Deadmau5: Difference between revisions

Real name Joel Zimmerman, he was born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario (though he considers his current city of residence, [[Toronto]], his hometown). As a child, he had a hobby of tearing apart household electronics to figure out how they worked, which carried over to his later fascination with electronic music production - as opposed to solely using plugins and software to make his sounds (which he derisively calls "laptop music"), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D26U26fFojw he uses huge racks of modulation and MIDI devices] to produce them. After dropping out of high school, doing many odd jobs over the years (including being contracted for an IT job for two years using [[Badass|only his own self-taught computer programming skills]]), and starting a design business on the side, all while producing music in his free time as a hobby, he found himself being paid to do music for advertising until he got discovered by DJ Chris Lake. This and the appearance of his first hit as deadmau5, "Faxing Berlin", on Pete Tong's radio show led to him being signed onto Ultra Records, later creating his own label, mau5trap, and thus becoming a hit electronic artist doing music full-time.

 

 

=== Discography: ===

=== Tropes Related to Deadmau5: ===

* [[Accent On the Wrong Syllable]]: The lyrics in "Sofi Needs a Ladder" start out with "Let's play MU-si-CAL-chairs, one of my favorite gaaaaames".

* [[Added Alliterative Appeal]]: His nickname for his tour manager is "Pretty Princess" Paul.

* [[Adorkable]]: Any time he [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYFeHcwbFQ dances], this trope seems to take effect.

** Telling him how to live his life or work his career is a ''big'' one. There are fewer ways to piss him off faster than to [http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2011/04/fanmail.html insinuate that he's "doing it wrong"].

** Marijuana also seems to be a huge one for him (as Rusko learned the hard way), even though his [http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/09/psa-15-stuffs-you-may-or-may-not-have.html official stance on drugs is that he doesn't care]. This [[Wild Mass Guessing|may or may not be]] related to an incident he cited on the Joe Rogen podcast in which he tried it once and his body reacted ''very badly'' to it. Of course, it could also be related to the [[Properly Paranoid|very real and practical fear]] of being deported back to Canada if he's found with people who use it.

{{quote| "HEY, frickin' douchebag! Hey Ed Hardly, go fuck yourself, you fucking idiot! Take your [[Jersey Shore]] and get the fuck out of the door!"}}

* [[Big Eater]]: Implied by several of his Tweets and Facebook posts. Best part is, the guy is still insanely thin.

* [[Bread Eggs Breaded Eggs]]: "[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/get-in-the-october-cart-pig Get in the October Cart Pig]", a combination of the unreleased songs "Get in the Cart, Pig" and "October". Mainly invoked by what he posted on Twitter about it:

{{quote| "like October? Like get in the cart pig? im kinda making headway on both... at the same time...."}}

** Also doubles as [[Hypocritical Humor]], as deadmau5 himself can't drive.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: [[Skrillex]] is often the [[Stealth Pun|butt]] of deadmau5's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhRbpMspDsw jokes] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHeuAp0Tll8 pranks].

** He has made a cameo at the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtP5KbxDXS0 beginning of a CSI episode], though [[Did Not Do the Research|that's not his gear]] (he doesn't use turntables).

** He's also shown up on two episodes of [[EPICMEALTIME (Web Video)|EPICMEALTIME]].

*** And in the 1.2 Minecraft release, three kinds of tamed cats were introduced, one of which looks ''suspiciously'' like deadmau5's cat, Professor Meowingtons. This is pretty much confirmed by a Mojang staff member's tweet to deadmau5 about it:

{{quote| "@deadmau5 u can play with your cat in the latest snapshot of minecraft :)"}}

** Appears in ''[[DJ Hero|DJ Hero 2]]'' as a playable character. Like the CSI example, he uses turntables, but unlike that example, it's more of a case of being required in gameplay as opposed to [[Did Not Do the Research|not doing the research]].

** And true to what the page says, he really ''does'' call Macaroni and Cheese "Kraft Dinner" and is obsessed with Tim Hortons coffee. He also pronounces "sorry" as "soarhy", even when his accent is barely there. Some stereotypes are true after all, eh?

** Also invoked when someone Tweeted to him that he "lost a fan" because he's Canadian, which he responded to with a [http://youtu.be/ovzvSzXwFZo?t=6m45s hilariously stereotypical heavy Canadian accent].

* [[Celebrity Is Overrated]]: His general idea about his "celebrity" status. See [[I Just Want to Be Normal]] and [[Lonely At the Top]] below.

* [[Chiptune]]: He first started making music by making chiptune tracks as a teenager. He still uses chiptunes in a few of his songs, such as the unreleased "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqdHyinGj4U Meowingtons Enables Hax]".

** A glorious illustration of this trope applying to [http://www.facebook.com/deadmau5/posts/10150636761541806 one of his text posts]:

** As of the March 13th 2012 stream, he's actually trying to scale this back a bit, at the request of the mother of a fan who watches his livestreams.

* [[Country Matters]]: Yes, "cunt" is in his repitoire of cuss words. It only shows up when he is ''[[Oh Crap|absolutely enraged]]''.

** "Professional Griefers" also has the nickname "Into the Nether" among [[Minecraft]] fans, thanks to the song's association with MineCon in that fandom.

* [[Fan Service]]: Entirely unintentional on his part, but the entire series of livestreams where he's moving cables and plugging in equipment had him bending over a lot, which naturally led to a massive flood of fangirls...''[[Unusual Euphemism|admiring]]'' him. He's stated before that he finds the [[Female Gaze|female fanbase]]'s obsession with his butt a little unnerving.

* [[Freeze Frame Bonus]]: In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh_XtHebsOQ Vegas residency video], each of the job applications getting stamped with "Fail!" have different, and totally hilarious, things filled in for them.

** In the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsNJ0w0ypmc music video] for "I Remember", there are a bunch of little references to deadmau5 sprinkled throughout - such as the car the protagonists use having mau5-themed license plate numbers.

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKfzd_Gq7Eo Suicide a la mau5]" is a totally hamtastic example.

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0ZSfTvhE-o deadlob5ter]" is three minutes of prime ham.

** He somehow successfully cooked lasagna one night, [https://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/170412037132922880/photo/1 but it still looks a little off].

* [[Literal Minded]]: Very much so. One such instance is when he saw the album cover for [[Lady Gaga]]'s ''Born This Way'': "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jB0yFPkUsI I'd hate to give birth to that motorcycle-thing, that's big.]" See also: [[Exact Words]] above.

** Likewise, he has stated that when told not to curse, he literally thinks of it as not cursing someone, as in hexes and such.

** Also, he has a ''literal'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck66ML-ByrM flying fuck].

* [[Lonely At the Top]]: Has an [http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/09/everyone-wants-something.html entire blog post] about being unable to have a "normal" romantic relationship because of his career. This trope is also pretty much heavily implied often with his anecdotes and streams, such as during the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiT3_sQbq24 Valentines Day 2012] ("Guess I'll be spending Valentine's Day alone.") and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9jhUGvb67k Christmas Eve 2011] ("Why aren't you with your family?" "[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|I am with my family, I'm with you guys.]] I'm by myself in my empty-ass house.") streams, not to mention several other times where he's ranted about being treated differently by others because of his fame (such as his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4piSzm4oSk rant about shopping], brought on by a Facebook comment).

** The blog post "[http://choleric-mau5.blogspot.com/2010/08/falling-up.html Falling Up]" (where the page quote is taken from) also has shades of this.

* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: [[Ray Bradbury|The Veldt]]

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jDbxG5mDA Careless]" is a complete mastery of this trope. When the piano originally comes in, it sounds mournful, before a break happens and it proceeds to sound hopeful for the rest of the song. Each set of vocal verses start out sounding like it's about a guy loving someone regardless of their flaws before going into lines that reveal that it's actually about him being too apathetic to break up with them or even ''care'' about said person.

* [[Must Have Nicotine]]: A good way to tell during livestreams if he's stressed out or depressed is to watch how many cigarettes he smokes in a given time period. The worse his emotional state (even if [[The Stoic|he doesn't outwardly show it]]), the more he'll smoke.

* [[Naughty Tentacles]]: Has some on his Cthulhu tattoo sleeve on his right arm.

* [[Nerds Are Sexy]]: He has legions of female fans professing their love to him on Facebook and Tumblr, porn stars and models who gladly talk to (and flirt with!) him on Twitter, and an ex-girlfriend who's a [[Playboy]] model. ''He qualifies.''

** Judging by his distinct lack of responses to the other songs in that series, it's safe to say that ''all'' of the songs he did with Mellefresh, not just "Hey Baby", is this for him.

* [[Older Than He Looks]]: [http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150289025606806&set=a.100357766805.100899.9980651805&type=3&theater This guy is 31]. It's been said that he can pass for 18 when he shaves.

* [[One of Us]]: [[Up to Eleven|Where do we even start]]?

** He is a ''huge'' video game geek. Games that he apparently plays include [[Bayonetta]], [[Counter Strike]], [[Final Fantasy]] ([[Final Fantasy IV|IV]] and [[Final Fantasy X|X]]), [[Katamari Damacy]], Legend of Zelda, [[Minecraft (Video Game)|Minecraft]], [[Quake]], [[Resident Evil]], [[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Video Game)|Skyrim]], [[Spore]], [[Super Metroid]], [[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]], and [[Uncharted (Video Game)|Uncharted]]. Of those, his favorite games are Final Fantasy X, Minecraft, Zelda (especially ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]''), and Uncharted. His video game geekiness is so well-known that he was the house DJ for the 2011 VGAs, which also happens to be the same event where he unveiled his awesome [http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150493414246806&set=pu.9980651805&type=1&theater video-game themed] [http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150493413306806&set=a.10150493410956806.366699.9 mau5head].

** ''Constantly'' references memes, both on the internet and in real life. Often overlaps with [[Trolling]].

{{quote| "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y8pmWokh4I&t=8m34s YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG]!"}}

*** At the least an argument could be made for him being a [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FrxXbq0y9tA/T9B9UNzmcSI/AAAAAAAAsgk/e8tTq1Girx4/s1600/1.jpg Fluttershy fan.]

** He explictly stated in the Valentine's Day 2012 stream that he is, indeed, a [[Vocaloid]] fan.

{{quote| "[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/14298175708/im-a-female-who-enrolled-in-full-sail-university-to ahhh! Full Fail! dude! save the cash! learn on the internets!]"}}

** He's not only a pianist, but a ''[[Hidden Depths|classically trained]]'' pianist. He said on the Joe Rogen podcast that his parents enrolled him in "piano boot camp" since "I was, like, ''three''".

{{quote| "[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/10758917947/what-do-you-think-of-all-the-porn-of-you-with-skrillex What do you think of all the porn of you with skrillex. haha]"<br />

"…well now the world knows what you think about it. go outside or somethin for a while dude." }}

** There's also a decent amount with him and [[Daft Punk]].

* [[Running Gag]]: "[[Skrillex]] is Not Even Funny", after it was coined in a [[U Stream]] session.

** He started another one involving his new songs on SoundCloud: ever since "Cthulhu Dreams", nearly every new song's genre has been listed on the site as "[item]-[[Dubstep|step]]", such as "Elderstep" for "Cthulhu Dreams", "Pigstep" for "Get in the October Cart, Pig", "Catstep" for "Professor Meowingtons", "[[Steven Spielberg|StephenSpeilbergstep]]" for "[[Shout Out|Closer]]", and "Octoberstep" for "November Second".

* [[Sampling]]: Generally only does this at live shows (such as sampling [[Daft Punk]]'s "Harder Better Faster Stronger" in a live performance of "Professional Griefers"), but has a rare instance of sampling at the beginning of "Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff". Another song, "To Play Us Out", samples the [[Memetic Mutation|memetically infamous]] [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly] rant, which the song title derives its name from.

** One of his really old songs, "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ltFYTT0ok Intelstat]", not only sounds like something from [[Ghost in The Shell]], but has vocals sampled from a song in the first movie.

** A work-in-progress song that he posted on SoundCloud, "[[Shout Out|Closer]]", uses the the five tones from [[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]].

* [[Say It With Hearts]]: Often while posting to his fandom. Likes to use emoticons in everyday online speech, too.

{{quote| "...hahaha despite the 2 minor hiccups, we had so much fun! i'll be back you guys! ♥ night night! im off to Durban tomorrow! :)"}}

* [[Signature Song]]: Either "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" or "Moar Ghosts 'n' Stuff". The former is used in the vast, ''vast'' majority of his cameos and promotions, to the point that fans tend to complain in video comments now about how overused it is, while the latter is a sequel/prequel song that he often mixes with the former at his live shows.

** "Professional Griefers" is also starting to look like this, even though it's not out yet. Deadmau5 refers to himself as a "professional griefer", and the song is easily one of his most anticipated upcoming releases and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcxNIfVIUdU set performances].

* [[Sir Swearsalot]]: ALL of the time. It's brought [[Up to Eleven]] when he gets angry or enthusiastic.

* [[So Proud of You]]: To [[Skrillex]] [http://twitter.com/#!/deadmau5/status/142179392251117568 for getting five Grammy nominations.]

** And to the same person for ''winning'' three of those, even beating deadmau5 himself for all of them.

* [[Stage Names]]: Deadmau5, with his real name being Joel Zimmerman, as previously stated.

* [[Take That]]: His first ever hit, a collaboration with Steve Duda under the BSOD alias titled "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9wJaFl1Ww This Is The Hook]", is a Take That against how formulaic house music is.

{{quote| "[http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/14297288053/if-you-could-punch-a-political-figure-in-the-face-who If you could punch a political figure in the face, who would it be?]"<br />

"david guetta." }}

** After posting a demo of "Sunspot" on his SoundCloud, he later posted "[http://soundcloud.com/fuckmylife/sunspot-da-exxxxxxtreme-drop Sunspot (da eXXXXXXtreme drop mix)]", a 15-second dubstep version demo lampooning all of the recent dubstep trends "of the past year", including seemingly-random effects and sampling, like the style found in [[Skrillex]]'s work.

** While talking about Boxx, the company that made the laptop he was using at the time: "It's like Alienware, but it doesn't suck."

{{quote| "Wait wait wait...hang on. This isn't [[Rebecca Black]]...this is ''[[It Got Worse|actually worse]]''." *pained laugh*<br />

"I am extremely looking forward to social collapse."<br />

** It was mentioned in a livestream that he had actually received several vocal submissions for "Maths", but decided to keep the song as an instrumental.

** He said on the Joe Rogen podcast that he was one of the artists considered for doing the soundtrack to ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron Legacy]]'' before [[Daft Punk (Music)|Daft Punk]] was chosen, and added that had ''he'' been chosen and he knew that Daft Punk was being considered, he would've handed it off to them anyway.

* [[Word Salad Lyrics]]: The lyrics for "Professional Griefers" are this, no matter how [[Mondegreen|they are heard]] when he streams it.

* [[Writers Cannot Do Math]]: ''[[Captain Obvious|4x4=12]]'', in what is a rare example of a ''[[Epic Fail|musician]]'' failing at math. The album name is an in-joke stemming from a live-stream incident in which he was describing his setup and said "four times four, which is twelve". After [[Hilarity Ensues|his fans poked fun at him for it]], he decided to name his next album after the incident. Also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in "Maths", where the only vocal line is a faint voice saying "four PLUS four PLUS four is twelve" at a few points in the song.