The Chainsmokers and ROZES Celebrate 10 Years of “Roses”

There’s something surreal about realizing that “Roses” by The Chainsmokers and ROZES is now ten years old. In EDM years, that’s practically a generation. What’s more surreal is that it doesn’t feel dated—at least not in the way a lot of 2015’s playlist fodder does. While many tracks from the genre’s crossover peak have become time capsules of big drops and festival clichés, “Roses” still pulses with a kind of emotional immediacy that makes it easy to forget how much time has passed.

Released on June 16, 2015, “Roses” wasn’t aiming for bombast. At a time when producers were chasing maximalist sounds and peak-hour chaos, The Chainsmokers leaned into something more restrained. The song bridged future bass aesthetics with indie pop vulnerability—more bedroom speaker than main stage, more aching heart than hands-in-the-air anthem. That choice paid off. The track didn’t just chart; it infiltrated everything from teen movies to department store playlists to late-night Uber rides. And it did so without screaming for attention.

Looking back, it marked a shift in how electronic music could function in pop. “Roses” wasn’t Avicii’s stadium euphoria or Skrillex’s bass-face frenzy. It was a whisper that somehow got louder than a shout, carried largely by ROZES’ melancholic, clear-eyed vocal and a synth hook that melted rather than punched. The Chainsmokers—still a duo transitioning from meme-y roots (#SELFIE) to legitimate songcraft—struck a chord they would chase for years to come.

Even now, the track holds up. That four-note riff still evokes a kind of wistful longing that escapes genre. It’s not just nostalgia; it’s design. “Roses” isn’t timeless because it ignored trends, but because it acknowledged them and moved gently in another direction.

Ten years on, “Roses” hasn’t withered. If anything, it’s still blooming—quietly, insistently—in a musical landscape that often forgets yesterday by tomorrow.