Martin Garrix's "Pizza" - Beyond the Cheese
- Jake Gutwein
- Dec 30, 2017
- 3 min read
During Martin Garrix’s closing set at Tomorrowland this past July he previewed his latest song, titled Pizza, which would eventually be released on August 25, 2017. After seeing the title many listeners are tempted to dismiss the song as immature and use the title to form their perception before listening to the progressive house anthem. If these same listeners are willing to closely examine the purpose of the song itself and symbolic meaning of the title, they would be greeted with a new level of understanding that makes the music more relatable to their own lives.
The song received critical acclaim following Garrix’s Tomorrowland set and the release thereafter, with praise including that Pizza “is progressive house at its purest and most melodic” (Matthew Meadow, YourEDM). Similar commendation is given by Rajrishi Murthi, who writes that “the track oozes signature progressive house sounds that has helped the producer become a household name within the dance music space” (Bangin Beats). While this analysis isn’t necessarily altogether incorrect, the conclusions deduced from these statements draws listeners down the wrong path.
Karlie Powell provides an exemplification of this inference when she writes that “much like the cheesy, delicious food, everyone seems to enjoy the producer’s brand new, cheery tune” (YourEDM). Taking the song at face value and believing that the song’s meaning is constrained to the grand chords leads to Powell’s conclusion, but Garrix’s song embodies a critical function of music by serving as an expression of emotions beyond what Garrix is capable of himself. In order to understand the purpose of Pizza, the listener must reconcile the intentions of Garrix with the final musical product.
I argue that Garrix produced the song with the objective of making listeners feel sentimental, while also serving as a cathartic expression of his personal experiences during his rise to recognition. Notably, during the set Garrix says that “this is a song I especially made for you guys — if this was the best weekend of your life let me hear you Tomorrowland.” Garrix understands the context in which he is performing the song and empathizes with the audience, members of which had traveled from around the world to attend the festival and, likely, had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The grandeur of the strings, then, is not simply present to contrast with the electronic chorus, but was constructed to bring listeners to a state of reflection.
Garrix, in turn, undertakes a similar reflective process that is shown in the song’s music video. The video consists of several memories from his tours, some where he is performing and engaging with the crowd and others where he is posed as a flâneur, looking over the crowds and cities where he performs and travels. Finally, at the end of the video, the viewer sees Garrix eating two slices of pizza and saying, “I love you, and I love pizza.” The coupling of his favorite food and favorite people is not just artistic for Garrix — it is a recognition that, when he pieces together the memories of his tour, Pizza is not what is left over but what holds his experiences together.
The song, therefore, gives the listener the freedom to peer into the emotional roller-coaster that Garrix experiences each time he goes on tour. The listener has the opportunity to, musically, undertake the oscillation between the transient highs and reverberating lows, the headliner performances and the moments of reflection, the contrast between the strings and electronic melody. Moreover, it makes the listener nostalgic for the future and the oscillations that are yet to come.
Listeners that expect to hear the “cheesy” sounds resembling pizza ought to be disappointed after listening to Garrix’s song, though not as a result of the tune itself — which may indeed be pizza’s melodic embodiment. They should be filled with a discord that stems from accepting the song as simply a progressive house masterpiece and not recognizing the sentiment of the producer that created the piece to represent a unique expression of his emotions.
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