"Levels" is a song produced by Swedish DJ Avicii. The song premiered as an untitled track on Pete Tong's Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 on 11 December 2010. Bergling promoted "Levels" through live performances throughout 2011, building anticipation for the song pre-release. Universal Music Group issued it as a single on 28 October 2011 on iTunes. Musically, "Levels" is a progressive house, electronica, and EDM track built around a motif, consisting of a synth lead and a chord progression that is asynchronous with the bass and vocal motifs. The song lifts vocal samples from Etta James's "Something's Got a Hold on Me" during a brief intermission.
Following its release, Avicii regularly performed "Levels" in his live performances. A music video, directed by Petro Papahadjopoulos, posted to YouTube on 29 November 2011. The video is about a businessman who inexplicably starts dancing at his workplace, where he is tased unconscious and sent to the hospital. There, upon waking, he influences the hospital's inhabitants to inexplicably dance as well. The music video was nominated for Best Electronic Dance Music Video at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
"Levels" received critical acclaim for its composition. The song was nominated for Best Song at the 2012 Grammy Awards and was also nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in 2013. It was commercially successful, topping charts in Sweden and Norway and peaking within the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, it has received platinum certifications in multiple countries, including being certified eight times in Sweden by the GLF. "Levels" served as Bergling's breakout hit and signature song, in addition to being one of the first commercially successful songs released during the 2010s mainstreaming of EDM music in the United States.
Background and release
Bergling started music production as a teenager; he posted demos on a message board operated by Dutch producer Laidback Luke for feedback on his production. After Bergling won a 2008 BBC Radio 1 competition, the host, Pete Tong, issued the submitted track, "ManMan", as Bergling's first single. A few weeks later, club promoter Arash Pournouri would offer to manage Bergling's career toward success. Bergling adopted the stage name Avicii, named after a Buddhist term for a hell-like afterlife for sinners, and would release additional singles, with "Seek Bromance", a vocal remix of his track "Bromance", achieving mild crossover success.
On the origins of "Levels", Bergling claimed in one interview that he wanted to use a vocal sample from Etta James's "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and was satisfied when combining it with the hook he would use for "Levels". According to a 2015 Quora answer by Bergling, he first discovered the sample in the Pretty Lights song "Finally Moving". Bergling chose to use the sample, he said in another interview, because of the "timeless" and "raw" nature of James' vocals. Following Bergling's death, DJ Mike Posner claimed that he was sent "Levels" by Avicii while it was still in production to provide vocals to it. Posner produced six "toplines" but did not use them, saying that "they were good, but not [...] the thing".
Bergling first premiered an early version of "Levels" on 11 December 2010 as an untitled track for BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix, hosted by Pete Tong. Throughout 2011, he regularly performed "Levels" live in festivals and clubs, debuting the version with the Etta James vocal sample at the Ultra Music Festival 2011. Bergling and Pournouri drew upon these performances to promote the song on social media. During this time, a bootleg leak of "Levels" was posted on YouTube and gained almost 20 million views. The success of "Levels" on social media allowed Pournouri to make a deal with Universal Music Group to release the song as a single in Nordic countries. "Levels" was released via iTunes on 28 October 2011 in Australia, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. After another deal brokered by another manager, Troy Carter, "Levels" was released in the United States on 31 October 2011.
Composition
"Levels" is a progressive house, EDM, and electronica song, with, according to Vulture, "enough of a nod to old-school rave music in its build to be approachable as a dance track". Composed in C minor with a beat, the song is built around a motif consisting of a synth lead and a chord progression (scale degrees i-III-VII-VI) taking the form of synth stabs, mixed together using side-chaining. The synth lead is divided into two similar musical phrases. Both descend from the note C4 to E3 before repeating the latter note. The first phrase briefly descends to D3 before resolving back at E3, while the second phrase descends to C3 and resolves at B2. This main motif starts at the third beat of bar two, while the bass and vocal motifs start at the first bar, making the motifs asynchronous.
During the middle of the song, the motif and beat dissipate into an echo and are briefly absent. A gospel-inspired vocal sample is played, performing the lines "Ohhhh, sometimes, I get a good feeling, yeah / I get a feeling that I never, never, never had before..." The vocal sample is taken from Etta James's "Something's Got a Hold on Me", described by Billboard as "a heavenly siren's call beaming down on the masses". Following a brief moment consisting of melancholic strings arranged in a counterpoint, the motif and beat reappear, augmented by a whistling, rising synth line.
Critical reception "Levels" received critical acclaim. Future Music found "Levels" interesting for its composition, considering it an example of how "a simple part can become complex". AllMusic described "Levels" as a "simple and effective EDM monster", El Correo called it a "very danceable tune that makes you enjoy it continuously", and Billboard said the single "elevate[s] Avicii from touring DJ wunderkind to formidable electronic artist". One criticism of "Levels" came from MK News, which praised "Levels" for the brevity of the vocals but otherwise criticized the song for being predictable. Among retrospective commentary, Billboard declared "Levels" one of the greatest songs of all time, citing its composition, synth hook, vocal sample, and cultural impact—elements that Vulture also praised. Mixmag predicted that "Levels" would be remembered as Avicii's best song.
"Levels" was nominated for Best Electro/Dance and won Best Song at the 2012 Grammis Awards. It was also for Best Dance Recording at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in 2013. Both Billboard and Hollywood Reporter ranked "Levels" the best Avicii song. Mixmag ranked "Levels" as the 13th best song of 2011, and Pitchfork, Gaffa, and Dancing Astronaut ranked it among the best songs of the 2010s. Billboard ranked "Levels" as the 344th best pop song, and Rolling Stone ranked "Levels" as the 52nd greatest dance song and the 247th best song of the 21st century.
Commercial performance "Levels" found the most chart success in Bergling's native Sweden, peaking atop the Swedish single chart for seven weeks starting 11 November 2011. Its initial run was so lengthy that the song made the top-50 of three year-end charts from 2011 to 2013. Following Avicii's death five years later, it returned on the week of 24 April 2018 at number four, remaining on the charts for four months and becoming the 54th best-performing entry of that year. It was certified eight-times platinum from the Swedish Recording Industry Association for over 320,000 streaming and sales units.
In the United States, "Levels" was Avicii's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, debuting at number 66 on the week of 11 December 2011. The song remained on the Hot 100 for 20 weeks, peaking at number 60 on the week of 17 February 2012 and dropping out due to recurrent rules. The song was played heavily on Top 40 radio stations, staying on the Mainstream Top 40 for five weeks, and peaking at number 33.
In addition to topping the Dance Club Songs chart, which had been around since the 1970s, "Levels" was one of the earliest hits on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay, which was introduced in November 2011 and measured airplay on dance radio stations; it peaked at number two, and was the 11th best-performer on the chart in its first full tracking year. "Levels" was triple-platinum certified by the Recording Industry Association of America, indicating that it was sold or streamed in the US over three million times.
In Europe, "Levels" had a 20-week run on Billboards Euro Digital Song Sales chart, reaching number three. "Levels" enjoyed a 50-week run on the UK Singles Chart, debuting on the week of 27 November 2011 at its peak position of number four before exiting at number 96 in the week of 16 September 2012. The song was sold and streamed 1,800,000 times in the United Kingdom, earning it a three-times platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry. Elsewhere, the song was a top-five hit in seven countries and certified platinum in eight. In particular, it was a number-one hit for four weeks in Norway, where it similarly began at number four and was certified five-times platinum.
Music video According to director Petro Papahadjopoulos, he was approached by Universal Music Group for the concept of a music video for Bergling that would make him famous. Papahadjopoulos contacted Bergling to understand the symbolism behind "Levels" and to create a concept that would match the song. Papahadjopoulos created a concept based on Office Space that he described as "about a man who wakes up to realize he is living in hell. Everyone around him just thinks he's crazy. But his craziness is infectious." Avicii later received the concept of the music video from Pournouri and showed support for it. He posted the concept on his official website on 8 December 2011. Papahadjopoulos collaborated with Richie Greenfield for direction and choreography of the music video. It was ultimately released to YouTube on 29 November 2011. The music video was nominated for "Best Electronic Dance Music Video" at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
According to a concept booklet, the plot of the music video represents the idea that "we are living already in Avici, and that maybe we at times are aware of this and the existence of other levels. [...] We watch as the man's reality implodes, he's experiencing awareness of other levels and his entire reality all around him transforms to something new." The music video depicts a weary businessman (Greenfield) working at an office, who suddenly starts dancing. A security guard walks into the office and stuns the businessman unconscious, leading him to dream of pushing a big boulder up a mountain, mirroring Sisyphus' fate, as he is restrained to a hospital bed. Two hospital workers notice and touch a flower that blooms from the businessman's mouth. Afterward, all three go into a seizure before quickly recovering and proceeding to dance, influencing the rest of the hospital's inhabitants to do the same.
Live performances