order. Ben Blackwell, co-founder of Third Man Pressing and nephew of Jack White, says that “For Detroit to continue moving forward, you need to have different ideas. [Manufacturing] is a field that’s driven by creativity. That’s something this city has always been flush with.”

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Jack White, while often considered an acquired taste, is one of the most creative and innovative musicians of this decade.  Not only does he have a creative mind, but also a business-like one. Throughout White’s career, he has faced many struggles and criticisms, but he still held his head up high and worked his way to fame. “There are many people out there who will tell you that you can’t,” White says,”What you’ve got to do is turn around and say, ‘Watch me.'” Jack White’s passion is to turn music back into the raw, emotion-filled expression that it used to be, and no one can get in-between an inspired man and his dream. White not only revolutionized the rock n’ roll industry, but he also demonstrated the flexibility of the title of ‘entrepreneur’. Jack White is a living example of where creativity, hard work, and talent can take a person.

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