“We made a novelty record that was, in my opinion, one of the most clever records ever made... Obviously not everyone got the joke,” Taggart toldIdolatorin late 2015, gravely underestimating everyone's ability to get jokes. “But we’re working our way out of that and proving that we’re pretty well-rounded musicians.”So they abandoned their EDM to emphasize slower tempos, slinky melodies, and songs about bruised feelings. Whether they helped initiate the move away from super-sized dance music or merely sniffed the shifting winds, it was a canny move. In the past year, they have become one of the biggest names in pop music. On YouTube, a pair of videos for their single “Closer”—a moody, surprisingly convincing song about sex, regret, and the passage of time—has been viewed 1.6 billion times. Their 10 most popular songs on YouTube and Spotify alone account for a combinedseven billion plays.
“我们做了一张十分新奇的专辑,在我看来,应该是有史以来最巧妙的专辑之一了…显然不是每个人都看出这是句玩笑,“Taggart在2015年末告诉Idolator(一个音乐博客),他显然严重低估了每个人辨别笑话的能力。“但是我们在想办法摆脱大众片面的看法并努力证明我们是有才华的音乐人。“于是他们抛弃了他们的EDM,转而使用更慢的拍子,撩人的的旋律和关于感情受伤的歌曲。不论他们是否是使行业偏离电子舞曲的开端,或仅仅是察觉出了改变的风向,这都是一个精明的举动。在YouTube上,他们的单曲“Closer”——一首关于性,悔恨与时光流逝的郁郁寡欢却十分有说服力的歌曲——的两只音乐录影带的观看量已经超过16亿。他们在YouTube和Spotify的前十热门单曲的播放量加起来已经达到了七十亿。