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Hardstyle Shuffle

Hardstyle, in the United Kingdom sometimes referred to as hardbass, is a genre of electronic dance music that is closely related to hardcore and hard trance. Being a fusion of both hard trance and gabber, hardstyle is grouped in the hard dance section. Its sound is usually characterized by a four to the floor kick beat and an off-beat gabber style bass line, hard trance like synth stabs and sweeps and miscellaneous samples. Tracks often feature excessive reverb and/or other effects, breakdowns and occasionally small breakbeat sections. The average tempo is between 130 and 150 bpm, around 30 slower than nu style gabber.

Type of hardstyles

Hardstyle scenes can be found in various countries around the world. As with many formative sub-genres, the hardstyle category is itself split into several subcategories, such as:

• Dutch Hardstyle (Also known as early hardstyle)- Typically harder and darker than other hardstyle, mostly known for its hard off-beat reverse bass line, wicked kicks, dirty vocals and soft synths.
• Italian Hardstyle - More serious, usually has a bigger melodic breakdown and typically 'gangsta'-themed lyrics. The synths are much harder than dutch hardstyle.
• Nu-Style - Usually a softer bass line than normal hardstyle, mashed out with samples and lower use of reverse bass and/or reverb. The kick is often filtered and distorted to create a grungey overdriven bass drive. Melodies are emphasized, and put more into focus. In this type of Hardstyle, it seems Dutch Hardstyle is more Hard-dance influenced using more flat kicks and more commercial vocals. Italian Nu-Style seems to follow the typical Hardstyle more, still using reversed basslines and extremely rough synth.

One major event group in the hardstyle scene is Q-dance, arranging massive events in football stadiums, sports grounds, public arenas and airports.

Hardstyle Formula

The general way in which a Hardstyle song is ordered can be compared to reading a book. The formula looks like this: Intro [May in include vocals] - Beat pick up/Hasten - Beat Break [Similar to the rising action in a story] - Climax [the best part of the song where the beat and the bass play together] - Conclusion [the song will either trail off of the climax or go back to the original intro beat]

Mainstream Hardstyle is generally identified with a heavy kick combined with a "punch" and a bass "boom" on the down beat. This pattern generally goes with a soft synth or lead pattern that repeats. Another characteristic of Hardstyle is the usage of triplets throughout the song.

Popularity

Hardstyle is popular Europe wide, especially in its home lands such as the Netherlands and Germany, but its also popular among countries where the "hard dance" scene is big - such as Russia, the U.K, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland etc. Hardstyle is also hugely popular in Australia and some Asian countries such as Malaysia because of the "Melbourne Shuffle" In Australia hardstyle was first seen in underground clubs, and has started to spread to Sydney and Brisbane and even overseas to Malaysia and Brunei over the past seven years. Norway, Denmark and Sweden are also going with the flow!