Major Lazer

About

Major Lazer is an electronic music group consisting of the American producers Thomas Wesley Pentz (a.k.a. Diplo), DJ Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. The group is known for mixing reggae and dancehall with other variety of musical genres.

History

Major Lazer was initially formed as a duo between Diplo and David James Andrew Taylor (a.k.a. Switch), who first met one another through English recording artist Mathangi Arulpragasam (a.k.a. M.I.A.). On June 16th, 2009, the group released their debut album Guns Don't Kill People… Lazers Do, including the singles "Hold the Line", "Pon de Floor", "Keep It Going Louder" and "Bubble Butt".^[7] In 2011, Switch left the group and was replaced by producers Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. In 2012, Major Lazer collaborated with the rapper Snoop Dogg to produce tracks for his Snoop Lion project. In February 2015, Diplo revealed details about a new album, Peace Is the Mission, set for release on June 1st, 2015.^[9]

Online History

On April 30th, 2009, Major Lazer created an official YouTube account,^[6] which was followed by a VEVO^[5] account November 18th. On July 27th, 2009, Eric Wareheim uploaded a music video for the Major Lazer song "Pon De Floor," featuring a group of daggering dancers in a computer animated house (shown below, left). On May 14th, 2010, the Major Lazer VEVO account released a "daggering guide," starring the daggering performer Skerrit Bwoy (shown below, right).

On May 28th, 2013, Eric Wareheim uploaded a music video for the Major Lazer track "Bubble Butt," which contained twerking dancers and body inflation. On August 5th, the iHeartRadio YouTube channel uploaded an interview with Major Lazer by the radio personality Lisa "Kennedy" Montgomery (shown below, right), which was been subsequently submitted several times to the /r/cringe subreddit.^[10][11][12]

On August 19th, 2013, Major Lazer uploaded to his account the videoclip for the song "Scare Me", featuring the American actor Terry Crews as Major Lazer, known for his Old Spice commercials. On October 28th, 2013, Major Lazer uploaded to his main account the videoclip for "Jet Blue Jet", featuring girls smoking cannabis cigars. Scenes from the videoclip started being posted on some websites, like Tumblr.^[14]

On March 2nd, 2015, Major Lazer released the first single for the album Peace Is the Mission, Lean On. Featuring Danish singer MØ and French disc jockey DJ Snake, the song made the top 10 on 33 country music charts and the top 10 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic chart. In less than three months, the music video for the track gained over 160 million views.

Mascot

That Major Lazer mascot is portrayed as a cartoon Jamaican superhero equipped with a laser gun arm. As of June 2015, there are over 390 results for the keywords "major lazer" on artist community DeviantART,^[15] many of which contain depictions of the mascot.

Animated Series

On April 16th, 2015, released an animated series, which focuses on the adventures of the superhero Major Lazer, who battles against the antagonist President Whitewall and his servant General Rubbish. That show features an 1980's-style cartoon aesthetic, color visual and a unique soundtrack.

Social Media Presence

As of June 2015, several official Major Lazer social media accounts have been created, including a Facebook^[2] page with more than 1,500,000 likes, a Google+^[3] account with over 5,300,000 views, a Tumblr^[6] account and a Twitter^[1] feed with over 350,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References