"Faded" by Alan Walker (ft. Iselin Solhein), Friday, October 29, 2021
ETERNAL SILENCE OF THE SEA. I remember a couple of years ago, a student of mine was talking about music. She asked, "Is Alan Walker a woman?" I knew very little about the musician, but I explained that these days DJs make music and get credit for the song, even though they don't sing the lyrics. In 2014, when Walker first released his instrumental "Fade," he was in high school, too young to go to the club in his home of Norway. Born to a Norwegian mother and British father, Philip Alan Walker worked with several producers to make "Fade" into a pop hit. With the uncredited vocals of Norwegian singer Iselin Solhein, the song was a massive hit around the world and is still Walker's best know song. Iselin sang several tracks on Walker's debut full-length album, 2018's Different World. The music video for "Faded" was filmed in an abandoned quarry in Estonia and has an eerie feeling. As of July 2021 it was the 20th most viewed video on YouTube and the 13th most viewed music video. It was the first EDM music video to receive 3 billion views. The song also is the 45th most streamed song on Spotify. These statistics are telling of a subtle shift in music being credited to artists to music being credited to producers.
THE MONSTER'S RUNNING WILD INSIDE OF ME. Alan Walker says that he takes musical inspiration from Hans Zimmer. "Faded" starts out as a piano-based tune and then adds electronic distortions by the chorus. When I spent my evenings in a gym that played a lot of English EDM, I noticed the similarities between the songs. So many of them were female sung-slow versed tracks that built to the chorus or, more commonly, the drop. "Faded" was a little different because of the minor key and the singer was quite captivating. There were a few other factors that makes this song capture an era for me, though. In 2016, I was in the middle of a rough year. I had work stress, a long-distance relationship, boredom from living in a rural part of Korea, and to make matters worse, I started getting neck and shoulder pain. One coworker said that I should start exercising, so I researched a gym and paid them a visit. The gym that I joined was in a neighborhood a thirty-minute bus ride away. The trainers were very friendly and attractive, so I started going. At first three days a week, and then four or five days a week. It was expensive, and I wanted to get my money's worth! From March of 2017-December 2019, I was pretty dedicated to the gym. I liked how it made me feel. I liked seeing a scalped body. I liked seeing the scalped bodies around me at the gym. "Faded" was a soundtrack of that time.
Official Music Video:
Restrung (acoustic):
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