Is Armin van Buuren Going Tiesto’s Way?

Image Credits: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

If you’re wondering what the above mentioned title means, let us catch you up to speed. Armin van Buuren posted a live stream of him playing a B2B set with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike at their Bringing The Madness show on Facebook, with not so pleasant responses from his fans. Comments ranging from “RIP Trance 1993- 2015 Thanks for Killing Armin” to “You were a legend this is such a shame an a joke.. What a slap in the face to your old fans” filled up the comments section on Armin’s post, clearly indicating the fans’ displeasure.

This however leads us to an important question: Is Armin van Buuren going Tiesto’s way? Is he abandoning Trance to head towards a more big room, commercial sound?

Fans of Tiesto might remember how he moved from Trance to electro house 6-7 years ago, which got him a lot of rebuke from fans who were devastated to see their idol move to a genre that’s frequently looked down upon by fans of other sub genres in electronic music. And Armin’s current status as the “King of Trance” has come under serious scrutiny from some of his fans, and fans of Trance in general after his collaboration with Hardwell for ‘Off The Hook‘, and his latest studio album ‘Embrace‘ taking a more progressive house route.

Let’s take a look at Armin van Buuren in 2015. He released his annual A State of Trance compilation, which featured his latest Gaia track ‘In Principio‘, the resurrection of his Rising Star alias in the form of a new track titled ‘Safe Inside You‘, remixing the Game of Thrones‘ theme by Ramin Djawadi, collaborating with Jean Michel Jarre for ‘Stardust‘, remixing Faithless‘ ‘We Come 1‘, coming in at no. 4 on DJ Mag’s Top 100 polls this year, and releasing his 6th studio album, ‘Embrace‘, which featured ‘Off The Hook‘, amongst others. While it is quite evident that Armin has experimented with his sound quite a lot in 2015, we cannot overlook  his Trance productions as well.

However, today we live in a world where the negative aspects easily outweigh the positive aspects, and the same goes for Armin van Buuren in this case. While the Dutch gargantuan may have churned out a couple of trance productions earlier this year, he’ll still be criticized for moving to a progressive house/big room sound of late. And the B2B set with DVLM seems to be yet another thorn in his flesh. While it looks like the move to play a B2B set with one of the most disliked duo in the EDM scene was more of an effort to appeal to a broader spectrum of EDM listeners, or an attempt to stay relevant at a time where Trance has been completely overshadowed by electro and progressive house, Armin has always termed it under “experimenting with his sound and style”.

In my opinion, while it’s completely normal for an artist to experiment with his sound at some point of his career, Armin’s sudden leaning towards big room does in fact look like an effort to stay relevant around younger DJs who are currently ruling the roost in the dance music industry. Instead, Armin needs to use this opportunity to bring back the glory days of Trance with his vast experience and lead the charge for the genre’s revival.

So, even though some purists might say that Armin van Buuren is indeed going Tiesto’s way, I still believe there is hope that he might return to his roots, and put us all into “a state of trance”.

Disclaimer: Any views or opinions presented in this editorial are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Bangin Beats.