walking upstream…
Martin Garrix
photo: web summit · cc by 2.0 ↗Martin Garrix
Martijn Garritsen was an eight-year-old in Amstelveen when he watched Tiësto's three-hour set open the 2004 Athens Olympics on television and decided, on the spot, that he wanted to be a DJ. Within a decade the teenager was producing hits from his bedroom; "Animals" (2013), released at 17, made him the youngest artist ever to top the Beatport chart and set the template — a huge, filtered progressive-house build detonating into a big-room drop — that carried him to the top of DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs poll multiple times over. He has since widened his palette across pop-EDM crossovers, film scores, and his own STMPD RCRDS label, mentoring the next generation the way Tiësto, Avicii, and David Guetta once mentored him.
the sound in question
2013
AnimalsMartin Garrix
walk the tributaries ↓
Tiësto2000s · Trance / Electronic dance music / Progressive house
Garrix has said directly that watching Tiësto's set at the 2004 Athens Olympics opening ceremony is the reason he got into electronic music at all — he was so struck by the track 'Traffic' that he downloaded FL Studio soon after. The DNA of that trance-into-anthem instinct, one motif built to swell a whole stadium, is still the basic shape of a Garrix drop.
listen: upstream & heresource: DJ Mag — "Martin Garrix ↗
2003
TrafficTiësto
2013
AnimalsMartin Garrix
listen forCue up Tiësto's 'Traffic' and then Garrix's 'Animals' — different tempos and eras, but the same trick of stacking a single filtered lead higher and higher until it detonates into the drop.
Avicii2010s · Progressive house / EDM / Folktronica
Avicii took the young Garrix under his wing as a support act during his own meteoric rise, and 'Levels' — with its bright, chord-driven progressive-house motif and a vocal sample dropped in mid-track — is a clear blueprint for the emotive, festival-ready builds Garrix leaned into once he moved past straight big-room electro. The pair went on to write together directly, most famously on 'Waiting for Love.'
listen: upstream & heresource: EDM House Network — Avicii & Garrix's 'Waiting for Love' 10th anniversary retrospective ↗
2011
LevelsAvicii
2015
Waiting for LoveMartin Garrix
listen forPlay Avicii's 'Levels' against Garrix and Avicii's own 'Waiting for Love' — both ride one keyboard-driven motif from a hushed intro to a full-room piano-and-synth peak instead of a distorted electro-house drop.
David Guetta2010s · House / Electro house / Dance-pop / EDM
Garrix has named Guetta alongside Tiësto as a mentor, saying they're 'the reason he makes music' and crucial to his growth — Guetta having already proven, with 'Titanium,' that a big-room build could carry a full pop vocal hook to global radio rather than staying club-only. Garrix's own vocal-led festival anthems, 'In the Name of Love' chief among them, follow that same pop-crossover template.
listen: upstream & heresource: Dancing Astronaut — Garrix on Tiësto and David Guetta as mentors, The Martin Garrix Show ↗
2011
TitaniumDavid Guetta
2016
In the Name of LoveMartin Garrix
listen forCompare the piano-and-vocal build of Guetta's 'Titanium' to Garrix and Bebe Rexha's 'In the Name of Love' — both let a pop topline carry the emotional weight, with the drop arriving as release rather than the whole point.