Originated from hard trance, gabber and rave music with influences from UK hard house and jumpstyle. The place of origin is believed to be the Netherlands, where the first hardstyle events started near the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000. Persons accredited in the development of the style is Dov J. Elkabas aka The Prophet, Raoul Van Grinsven aka Dj Zany, Wouter and Sjoerd Janssen aka Showtek and Dana van Dreven aka Lady Dana.
In 2007 the style started becoming popular in several countries in the world, including: Belgium, Poland, Estonia, Denmark, Australia, South Africa and United Kingdom.
The English sound was very popular in the Netherlands for a short time, but it soon appeared that the Dutch public preferred a harder bassline. Artists like Dana, and Pavo & The Prophet combined the English sound with new productions. This sound also gained some popularity in Germany, where it was picked up by the German label Tracid Traxxx (who defined their own sound as a combination of trance and acid), and later also by Blutonium Records and Resident E Recordings.
Afterwards, hardstyle productions briefly became popular in Italy, and later in Germany. This led to the emergenece of new hardstyle which eventually arrived at and became popular in the Netherlands. Q-Dance organised a monthly event in the (known today as the North Sea Venue) under the name Qlubtempo, an event which could be called the melting pot of the Hardstyle. Nowadays hardstyle events are very common in Dutch clubs. Artists who had never performed in the Netherlands before were flown over to bring there the new sound. Artists such as Technoboy, Super Marco May, and Gary D acquired a large reputation in the Netherlands this way.
Hardstyle is a rising star the same way house music was, with events like Qlimax, Hardbass, Defcon.1 and many more the hardstyle sound gathers tens of thousands of fans from all over the world.
Random Track: Headhunterz & Wildstylez "Project One" - Fantasy or Reality
That track is nu-style not hardstyle.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention "Blutonium Boy(s)"!! He is the original Hardstyle nation pumpin and pumpin! LOL
ReplyDeleteFuck, this track is nu-style('mainstream hardstyle') not HARDSTYLE!
ReplyDeleteThis is random HARDSTYLE track
Deepack - here's johny!
Reverse bass is definition of hardstyle!
Fucken hipsters. Just because Hardstyle sounds different than it did in the past doesnt mean its some new shitty genre.
DeleteHardstyle is dead
ReplyDeletethere is only Nu Style(Hardstyle) Early Hardstyle and the shitty Dubstyle :(
I think this page could be more informative about the history of how Hardstyle evolved stylistically, instead of how it rose in popularity.
ReplyDeleteJust a tip. :)
Also include an Early Hardstyle track to show how the sound has changed.
DeleteSticky post ;)
ReplyDeleteI was born in The Netherlands. And moved to Belgium around the year 2000. Back than it was all pure hardcore, untill I discovered hardstyle.
Happend to be your random pick of a hardstyle song, I would call it bulls-eye. It sums up everything Hardstyle stands for and I still use it alot in my dj sets.
grtz
Lectrotraxx
Many people believe that hardstyle started in the US but almost everyone that listens to hardtsyle knows that it started in the Netherlands and got popular in the Dutch area and that it migrated to the US after about 3 years after its creation. The only thing that people in the Us want to do is take credit for something popular. sorry Americans, its not yours
ReplyDeleteHey all,
ReplyDeleteI am Dutch guy. Almost 32 years now. I grew up with hardstyle etc. I have to make a comment on this. When I was around 14 years old music called Hardcore became very BIG in The Netherlands, heck it was a hype for 1-2 years. 80% of the teenagers were wearing sports clothing, Nikes, danced on Hardcore called themself Gabbers. I myself was a Gabber, I used Harddrugs during that time as well. The music Hardcore kinda changed to Hardstyle Trance the next upcoming 5 years. I remember those days very good. My time and experience I had during this "bad time' (my addiction to Hard drugs softdrugs back then) was EPIC. The feeling I get hearing this music now still gives me goosebumps. I stopped with using Drugs when I was around my 19 years. I saw lots of friends, end up in hospitals, or jail. I sitted in jail a few times myself. You could say I was the worst teenage kid you could imagine. But no Americans not even Australia or any other country can claim the roots of Hardstyle music. It all started in The Netherlands :).
Defqon1, Climax, Bitte ein Beat, is still my favorite music. I think it will never fade away.
This topic is more about the way Hardstyle changed, but not, how it really was. The real Hardstyle today is called Early Hardstyle, was known for its hard revers-basses and hoover-synths. Todays hardstyle is commercial, but hasn't really much in common with real Hardstyle, resp. the real hardness of Hardstyle
ReplyDeleteI don't know what you guys are saying, this is one of the greatest hardstyle tracks i have ever heard
ReplyDeleteHardstyle, to the best of my knowledge, used to also be known as 'hardbass' and definitely originated in NL - I'm not sure why there's any confusion about this.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, hardstyle emerged from the developments of nu-style hardcore (e.g. The Dark Raver and DJ Vince - Thunderground) but it diverged into its own scene because a) the hardcore scene wasn't so healthy at the time and b) hardcore tends to gravitate to making an evolving 'harder' sound (e.g. through increasing the tempo or increasing the decay of the kickdrum) whilst hardstyle is committed to a particular 'sweet spot' of hardness.
I can't comment on how the style has changed over time because I never really bought a lot of it (maybe a dozen vinyls in my collection and a couple of compilation CDs) but I do remember when the style was beginning to emerge.
-MS
to everyone who thinks hard style is dead,
ReplyDeleteHard style is not dead, but it is dying so we need to bring it back! get the word out, Do the Hard style shuffle and the Hard-jump in public, tell people about it just let people know its not dead yet!