Under Control by Calvin Harris- Coursework

Under Control: Calvin Harris & Alesso (BARE TRAP Remix)

The track that I have decided to use is the remixed version of Calvin Harris’ & Alesso’s ‘Under Control’. The song includes a slower beginning, which increases in tempo as the song develops. The perpetual beat on the track is the main feature of the song drawing the audience’s attention to the dance beat, hence meeting the conventions that is required for a dance music track.

Calvin Harris is a highly successful DJ, singer and songwriter, who has broken the record for having the most top 10 songs from a single album on the UK singles chart. Harris utilises the electroclash and dance music genre through a number of his albums. For instance, the album ‘Motion’ in which was released in November 2014 and obtains the song ‘Under Control’, became Harris’ second consecutive number one album on the US Dance/Electronic Album charts. Harris has claimed that one of his primary influences is Fat Boy Slim, whose records helped to cultivate and popularise the big beat genre. This later developed to achieve mainstream popularity in the 1990s. This would have created audience recognition for the beat genre. Calvin Harris has been able to retain audience recognition, as he is known for having been nominated and awarded music industry awards such as Grammy’s and Brits Awards. This creates audience identification with mainstreamers in particular as his musical style genre began to become widely accepted and loved. His popularity for him and his musical style is evidently shown by the fact that he has over forty-one million monthly listeners on Spotify, which emphasises that his audience reach is significant not only in the UK, but globally. The songs collaboration with the Swedish DJ, Alesso would additionally have made the response towards the song much more successful, especially in regards to the dance genre, owing to the fact that Alesso’s work is highly credited as a DJ and his work has been praised by the 80s pop singer icon Madonna by the statement that he is ‘the next big thing in dance music’. Madonna has worked with many music professionals over her long standing music career, so her input is significant as her audience’s identification was and is mainstreamers. This helps to enhance his establishment as a mainstream artist. His musical style captures the utilization of melodic vibes and produces a gravelled rave style that incorporates elements of self- expressionism and is able to reach a mainstream audience.