Area21 (stylized in
all caps
In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in l ...
) is a Dutch-American
electronic dance music duo consisting of
Martin Garrix
Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix and also as Ytram and GRX, is a Dutch disc jockey and music producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—201 ...
and
Maejor
Brandon Michael Green (born July 23, 1988), better known by his stage name Maejor (formerly Bei Maejor and later Maejor Ali), is an American record producer, singer, and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. Green has written and produced songs f ...
.
Career
Area21 gained popularity after Garrix debuted their song "Spaceships" in his set during
Ultra Music Festival 2016 in which Garrix had headlined.
The duo is signed to Garrix's record label
Stmpd Rcrds
Stmpd Rcrds (stylised in all caps; pronounced "stamped records") is a Dutch electronic dance music record label owned by record producer Martin Garrix, who founded the label on 4 March 2016.
History
Martin Garrix announced the creation of Stmp ...
. Their identities were previously unknown despite speculations about Garrix being a part of it alongside one or more vocalists.
Throughout media and journalism, Area21 has been described as "Martin Garrix's new side project". Their logo consists of two aliens being inside a spaceship.
Asher Roth
Asher Paul Roth (born August 11, 1985) is an American rapper. He is best known for his debut single "I Love College". Roth released his debut studio album ''Asleep in the Bread Aisle'', on April 20, 2009, by Universal Motown, SRC, and School Bo ...
was initially speculated to be the unknown member of the group,
however it was later revealed to be
Maejor
Brandon Michael Green (born July 23, 1988), better known by his stage name Maejor (formerly Bei Maejor and later Maejor Ali), is an American record producer, singer, and songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. Green has written and produced songs f ...
. Their song "Spaceships" peaked on the
Spotify Viral 50 chart at number 3. After one year, they released their third single "We Did It" on 23 June 2017.
On 1 December 2017, they released their fourth single "Glad You Came", which originally debuted during Garrix's Ultra Music 2017 set.
On 9 February 2018, Area21 released their fifth single titled "Happy" on Stmpd Rcrds. In a review by
Dancing Astronaut
Dancing Astronaut is an American media platform founded in 2009 that primarily covers the electronic dance music industry. The website covers concerts and festivals, reports on entertainment news, reviews music, and publishes original content sy ...
's Farrel Sweeney, the track is said to "emit a happy vibe via its simplicity and upbeat nature, as the title conveys".
In April 2018, Garrix teased an unreleased single titled "Help" on
Instagram, and it was released on 3 March 2019. Its music video was released on 7 March 2019.
On 24 October 2020, Garrix confirmed during an interview on
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version o ...
that they will release an album in the spring of 2021. On 9 April 2021, Area21 released the single "La La La", off their forthcoming full-length album. The song's music video introduced the animated characters, which are aliens named M and M.
On 21 May 2021, they released the single "Pogo", and then released "Mona Lisa" on 18 June 2021. The track has had over 2.2 million streams on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
. Next up for the duo came "Lovin' Every Minute", a track Garrix had first played live in 2018 with fans speculating it to be a release with
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
; however this was not the case and fans had to wait 3 years for the official release which was by Area21. On 17 September 2021, Area21 released their eleventh single, "Followers", and announced during their first in-person appearance at the
iHeartRadio Music Festival
The iHeartRadio Music Festival is a two-day music concert festival held every year in September since 2011 by iHeartRadio along the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
From 2011 to 2015, the festival was held at the MGM Gran ...
that their debut album would be released on 12 November 2021. On 15 October 2021 they released the single "Own The Night". They released their debut album, ''Greatest Hits Vol. 1'', on 12 November 2021.
Discography
Albums
Singles
References
{{Authority control
Electronic music duos
Stmpd Rcrds artists
Dutch electronic music groups
Bands with fictional stage personas