It’s not often that two industry-defining singles are released on the same day, but it just so happens to be the case with Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” & Martin Garrix’s “Animals,” both released yesterday, June 17, seven years ago.
2013 was a formative year for electronic music. It was simultaneously the beginning of trap and future bass, as well as the resurgence of what we’d come to call big room house, and the catalyst for more crossover attempts. Ultra and EDC were in a league of their own as far as flagship electronic festivals, but others were beginning to creep in. The old guard was standing strong but newer names were inching their way in.
When Avicii debuted “Wake Me Up” on the Ultra mainstage in 2013, it was met with a heaping dose of skepticism. What was this odd amalgam of dance music notes and country vibes that was pouring out through the mainstage speakers from the same producer that brought us “Levels”? What is happening! 
Now, the song has over 1 billion plays on Spotify.
Martin Garrix released his hit song “Animals” when he was just 17. A young boy from the Netherlands took the electronic industry by storm with a simple yet pulse-pounding track and became the defining face of a genre for years before it grew out of fashion and he evolved and flourished.
Now, the song has over 1.4 billion plays on YouTube.
Both of these tracks changed the course of our industry as we knew it, bringing in fresh sounds and encouraging others to branch out into other genres, as well as giving us some of the most homogeneous mainstage bangers for years.
The fact that they both came out on the same day, something most people would probably never know, may just be a coincidence. But at the same time, one can’t help but wonder if somehow the stars aligned to make it that way.
