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Martin Garrix

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Martin Garrix's real name is Martijn Garritsen, and he was born in 1996 in Amstelveen. At eight he learned to play the guitar. That same year he saw the Dutch DJ Tiësto perform at the opening of the Olympic Games in Athens. It made such an impression that he downloaded the music program FL Studio and began making tracks himself. Later he followed the production course at the Herman Brood Academie in Utrecht.

Music and breakthrough

After a remix for Enrique Iglesias, he signed in 2012 with the Dutch dance label Spinnin' Records. On 16 June 2013 Animals was released, an instrumental track with a hard, buzzing synthesizer melody that bursts loose after a long build-up. The song became a hit in a large number of countries. Garrix became the youngest artist to reach number 1 on Beatport, the big online store for dance music, and in November 2013 Animals reached number 1 in the British chart. He was seventeen at the time. In 2014 he was the youngest DJ ever to headline the Ultra Music Festival in Miami.

Influence

After that Garrix grew into one of the biggest DJs in the world. He made hits such as In the Name of Love and Scared to Be Lonely, founded his own label Stmpd Rcrds in 2016 and was named number 1 on DJ Mag's list of best DJs several times. His story shows how electronic music comes into being in the twenty-first century: with software on a laptop, made by a teenager who saw his role models on television.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Animals and follow the build-up: the tension rises, the rhythm speeds up, and then everything briefly falls silent. Notice what happens next, as the heavy synthesizer melody bursts loose in the drop.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsEDMDutch house