Basshunter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Basshunter | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Jonas Erik Altberg | |
| Born |  December 22, 1984 |
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| Genre(s) | Eurodance | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, producer | |
| Instrument(s) | Singing | |
| Label(s) | Warner Music Group | |
| Website | http://basshunter.se | |
Basshunter is the pseudonym of the Swedish musician and DJ Jonas Erik Altberg, born December 22, 1984, in Halmstad, Sweden.
Basshunter describes his own music as Eurodance, but others also classify it as Hard Dance. According to Altberg, he makes the music on his own computer using the program FL Studio. He started making music in 1999 and he released his first album – The Bassmachine – through his own home page in 2004.
He has received a large amount of fame for his songs "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" (about Warcraft 3's ROC/TFT Custom Game "Defense of the Ancients") and "Boten Anna" (a song about an IRC bot), due to the nature of songs and their references to geek culture. The videos for "Boten Anna" and "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" (recorded at Dreamhack, Jönköping) have both achieved over a million hits each on YouTube. [1][2]
Altberg has been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome – a condition he spent a lot of energy dealing with while growing up and has only gradually overcome. He is also a DotA player and was playing on a CAL-I Team.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Basshunter aka Jonas Altberg was born December 22, 1984 in Halmstad, Sweden. He lived with his parents and younger brother five minutes from Sweden's famous beach, Tylösand. He describes himself as stubborn and creative person. He started to produce music in 1999 with a little help from the computer program Fruityloops. His interest in music became greater as he progressed. After a lot of demo songs spread over the internet, he started to get phone calls from dance clubs that wanted to have him as a DJ. In April 2006 he got his first real contact to the music industry when he signed a record deal with Warner Music. He released his first single, "Boten Anna", in Scandinavia and it became a hit instantly. Boten Anna was the first ever Swedish language song to make number 1 on the Dutch Top 40 Chart.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
All regularly released albums and their chart peak position in Sweden (SWE), Finland (FIN), Denmark (DEN), Norway (NOR), The Netherlands (NLD)and in Austria (AUS)
| Year | Cover | Album | Chart positions [4] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWE | FIN | DEN | NOR | NLD | AUS | |||
| 2004 |  |
– The Bassmachine –
|
– | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2006 |  |
LOL <(^^,)>
|
5 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 66 | 12 |
[edit] Singles
All regularly released singles and their chart peak position in Sweden (SWE), The Netherlands (NLD), Finland (FIN), Austria (AUT), Denmark (DEN), Norway (NOR), Germany (GER), Eurochart Hot 100 Singles (EUR).
| Year | Single | Chart positions[5] | Album | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWE | NLD | FIN | DEN | NOR | AUT | GER | EU | |||
| 2006 | "Boten Anna" | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 58 | LOL <(^^,)> |
| "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" | 6 | 18 | 2 | 7 | 7 | – | – | 116 | LOL <(^^,)> | |
| "Hallå där" 1 | 51 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | LOL <(^^,)> | |
| "Vifta med händerna" (vs. Patrik Och Lillen) | 25 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | LOL <(^^,)> | |
| "Jingle Bells" | 13 | – | – | – | 9 | – | – | – | — | |
notes
- 1 Only released in Sweden.
[edit] Sex picture scandal
During June-July 2006 several Swedish national newspapers brought attention to some sex pictures of Jonas Altberg and a woman. [6] [7]
Jonas Altberg said that he was aware that these photographs had been taken, with his approval. [8] "We did not engage in real sex. The picture was taken as a joke by a friend of mine. We were a bunch of people partying the whole night. Sure, sex is nice and feels good, but I usually don't have an ironic smile on my lips"(referring to his appearance on the photographs)[9]
Jonas Altberg admitted that he had intentionally and willingly uploaded the photographs to a social networking site as a joke but that he hadn't thought of the consequences that might occur to his career and his future fame as a pop artist.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ "Boten Anna" Youtube Video.
- ^ "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" Youtube Video.
- ^ Joo, Nathalie (2006-06-11). Hitmakaren Jonas: De ville göra narr av mig (Swedish). EXPRESSEN. Kvällstidningen Expressen. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
- ^ [Album peak positions:
- ^ Single peak positions:
- ^ "Article: "Sex pictures of famous artists spreading on the Net" (Swedish). Swedish tabloid newspaper EXPRESSEN. Retrieved on June 19 2006.
- ^ "Article: "Pop-Star being sexually harassed on the Internet" (Swedish). Swedish tabloid newspaper EXPRESSEN. Retrieved on July 11 2006.
- ^ ibid
- ^ ibid
- ^ ibid
[edit] External links
- Official site
- (English) Basshunter's music videos subtitled in various languages
- (English) Basshunter Podcast interview at Stara.fi
- (English) Eurodance Poll
