RIP Avicii (Mod warning in op)

Summer 2014. I had True permanently embedded in the CD player of the van. Every second weekend I was off work and I'd have it on driving the 3 hours to my girlfriends place. Wed still have it on while we spent the weekend driving all over Scotland going to new places, stopping in the most random little towns for food, looking for somewhere to have sex in private.
I had boat loads of money, freedom, great weather and banging tunes.
It was the first time in my life I felt young, like i finally truly experienced youth without the bull**** of being a teenager and the music played a huge part in making that atmosphere.

I don't normally care about celebrity deaths but its hard not to be upset when its a person who's art meant something to you, even if it was just brainless EDM for the masses

We've come a long way since that day
And we will never look back, at the faded silhouette

I love these lines. When my fiancée and I were doing things long distance (Ireland to NL), I may have used them in a letter to describe how she could let me move on from some hang-ups of mine.

The guy was only 2 years older than me, crazy to hear that he died.

I was very shocked to see this legend die yesterday.

I am a young songwriter who has wrote many songs and though you all here don't know of it, my most popular of those songs is 'Never Give Up' which I wrote to inspire those on the verge of committing suicide or just need some motivation to live their dreams. Life is short and can be cut even shorter so why not go and enjoy it? What has this got to do with Avicii? Remember Avicii's 2014 song 'The Nights'? That was the song that inspired the whole premise for my song 'Never Give Up'. If it weren't for this song and him, I wouldn't have wrote my song which people in my school, family etc know me well for now. It gained more than 250 likes on my Facebook within a few hours which for a bad singer and young songwriter like myself with little to no advertising I think is not bad. I even have this top commemorating my song (please excuse me in it ):



We all have our own inspirations for something and Avicii was my inspiration. Rest in pieces you freaking awesome man. Thanks to you, I am living a life I will remember! I really cannot put down in words how saddening this news got me last night.

You make me! Bro

I see on wiki the drink had a huge effect on his health.
Did he ever speak about it or discuss the problems with the media / fans?

I was aware of him, but never listened to him, although it's hard not to be familiar with the songs when you hear them.

Always sad when a hero / legend / icon to so many passes away, especially so young.

whiskeyman wrote: »

I see on wiki the drink had a huge effect on his health.
Did he ever speak about it or discuss the problems with the media / fans?

I was aware of him, but never listened to him, although it's hard not to be familiar with the songs when you hear them.

Always sad when a hero / legend / icon to so many passes away, especially so young.

There are interviews with him where he basically talks about the overwhelming peer pressure of working in Ibiza as a superstar - the constant afterparties, the "sure who needs sleep, we're still young" kind of lifestyle - we've all lived it at some point in our lives, but from his interviews it seems that if you're an Ibiza superstar on that performance circuit, it's not just a treat at the end of a long week or a special occasion, it's literally every single night, and the Fear Of Missing Out syndrome reigns supreme especially in the era of snapchat and instagram, where if you decide to go home early, you literally see whatever craic you decided to skip when you wake up the next morning.

Obviously some people are able to manage themselves in that environment but it's understandable that many can't - particularly if they're so young when it starts for them. Again I'd put it to ye that if you think back to being 18 or 19, for a lot of people the only thing which prevented someone from taking the party hard lifestyle too far was a lack of disposable income. I for one shudder to think what I might have turned into if I'd had enough cash in hand to go out on the piss every single night during my first few years out of school - you don't have any sense of "when it stops being fun, take a break" at that age, it's all about pushing yourself to the absolute limit.

In Avicii's case, he also didn't particularly like the fame / spotlight aspect of it, and talked regularly about how it made it uncomfortable that he would be recognised everywhere and so on. I'd imagine that this would only add to a person's fledging substance abuse situation if they were under constant stress in that way.

This article does a decent job of summing up Avicii's relationship with the Ibiza superstar lifestyle he found himself plonked into:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/20/avicii-appreciation-the-poster-boy-for-edm-who-struggled-with-the-spotlight

zetalambda wrote: »

First time i've seen that video It's vaguely similar to the video for "I could be the one" in that there's an office worker going nuts.

All, or almost all Avicii videos have one or two random spoken word segments thrown in - specifically to make people less likely to just rip the music for free from YouTube instead of buying the download. Pretty clever move, always surprised more artists didn't follow suit.

knucklehead6 wrote: »

Not a fan of electronic music but I’d say those of you who are pretending to not know who he was were positively creaming yourselves over this from a while back

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1A6__HssHW8

Early 40’s here and am so not with it that I make Grandpa Simpson look clued in but I’d at least heard of the lad.

You're right. I had no idea but I've heard that loads. I wouldn't even know what that was called.

To be fair though I don't listen to the radio at all I would have only heard it in pubs and they never announce who the singer was.

dsaint1 wrote: »

Yeah, really sad that a druggie ends his life so soon....

Between 2012 and 2016, Avicii made nearly $90 million from his music.

Started touring when he was 18

While this is funny, there is a serious element there in the message about young kids, pressure, and the challenges on your mental health.

I hope we all start talking about these issues more, especially when it comes to our young people, those alone, and those struggling to handle it all.

Debtocracy wrote: »

How on earth is it possible to avoid Avicii? You’d have to set all your radios to Grandad’s Golden Oldies FM, block all music stations on your tv, never go to a pub or nightclub.

In 50 years’ time people will still be listening to Avicii. And at that time all the pretentious knobs now will be telling their grandchildren about the first time they heard Levels.

Quite easily actually. Whilst I have heard of the person Avicii, before I heard of his death I would not be able to tell you one track of his, nor would I able able to identify one if it came on the radio.

If a dancey track came on the radio, I might turn it up, or if in a night club, I might hit the floor, but it's not my usual genre. Not all pubs and radios play dance or house as well, and have rarely heard the DJ in a club, announce the singer/producer of a track they just played.

Anyway, credit and respect where it's due, and RIP to the man.