Darude

Ville Virtanen (born 17 July 1975), better known by his stage name Darude /dəˈruːd/, is a Finnish electronic music producer and DJ from Eura, Hinnerjoki. He started making music in 1995 and released the platinum sellinghit single "Sandstorm" in late 1999. His debut studio album Before the Storm came out on September 5, 2000 and sold 800,000 copies worldwide, earning Darude three Finnish Grammy awards. It peaked at No. 1 on Finland's Official List and No. 6 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the United States. Darude's second album, Rush, reached No. 11 on the Billboard dance chart in 2003 and No. 4 on weekly album chart in Finland.

His third album Label This! came out in 2007. Though it didn't chart as high as his previous albums, Gawker praised the album's single "In the Darkness" as "a floating, gossamer piece of trance music...it's tightly composed, easy to dance to, and has a soaring, undeniable hook." In 2011 he co-founded the record label EnMass Music, through which he has released a number of mix compilations related to his radio show Salmiakki Sessions. After performing at festivals such as tenth anniversary of Tomorrowland in 2014 and Future Music Festival in 2015, he released his most recent album, Moments, on August 18, 2015, followed by a tour of the United States and Canada in September 2015. His music is characterised by its progressive/uplifting style.

Sandstorm (Darude composition)

"Sandstorm" is a musical composition by Finnish DJ Darude. It was released as the lead single from his debut studio album Before the Storm. It was initially released in Finland on 26 October 1999 by 16 Inch Records and it was eventually re-released in many other countries in 2000. The song was uploaded to MP3.com where it gained global recognition. It has also gained recognition for its usage in sports and popularity in internet meme culture. The song currently has over 33.7 million views on YouTube as of 24 January 2016. On 1 March 2010, over ten years after its original release, "Sandstorm" was certified Gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over 500,000 copies.

Background

Darude first started making happy hardcore with a music tracker program on his computer, playing gigs as "Rudeboy". He then performed with Wille "Weirdness" Heikkilä as "Position 1", making light Eurodance tunes, and he paired with other DJs on other projects. In September–October 1999 as Darude he began collaborating with Jaakko "JS16" Salovaara, known as the producer of the Bomfunk MC's. "Sandstorm" was the first product of the collaboration, ready after about a week of work. JS16 signed Darude as the first artist on JS16's new label 16 Inch Records.

React (media franchise)

React (sometimes stylized in all caps as REACT) is a media franchise created by the Fine Brothers consisting of several online series centering on a group of individuals reacting to viral videos, trends, video games, film trailers, or music videos. The franchise was launched with the YouTube debut of Kids React in October 2010, and then grew to encompass four more series uploaded on the Fine Brothers' primary YouTube channel, a separate YouTube channel with various reaction-related content, as well as a television series titled React to That. In 2016, the duo announced React World, a program and channel in which they would license the format of their React shows to creators, which led to widespread negative reception from viewers and fellow content creators, as well as confusion about what their format is.

YouTube series

Episode counts are taken from the Fine Brothers' aggregate playlist of 419 videos, which includes special episodes such as their April Fool's "Cats React" special.