- For other uses, see Fade (disambiguation).
Alan Walker released the track Fade on 17 August 2014. The track gained attention after its re-release via the record label NoCopyrightSounds on 19 November. Walker stated that the creation of the track was inspired by K-391 and Ahrix, whose tracks were also picked up by the record label. The track has over 405 million views on YouTube, 79 million plays on Spotify, and 41 million streams on SoundCloud. Faded is the vocal remake.
History[]
Background[]
Walker joined YouTube in 2012 under the name "DJ Walkzz" and primarily produced Hands Up tracks for a full year. At the time, DJ Ness (now known as David Whistle) was his key inspiration. After almost another year of inactivity, he transitioned to using his real name and producing House tracks, continuing to do so up to the present day. Fade isn't actually the first house track produced by him as he did produce a track that is named "Dennis 2014" despite being produced the previous year. As the name of the video implies, the track was inspired by fellow Norwegian producer K-391, who is also known for producing house tracks. As a matter of fact, Fade was also inspired by him. A track named "Nova" (produced by Swedish producer Ahrix) was the other key inspiration for Fade.
Aftermath[]
Following Fade's release through Walker's YouTube channel, it took 3 full months for NCS to notice him. Afterwards, the video was re-released through NCS, making it one of the rare instances where a track wasn't released through both channels (NCS and the original artist) on the same day, Nova being another example. Upon re-release, Fade was an instant success. Walker released 2 more tracks (Spectre and Force) through NCS in early 2015, and all 3 videos gained hundreds of millions of views each, making Walker perhaps the most popular NCS artist at the time.
Due to Fade's success, Walker took the opportunity to remake the track, this time with vocals. He first uploaded 3 teasers to YouTube, the first showing an excerpt of what the remake sounds like, the second showing the lyrics, and the third revealing the expected release date and name of the track, "Faded". Faded was originally planned to be released on November 25 (as a belated 1-year anniversary of Fade being released on NCS), but it was delayed "due to circumstances out of Walker's control."The track was eventually released on December 3. The vocals were sung by fellow Norwegian Iselin Solheim, who was uncredited. Upon Faded's release, it was a massive success, topping the charts of not just Walker's native Norway, but also Sweden, Finland, and others. It reached 1 billion views on March 30, 2017, after which Walker uploaded a video to celebrate this milestone. As of today, Faded has over 3.3 billion views, making it by far Walker's most popular track, and perhaps even his signature one.
During live performances, Walker would perform a remix of Fade, which is essentially a mashup of "Fade" and "King in The North" by MARNIK and Blazars.
After being the most popular video in the NCS channel with over 444 million views, Fade was taken down on November 12, 2021 (1 week before its 7-year anniversary) due to Walker's contract with NCS expiring. This also extends to Spectre and Force.
Another 2 days later, NCS addressed the removal of Walker's tracks from the label on Facebook:
This was furthermore followed by a response from Walker himself:
Description[]
The song is set in common time and has a tempo of 90 beats per minute. It is written in the key of Eb minor with a chord progression of Ebm-B-Gb-Db.
Trivia[]
- Fade is inspired by K-391's songs, as well as Ahrix's song Nova, which was released on 3 March 2013.
- Fade is the song in which many Alan Walker-style songs are inspired by because of its popularity. One of the most notable songs is Skyline, which was released on 7 March 2018.
- It is the only video that was released through Alan Walker's YouTube channel in 2014.
Video[]
