Then Vs Now #1: Animals Vs Summer Days By Martin Garrix - The Evolution Of A DJ

Hello everyone, and welcome to a new segment of mine called Then Vs Now, where I take a look at an artist's first big hit and then compare it to their latest hit/single. This, like Retrospective Reviews, will allow me to look at older songs and also will allow me to see how far an artist has risen (or fallen). I really didn't know which artist to actually use for this very first Then Vs Now, but, when I recently heard a very familiar drop on the radio that I haven't heard in a long time, my mind was made up.

This will also be the first time I have ever covered EDM on this blog before. For my first few years of high school, I was obsessed with EDM, so much so, I even had aspirations of being a DJ at one point. Hell, I even learned how to make house music on my laptop, I wanted to be one so badly. However, towards the end of my high school career and the beginning of my short lived first year of university, I moved on from EDM, as, towards the end of 2017, most of it began to sound similar to me, and I began listening to indie rock. Don't get me wrong, I still haven't completely grown out of EDM music (I still listen to Sam Feldt, Mike Williams, Vintage Culture, Sander Van Doorn and LVNDSCAPE quite regularly), but it simply isn't something I would say I listen to all the time nowadays.

Now, let me take you back to 2014. I was just starting Grade 9, I was getting used to the hallways and fields of Parktown Boys' High School, and I was really getting into watching rugby, so much so, that one of the many reasons I did First Aid was to get as close to the action as possible (I didn't like sitting/standing in the stands to support much, as I couldn't see much of the action). It was during the U14/U15 Rugby Festival during that year that, while I was on First Aid duty on the Matric/First Team field, that I first heard Animals by Martin Garrix, and I had my first taste of raw, hardcore EDM.

Martin Garrix was only 17 when he released Animals through Spinnin' Records, but that song spread like wildfire throughout 2014. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing that long buildup and then the satisfyingly awesome drop, after a distorted electronic voice said "We're the f'ing animals". Animals was a unique EDM song, as there was nothing else out at the time that sounded anything like it. It was a far harder and more aggressive EDM song than anything else out at the time, and even to this day, I still think it is one of the most aggressive EDM songs to have come out and become popular in recent memory.

That brings me to Martin Garrix's most recent popular hit, Summer Days, featuring Macklemore and Patrick Stump, the lead vocalist of my favorite former punk rock band Fall Out Boy. Martin Garrix has been slowly progressing away from hardcore, aggressive EDM to more soothing, chilled out house music, and, with Summer Days, you can tell he's comfortable with the transition. It is a very easy song to listen to, which leads to multiple listens over a short period of time, and I haven't even gotten to the other artists featured on the song. It is so good to hear Macklemore again. Thrift Shop was such a banger back in 2013, but it seemed, for the longest time, after the end of 2014/beginning of 2015, that Macklemore had faded into obscurity, which was a shame, because Macklemore is one of the more interesting rappers to come out of the 2010s. Patrick Stump doesn't really sound like he does as lead vocalist of Fall Out Boy, but that is to the song's benefit, as I am pretty certain it wouldn't sound as good if he kept his Fall Out Boy voice for this song.

Now, on to the main event of Then Vs Now: which song do I prefer, and, in conclusion, has the artist evolved for the better? Both songs are very different beasts. Animals is a full-on aggressive EDM song that wouldn't be out of place at any rave or nightclub, while Summer Days is something I would imagine myself listening to while lying on the beach taking in the sun or while with someone special. Summer Days is easily the more listenable song, as Animals is so hard and aggressive that I personally can only listen to it once or twice before I have to change the song. That doesn't detract from how good Animals is, its just not an easy song to listen to over and over again. Summer Days is definitely an evolution for Martin Garrix, but I don't necessarily think he's evolved for the worst.

Some have called him a pop sellout, in the vein of Calvin Harris or David Guetta, but I personally enjoy more of Martin Garrix's latest songs than David Guetta's or even Calvin Harris'. Sometimes, selling out isn't a bad thing, and Martin Garrix is proof of that. Yes, I may lament that the world of hard and aggressive EDM lacks his talent (I don't really like much hard and aggressive EDM nowadays), but he has continued to grow as an artist in a direction that I can't really say is bad. It is difficult for me to say, but I do prefer Summer Days to Animals, purely because Summer Days is much easier to listen to than Animals, and also because it, by default, has superior vocals from the likes of Macklemore and Patrick Stump. That is not to say that Animals is inferior to Summer Days, its just that they are two very different songs from two very different genres, and I personally prefer the later song to the earlier song.