The Chainsmokers

The Chainsmokers
The Chainsmokers logo since early 2018
Alexander Pall (left) and Andrew Taggart (right) in an interview with Love This City TV 2015
General information
origin	New York , United States
Genre (s)	Electro-House , EDM , Trap , Future-Bass , Pop
founding	2009
Website	www.thechainsmokers.com
Current occupation
DJ , producer , vocals , guitar	Andrew Taggart (since 2012)
DJ, producer, piano	Alexander Pall
former members
DJ	Rhett Bixler (until 2012)
Tour members
Drums	Matt McGuire (since 2017)
The Chainsmokers logo since 2015

The Chainsmokers is (German "The chain-smoking"), a US-based futures Bass - Duo from New York , which consists of the DJs is Andrew Taggart (* 1989) and Alex Pall (* 1985). In 2014 the duo celebrated their worldwide breakthrough with the song #Selfie . After a genre change, they were able to surpass the success of their debut single in 2016 with Roses and Don't Let Me Down .

Band history

2009 to 2012: Foundation and first publications

The project was founded in 2009 by the art student Alexander Pall and the journalism student Rhett Bixler alias Ciga Rhett. The name originated from the fact that Alex was a smoker at the time and they saw that the domain was available. After they stopped thinking about it, they acquired the rights to the domain. At that time, however, they only appeared as a DJ duo, it was not until the manager Adam Alpert that the direction of the project changed. However, Bixler left it in 2012. However, since various appearances as well as productions were in the room and Pall had to give up his main job, he asked Alpert to help him find a new member. Music business student and “ Interscope ” musician Andrew Taggart, who was also under Alpert's wing, quickly offered himself as a potential replacement. After Alpert told him about the project, Taggart quickly found a liking and joined Pall. The two New Yorkers continued the studio work accordingly.

They first attracted attention with remixes for Dragonette , Two Door Cinema Club and The Wanted . With the Indian actress Priyanka Chopra they recorded the single Erase . As a result, they got a record deal with Republic Records , a sub-label of " Universal ".

On September 28, 2013 they made their first big appearance. This took place at the TomorrowWorld Festival in Atlanta. A few months later they also played at the Ultra Music Festival . They also had guest appearances at performances by Avicii , Pete Tong , Calvin Harris and Steve Aoki, among others .

2014: Global breakthrough with #Selfie

At Steve Aoki's label Dim Mak Records , they released the song #Selfie in early 2014 . Together with the internet marketing company TheAudience , which they had also brought together with the DJ, the Chainsmokers designed a social media concept for the song. They launched a call for selfies - self-portraits made with smartphones - to be included in the music video. To do this, they created an instruction video on YouTube . 2000 images were received within a week. In addition to the selected fan snapshots, self-recordings by Steve Aoki, A-Trak , Snoop Dogg , Ian Somerhalder and David Hasselhoff could also be seen in the video. The plot of the video or the song in turn consists of the self-talk of a woman in a disco who wants to attract a guy's attention with selfies uploaded on Instagram . She is voiced by Alexis Killacam, but portrayed in the video by the American model Lindsey Diane. In addition, the Chainsmokers made short instrumental excerpts of their song available on SoundCloud so that fans could use them to create and upload their own videos.

At the end of January, the video for #Selfie was posted on YouTube and reached a million views by mid-February. Ellen DeGeneres' group selfie from the Oscars on March 2, which set a Twitter record and was answered by the Chainsmokers on Facebook , gave the song an extra boost. With the international single release, the number of hits rose to 30 million in four weeks. The single reached the singles charts in many countries and number one on the US dance charts.

A few months later, the duo released the song Kanye . The song was sung by the American indie pop duo Siren, who wrote the track in collaboration with the New York songwriter Mike Del Rio. The song could not follow the success of the previous single #Selfie . Remixes were published by Steve Aoki , Twoloud and Don Diablo , among others . Compared to #Selfie , Kanye appears more melodic and can be classified in the field of progressive house. The two follow-up singles Let You Go with Bully Songs and Good Intentions with The Great Fine OK continued this style.

On August 31, 2015 the song Split (Only U) was released , which they produced together with Tiësto . The melody of the title is based on the song Only U by Ashanti from 2004. Within a very short time, the big room song rose to number one on the Beatport charts, where it stayed for several days. The song only entered the charts in France and Belgium. On the other hand, the video that the Chainsmokers can see caused a stir, how they kidnap and murder Tiësto, whereupon he takes revenge as the undead.

2015 to 2016: Genre change to future bass

In the summer of 2015, the single Roses was released , which they recorded with the American singer Elizabeth Mencel alias Rozes . While Rozes wrote the verses and the Chainsmokers developed the melody, both Rozes and Andrew Taggart sang the hook together. In early 2016, Roses hit the singles charts in several countries, including the top 10 in the USA and Canada. In the US Hot Dance / Electronic Charts , the song advanced to number one at the end of January 2016 and stayed there for three months.

In 2016 the duo released the single Don't Let Me Down , a trap song in which the American singer Daya contributed the vocals. The Ultra Music Festival , where the song was played by Hardwell, Riggi & Piros and the Chainsmokers themselves, provided strong promotion in March 2016 . They also presented a remix for Don't Let Me Down together with W&W . With top 10 placements in Germany , Norway and Austria , among others , this song was the most commercially successful single of the Chainsmokers and singer Daya to date . At the Grammy Awards in 2017 , the song was the best dance recording of the year award. With the single Closer , released on July 29, 2016 , the Chainsmokers achieved a number one placement on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time . It is the first song in which Taggart sings individual passages from the song alone. They received further support from the American singer Halsey .

On September 29, 2016, the duo released the song All We Know as a single. This is sung by the American singer Phoebe Ryan. Parallel to the single Setting Fires , which is sung by XYL, the EP Collage was released on November 4th, 2016. This contains all releases from that year. Setting Fires could not follow the success of its predecessors and missed, among other things, the jump into the German single charts.

2017: Debut album Memories… Do Not Open

On January 12, 2017, the song Paris was released , which is sung by Taggart and Emily Warren . The title reached the top 10 in Germany, Great Britain and Australia and sold around 1.5 million times within three months. At the same time it was announced that the release of a first studio album was scheduled for April 2017. The first plans for an associated tour in North America until June 2017, on which Lost Frequencies , Kiiara and Emily Warren will accompany the duo, have also been announced.

On February 24, 2017, this was made available for pre-order. On February 22nd, 2017, the duo performed with Coldplay at the BRIT Awards 2017, where they performed their single Something Just Like This . At the same time, the song was released as the second single from their debut studio album. The track ranked second in the official singles charts in over six countries for several weeks behind Ed Sheeran's Shape of You .

The One was released as the third single on March 27, 2017 . In Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain the song reached the official single charts. As with Paris, Emily Warren worked on songwriting.

On April 7, 2017, the album Memories… Do Not Open was released as a download and also on CD . The album contains a total of twelve songs, while the pre-singles were previously released for download from the album, the other nine songs were available for the first time. There are collaborations with Louane , Jhené Aiko and Florida Georgia Line . The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and also reached a top 10 position in most European countries.

After the album was released, The Chainsmokers released the tracks Honest and Young as singles, which, however, consisted exclusively of remix contributions. Honest reached a position in the US charts, while Young brought the duo into the Canadian singles chart.

The Chainsmokers at the South Carolina National Guard's McCrady Training Center

2018: Sick Boy

After they presented a new logo at the beginning of the year, they started the promotional campaign for an upcoming single with several posts in one line of text. This was published on January 17, 2018 with the title Sick Boy after an advertisement was posted in Times Square . The song reached a top 10 position in numerous countries, including Germany and Austria.

On February 16, 2018, the song You Owe Me followed , which was released as an EP with the title Sick Boy ... You Owe Me as an EP with the predecessor. The song could not build on the success of Sick Boy . On March 16, 2018, the track Everybody Hates Me was also released as an EP. As Sick Boy ... Everybody Hates Me , this included all three tracks released in 2018. Remix EPs for the songs were released separately. This was followed by the release of the song Somebody with singer Drew Love.

On July 27, 2018, the duo released their fifth single of the year with Side Effects . They are once again supported by Emily Warren.

On September 18, 2018, the single This Feeling was released , sung by the American country pop singer Kelsea Ballerini . On November 12, 2018, almost 2 months later, the accompanying music video was released. Stylistically, they were influenced by previous successes on the track. After the track, other songs from the album were released, such as Siren and Save Yourself . The latter even got a music video. On December 14th, the last and full version of the album Sick Boy came out. This also contained the new song Hope .

2019: World War Joy

After performing at Ultra Music Festival Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, the song Who Do You Love was released on February 7, 2019. It was recorded in collaboration with the Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer . The accompanying music video was uploaded to YouTube on March 25, 2019 . In the Billboard Hot 100 , the song could reach a placement of 52. In Germany it landed at number 55. As part of the single, they announced a North American tour through 41 cities together with 5 Seconds of Summer for September 2019. Furthermore, the singer and actress Lennon Stella , who can be seen in the television series Nashville , will be there.

The single Kills You Slowly followed on March 29, 2019 . On Spotify , the song reached over 23 million streams and could not connect to Who Do You Love with more than 150 million streams. A remix EP was released on May 24, 2019. Do You Mean was released as the third single on April 26, 2019 together with guest contributions from R&B singer and rapper Ty Dolla $ ign and German-born singer Bülow. On March 31, 2019, they performed for the sixth time in a row at the Ultra Music Festival. There the duo played their song Takeaway, recorded together with producers Illenium and Lennon Stella, for the first time . On May 31, 2019, the duo released the song Call You Mine , which was recorded with the American pop singer Bebe Rexha as a single. This single was able to place in many charts, such as in the German and American. Call You Mine achieved gold status in America only after a few months.

On July 24, 2019, they released the song Takeaway with Illenium and Lennon Stella, after its premiere at the Ultra Music Festival. A week earlier, they started a promotional campaign in which a fictitious chat history was shared between them, Illenium and Lennon Stella on their social media profiles. The official music video was shot in the Vessel in New York City . The song moved into the top 20 of the official single charts in Hungary, Norway and the Czech Republic.

On November 8th, 2019 they released their single "Push my luck"

On December 6th they released their album "World War Joy" with the previous songs from 2019, but also with 4 new songs.

Discography

→ Main article : The Chainsmokers / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	Dance
2017	Memories… Do Not Open	DE11 (15 weeks) DE	AT9 (7 weeks) AT	CH9 (12 weeks) CH	UK3 gold (16 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (78 weeks)US	Dance1 (... week) Dance	First published: April 7, 2017 Sales: + 1,450,000
2018	Sick boy	DE65 (2 weeks) DE	AT41 (7 weeks) AT	-	-	US- gold US	-	First published: December 14, 2018 Sales: + 560,000
2019	World War Joy	-	AT57 (2 weeks) AT	-	-	US65 (11 weeks) US	Dance1 (... week) Dance	First published: December 6, 2019

Awards and nominations

→ Main article : List of awards from the DJ duo The Chainsmokers

swell

1. ↑ The Chainsmokers: Party People on "Thought Catalog"
2. ↑ Digital Smackdown: Ciga-rhett of The Chainsmokers on "Profilepicks"
3. ↑ The Chainsmokers in the " reddit forum"
4. ↑ ^{a b} Marcus Down Ling: Adam Alpert on The Chainsmokers, "#SELFIE," and How to Get Maximum Exposure on "Complex"
5. ↑ Peter Robinson: The Chainsmokers on feuding with Mark Ronson and writing 2016's biggest hit on "The Guardian"
6. ↑ Ryan Mac: Meet The Chainsmokers, The DJs That Survived American Idol on "Forbes"
7. ↑ Sarah Marie Pittman: A Few Minutes With The Chainsmokers on "Pollstar"
8. ↑ The Chainsmokers - The new single "#SELFIE". New Yorker , archived from the original on March 25, 2014 ; Retrieved March 25, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Sam Storch: Behind The Beat | Smokin 'With The Chainsmokers on "Only Beat"
10. ↑ Geoff Herbert: 'Let Me Take a #Selfie': CNY native Lindsey Diane stars in Chainsmokers' hit video. Syracuse.com, April 28, 2014, accessed December 21, 2015 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} Brian Mansfield: Chainsmokers' '#SELFIE' goes viral. In: USA Today . March 16, 2014, accessed April 7, 2016 . 
12. ↑ Bubbling Under: Chainsmokers Get Their Shot With '#Selfie'. In: Billboard . February 21, 2014, accessed April 6, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Ellen DeGeneres breaks the Twitter record. In: Stern . March 3, 2014, accessed April 6, 2016 . 
14. ↑ Information from YouTube, as of March 24, 2014
15. ↑ Gordon Murray: The Chainsmokers Take '#SELFIE' to No. 1 on Dance Chart. In: Billboard . March 20, 2014, accessed April 6, 2016 . 
16. ↑ Tyler Trew: The Chainsmokers Premiere #Selfie Follow Up, "Kanye" on "Your EDM"
17. ↑ Billboard Staff: Exclusive: The Chainsmokers Premiere 'Let You Go' ft. Great Good Fine Ok. Billboard, February 3, 2015, accessed April 10, 2017 . 
18. ^ "Split (Only U)" by Tiësto and The Chainsmokers sampled Ashanti's "Only U (Video Version)". Whosampled Limited, accessed April 7, 2016 . 
19. ↑ BpTop Tracker: Split (Only U). Knockout Group, accessed April 7, 2016 . 
20. ↑ Colin Stutz: The Chainsmokers Kidnap, Kill Tiësto in 'Split (Only U)' Video: Watch on " Bollboard "
21. ^ Nicole Mastrogiannis: INTERVIEW: Celebrities The Chainsmokers Would Give Roses To. (No longer available online.) IHeart Radio, September 24, 2015, archived from the original on April 6, 2016 ; accessed on April 6, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ^ Billboard Hot Dance / Electronic Songs of January 9, 2016. Billboard , accessed April 6, 2016 . 
23. ↑ Fiete Oberkalkofen: New for The Chainsmokers feat. Daya - Don't Let Me Down. 1 Live , March 19, 2016, accessed April 6, 2016 . 
24. ↑ Don't Let Me Down live at the Ultra Music Festival
25. ^ Don't Let Me Down Historic Performance. In: acharts.co. Retrieved April 6, 2016 . 
26. ↑ The Chainsmokers: Memories ... Do Not Open - Music on Google Play. Retrieved April 10, 2017 . 
27. ↑ The Chainsmokers' 'Memories' Album Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart. Retrieved April 21, 2017 . 

Web links

• Official website
• The Chainsmokers at SoundCloud
• The Chainsmokers at Allmusic (English)
• The Chainsmokers at Discogs (English)

1. ↑ The Chainsmokers (Ft. Bülow & Ty Dolla $ ign) - Do You Mean. Retrieved May 25, 2019 . 
2. ↑ The Chainsmokers - Kills You Slowly. Retrieved May 25, 2019 .