The biggest genre on YouTube is Music. Music songs and videos on YouTube reach millions of views everyday. The biggest subscribed music artists and groups on YouTube are Justin Bieber, Blackpink, Marshmello, and BTS. Each holds tens of millions of subscribers with videos reaching millions of views from all over the world. However, most joined onto YouTube to help gain further popularity and fans. Many did not start on the platform, but those that did like Alan Walker have shown that YouTube can be a great place to start up one’s career.
Alan Olav Walker or Alan Walker for short, is a DJ and record producer. He currently is the most subscribed YouTuber from Norway, having almost 40 million subscribers on his channel. But he is most remembered for his music video called, “Faded” which managed to become one of the top 20 most-viewed videos on the platform with it currently holding over 3 billion views.
Not only that, it also became ranked as one of the top ten most liked videos on the platform and won multiple platinum awards in 14 different countries.
While impressive for an EDM music artist and DJ, Walker’s story is quite inspiring. Born in Northampton, England in 1997, he mainly grew up in Norway when his family moved when he was just two years old. As a young boy, Walker held a lot of fascination with computers. He originally was interested in graphic design and computer programming. However, that all changed when he first began to listen to music artists on YouTube.
In 2012, Walker began to listen to music artists like K-391 and Ahrix. Having loved the songs produced by these artists, he began to experiment in creating his own music. Using only his laptop and a program called FL Studio, he began to post songs on YouTube and SoundCloud where he slowly began to gain a following. When Walker released his most famous song, “Faded”, he became a global celebrity. As AllMusic wrote, “‘Fade’ was a huge success, eventually garnering a staggering 65 million hits, and was followed by two more equally cinematic (if somewhat less popular) songs, ‘Spectre’ and ‘Force.’” He went on multiple different tours across the world. Visiting countries like Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, and France, he attracted hundreds of thousands to attend his concerts. And the reason how he still manages to be a popular music artist is his style of music.
Walker’s music style has mainly been defined as being EDM or Electro Dance Music since many enjoy listening and dancing to some of his songs. One recent song he released was called “Sorry” which had that EDM style but also sprinkled in some Big Room House and Deep House Styles in the background. While the lyrics sound random, the message given by Walker for this particular song in the description of the music video held a positive message.
In remembering back to his 2019 tour called Aviation Tour, he stated, “I know it’s easy to think about all of the negatives that have happened in the past year, but Walkers, let’s come together to think about all that we’re grateful for too. For me, there’s nothing that matches the energy of a live concert and being together with you all in the same room. Here are some of my favorite moments from the Aviation Tour.” This message of remembering the good times was also followed along with looking forward to the future.
In the end, Walker still attracts hundreds of thousands of views for many of his videos. Recent hits like “Fake a Smile” having over 16 million views and “Space” with 8.1 million views show that he is not slowing down anytime soon even after being on the platform for almost nine years. He also plans to hold a tour during the summer to 8 different countries as his website stated.
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