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Hardcore (electronic dance music genre)

Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno)[2][3] is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany[4] in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorted sawtooth kick (160 to 200 BPM or more[5]), the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass (in some subgenres),[6] the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes (sometimes violent),[7] the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music. It would spawn subgenres such as gabber.

Not to be confused with electronicore, hardcore punk, breakbeat hardcore, or happy hardcore.

Hardcore

Late 1980s – early 1990s,[1] Netherlands (Rotterdam), Belgium, Germany (Frankfurt)

History[edit]

Early 1970s to early 1980s[edit]

Hardcore is rooted in the 1970s and early 1980s industrial music, specifically the elements of hard electronic dance music. Groups such as Throbbing Gristle,[8] Coil, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Foetus and Einstürzende Neubauten produced music using a wide range of electronic instruments.[9] The message diffused by industrial was then very provocative. Some of the musical sounds and experimentation of industrial have directly influenced hardcore since the beginning of the movement.

1980s[edit]

In the mid-1980s, under the influence of the Belgian group Front 242, electronic body music (EBM), a new genre more accessible and more dancing inspired by industrial and new wave, appeared.[10] This style is characterized by minimalism, cold sounds unlike disco, funk or house, with powerful beats, generally combined with aggressive vocals and an aesthetic close to industrial or punk music.[10] Under the influence of new beat, another Belgian genre and acid house, EBM music became harder.[11] All the elements were present for the arrival of hardcore. The beginnings of the genre, they are traced at the very end of the 1980s in Belgium, within the new beat scene with the titles : Rock To The Beat by 101 released in 1988, Saigon Nightmare by 101 released in 1988, Warbeat by Bassline Boys released in 1989, I Want You! by The Concrete Beat released in 1989, I Love You by The Acid Kids released in 1988, Doughnut Dollies by HNO3 released in 1988, Action In Paradise by Export released in 1988, Acid New-Beat by Tribe 22 released in 1988, I Sit On Acid by Lords Of Acid released in 1988, Acid Rock by Rhythm Device released in 1989, Double B by Dirty Harry released in 1989, Also Sprach Zarathustra by Bingo! released in 1989, Europe by Christine D released in 1989, Do That Dance by The Project released in 1990, in 1988 the Belgian new beat arrived in Frankfurt in West Germany.

Hard dance

Late 1990s

Defqon.1 Festival

Masters of Hardcore

Sensation Black

Thunderdome

(in Dutch)

Dominator Festival

Darkside (UK)

So W’Happy Festival (Belgium) [61]

[60]

Hakken

Hardstyle

List of electronic music genres