Source
I am always inclined to say that the Netherlands aren't much of a player in the international music scene, and for decades they weren't. Ok, we had The Golden Earing with their world wide hit "Radar Love, and of course George Baker with little green bag featured in the hit movie "Reservoir dogs". There were some other bands with little of some more succes, but none of them stayed at the international charts for a long time.

Then the dance music kicked in and it looked like we starting to meant something in this dance scene.

The first DJ I knew

Ben Liebrand was probably the first DJ I got to know through his Grand mixes. He started those in 1983 (yes, waaaaay back). The grand mix was a mix of a lot of songs from the past year, he mixed them in a great way and got real famous for it. The mixes always were broadcoasted at the 31th of december at 6 o'clock.

Source , Ben Liebrand.

When you look at the lists of best DJ's in the world half of the top 10 are DJ's from the Netherlands, I think that does mean something, they are obvious doing something really good :)

(1) - Martin Garrix
(3) - Armin van Buuren
(4) - Hardwell
(5) - Tiësto
(8) - Afrojack

How come that a country as small as our's is so succesful in dance music. I have read several interviews with different DJ's, but also with the critics. And most of them say that the Dutch dance music is innovative, they set the trend, make new kinds of dance. So probably they are right, I don't know :), but seeing them being so popular must mean something I guess.

Avicii

As many of you probably know the 20th of April this year the world was shocked about the death of Avicii, it turned out to be suicide...age 29. Avicii was one of the most succesful DJ's. He was from Sweden and had a very good relationship with the dutch DJ Nicky Romero. Nicky talked about Avicii in a Dutch talkshow. Avicii couldn't (or didn't) hold the pressure of the business side of being a DJ. All the shows that were planned, it was just to much. The is this great documentary about Avicii on Netflix which show's how hard in real the DJ life is. If you have the chance I would advice to watch this documentary.

For me it was again a proof of the fact that success and creativity aren't each others best friends and that there are people who can't deal with it... It's a shame that money and eagerness for fame (mostly by the bookers) can cause this tragic events....

Export product

The Dutch DJ's are a real Dutch export 'product' although I don't like the sound of it..
Over the last year they were good for about 220 million euro's worth of income. Mostly this was earned with their performances all over the world. If you have a look at their tourschedules, my opinion is that that can't be healthy.
Flying across timezones multiple times a week, that must do something to your healthbeing I guess.

Although it is a tough world I think the Dutch DJ's have a advantage in staying mentally because of the 'down to earth' attitude of the guy's. That's something typical Dutch I think. Look at Tiësto, he been around the block for decades now, and there have never been things in press about drug, alcohol or other abuse... It could be he can keep a secret very good, but I personally doubt that...

Martin Garrix for instance, one of the youngest of them all....And for the second year he is anounced world's number one DJ...I do respect that, alhough myself I have not much with the dance scene and music :)

It's because of the success of the DJ's they have a Amsterdam Dance event, a whole weekend Amsterdam is completely in dance vibes, performances all through Amsterdam. I visited a kid's concert of Martin Garrix 2 years ago, my kids loved it, I had a heraing problem

Have a great day

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