See what 2016 hit duo received almost as many iHeartRadio Music Awards noms as Drake

The iHeartRadio Music Awards nominees for the 2017 ceremony have been announced, with the duo the Chainsmokers earning almost as many as top honoree Drake, with hip-hop artist Drake receiving 12 and the Chainsmokers getting 11.

The iHeartRadio Music Awards, which were created in 2014, will be held on March 5 this year. The nominees for female artist are Adele, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, and Sia; while Drake, Justin Bieber, Luke Bryan, Shawn Mendes, and The Weeknd will vie for the male artist of the year award. 

The best duo/group of the year nominees are Coldplay, DNCE, Florida Georgia Line, the Chainsmokers, and twenty one pilots, while the tracks that are nominated for song of the year are “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake, “Cheap Thrills” by Sia featuring Sean Paul, “Closer” by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey, “One Dance” by Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla, and “Stressed Out” by twenty one pilots. 

The Chainsmokers have received multiple iHeartRadio Music Award nominations after a big 2016, which found the DJs releasing multiple songs that entered the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, including “Roses,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” and “Closer.” “Closer” hit number one and is still ranked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of Jan. 14.

What draws listeners to the music of the Chainsmokers and helped the group experience such success within the past year?

EDM, or electronic dance music, is the Chainsmokers’ chosen genre and it’s one that gained a huge amount of popularity within recent years, with Kevin Watson, an analyst for electronic music event the International Music Summit, telling The New York Times in 2015, “Here in the U.K., we’ve had peaks of interest before but we have seen nothing like the global cultural exposure and move into the mainstream as we have in the last two years. It’s been absolutely phenomenal.” 

The Chainsmokers are alongside names such as Calvin Harris, Major Lazer, and DJ Snake as artists who are influenced by EDM and who have all scored hits near or at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 recently. The Chainsmokers’ genre is one that is experiencing mainstream success. 

In addition, Rolling Stone writer Jonah Weiner, who called the Chainsmokers (which consists of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart) “the country’s hottest pop duo” late last year, writes that listeners may be drawn in by some of the recent lyrics found in the Chainsmokers’ songs and that the two make the genre their own. 

“Their best originals are understated compared with a lot of mainstream EDM, and tinged with melancholy,” Mr. Weiner writes of the duo’s work.

Billboard writer Chris Martins also feels the group put their own twist on traditional genre sounds. “The New York native duo offers something simultaneously fresh and familiar to contemporary dance-pop –crossover,” Mr. Martins writes. “The pair isn’t linked to a trendy sound like trop-house. The songs are stylistically elastic although generally midtempo and vaguely sentimental.”