hard house - stupid sub-genres!

[Blink]

Liquid, some of us are far more anal than you, and only like specific sub-genres of music [i don't like Hard House as a whole, just bits of it], so creating a sub-genre is fair enough.

 

But when does a sub-genre back a genre in its own right, after all, should it not all some under the genre of music? It is just a case of where you draw the line.

 

I used to be really against labelling stuff, but now I am all for it, just cos it makes people more aware of what they are getting. You don't need to limit yourself to one area though, just consider it a buffet, and surely a buffet is better if it is labeled up properly (garlic potatoes, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, chipped potatoes, fried potatoes, jacket potatoes, boiled potatoes..gotta be far better than just getting "potatoes", and whatever that could entail)

[LiquidEyes]

Blink said:

Liquid, some of us are far more anal than you

LOL! Surely not possible!

 

I like your potato analogy. But at least you they all have the word "potato" in them so you know roughly what you're getting without necessarily knowing the difference between a new potato, a jacket potato, etc...

 

I'm talking more about names like "nu-nrg" and "tech-step" which mean next to nothing unless you know your buzzwords!

 

I guess these names arise as soon as a given sub-genre gains enough popularity to be considered a "significant" new style of music, but as someone who has been into quite a range of dance music over the last few years, some of these sub-genres are comically similar!

 

I do agree about "knowing what you're getting" though; I guess the problem is that so many crap DJs will just buy one style of music and not get into anything else.

[Blink]

What disppoints me, is when someone says you like a certain genre, so you go out and buy some stuff, and it is nothing like it.

 

I said I liked Scot Project and Yoji Biomehanika, and was told it was Hard Trance, so I went out and bought some "Best of Hard trance" CD, with band names on it I recognised [it even had Firewire by Cosmic Gate on it...and I have an awesome mix of that which sounds nothing like the version on this CD] and it is as soft as soggy lettuce (I even have some of the tracks on my Chill-out mixes!!)

[LiquidEyes]

Agreed! Equally, it can go the other way.

 

E.g. On Saturday I went to "Time Machine" at The Fridge in Brixton. Somebody told me it was a hard trance night, so I expected the music to be [censored]. However this is the first "hard trance" night I have ever enjoyed, it was bloody excellent!

 

It wasn't the sort of lame-but-fast cheese that usually gets passed off as hard trance - it was mostly dark, intense and technoey, without being stupidly fast. I'd say it was more "psytrance" or "techno" than "hard trance". But maybe they get more people through the door by calling it hard trance...?

[LittleMissLoud]

I think NuNRG was origionally another name for the harder house style that was emerging from clubs called Trade.

 

Hardstyle is very warp-warp bassline.

 

And hard house comes in all shapes and forms, from techy, trancy, slighty funky, to full on banging.

 

There is no oink oink stuff about anymore, but some older stuff like this is classed as 'Bouncy', due to the boing boing sound, and the way people used to bounce around to it!!!

[Ikon]

Ok, Hardstyle -

 

Basically Modular hit the nail on the head with his description (However, Scot Project is most definatley not a Hardstyle DJ!). Hardstyle is basically Hard Trance without the melodic breakdowns (Although a few Hardstyle producers are now including a bit of melody). It fuses together elements of Hard Trance, Hard House, Techno and Nu Skool Gabber!. And it's main attributes are a heavy reversed bass and Gabber style distorted kickdrums, usually on every 8th beat, as a series of stabs within the track or even as a few bars on their own as a type of breakdown.

 

The term 'Hardstyle' (I hate the term btw!) was invented not by us (for once!!) but by the pioneers of the sound - the Italians and the Dutch (The Nu Skool Gabber producers from these countries). I think 'Hardstyle' came along because it was a way for the dj's and producers to branch out into more mainstream muzik (Hard Trance) but because of the Gabber influence they were still being 'Hardcore' if you know what I mean (Although Gabber in both these countries is extremely mainstream). Most Hardstyle producers and pioneers are Gabber DJ's, i.e - Dana, Luna, Pavo, Tommy Pulse, Paul Elstak, Zany etc

 

P.S - Do not take Nukleuz black as 'Hardstyle'! the tracks they've released are terrible!!! Oh, and on the back of the 1st release they claim The Organ Donors are 'The pioneers of Hardstyle in the UK'!!! If anyone is the pioneer of the sound in the UK it is DJ Vortex by a long shot, followed by M-Zone!

[Ikon]

Here is a pretty cool Hardstyle track (with a bit of melody in it!) to check out -

 

http://www.germantrance.com/content/_rams/TEC085B.ram

[ReBirth]

Chris_Hutchinson said:

Yup - cos nobody ever buys any so its always left in record stores... thats why people think its becoming big and shops are stocking loads

 

bah...wonder what Ed will say about that

[SarahPVC]

Ikon said:

Ok, Hardstyle -

 

Basically Modular hit the nail on the head with his description (However, Scot Project is most definatley not a Hardstyle DJ!). Hardstyle is basically Hard Trance without the melodic breakdowns (Although a few Hardstyle producers are now including a bit of melody). It fuses together elements of Hard Trance, Hard House, Techno and Nu Skool Gabber!. And it's main attributes are a heavy reversed bass and Gabber style distorted kickdrums, usually on every 8th beat, as a series of stabs within the track or even as a few bars on their own as a type of breakdown.

 

The term 'Hardstyle' (I hate the term btw!) was invented not by us (for once!!) but by the pioneers of the sound - the Italians and the Dutch (The Nu Skool Gabber producers from these countries). I think 'Hardstyle' came along because it was a way for the dj's and producers to branch out into more mainstream muzik (Hard Trance) but because of the Gabber influence they were still being 'Hardcore' if you know what I mean (Although Gabber in both these countries is extremely mainstream). Most Hardstyle producers and pioneers are Gabber DJ's, i.e - Dana, Luna, Pavo, Tommy Pulse, Paul Elstak, Zany etc

 

P.S - Do not take Nukleuz black as 'Hardstyle'! the tracks they've released are terrible!!! Oh, and on the back of the 1st release they claim The Organ Donors are 'The pioneers of Hardstyle in the UK'!!! If anyone is the pioneer of the sound in the UK it is DJ Vortex by a long shot, followed by M-Zone!

 

[Mr_Happy]

i find it amuzing when the same rcord is labeled up as different styles in diff record shops.

 

ie insicions - beond emotion has been labeled as hard trance, nu nrg and hard house

[Chris Hutchinson]

ReBirth said:

Chris_Hutchinson said:

Yup - cos nobody ever buys any so its always left in record stores... thats why people think its becoming big and shops are stocking loads

 

bah...wonder what Ed will say about that

 

He would probably say "no it isnt", but what does he know anyway

[DJam]

WOW! And I thought the whole "hardstyle" thing was just here in Chicago.

 

I personally never liked all the genre names. I think a lot of them are DJs who know they are playing the same music as 1000 other guys, so they want to appear as "different", and they make up these names.

 

I've only known two styles from this area...there is UK Hardhouse, which was that whole Tidy Trax sound (and the labels that followed it). It bangs like Chicago Hardhouse (the UC sound), but the trance/techno elements make it different.

 

Then there's an old name from the past I always liked - HARDBAG (or hardfloor)

 

I see hardbag as similar to trance, only it's harder, more energetic, and while it carries some similarities to UK Hardhouse, I think the added uses of rolling basslines and epic builds make it different.

 

"Progressive"? That's Digweed's sound to me. Dark and deep. I never saw any hardbag as "progressive". To me it was DJs trying to appear as something different.

 

Nu-NRG? Sounds like Hardbag to me.

 

 

[Mr_Happy]

found out the other day that theres a diff between nu NRG and nu energy

 

it turns out the nu energy is the sped up hard trance that i was saying i've seen pilled next to the trancecore shelf in record stores.

 

the nu NRG is the stuff i've been DJing

[Chris Hutchinson]

Mr_Happy said:

 

it turns out the nu energy is the sped up hard trance that i was saying i've seen pilled next to the trancecore shelf in record stores.

 

nu energy is a freeform/hardcore record label run by kevin Energy and chums, not a genre

[Mr_Happy]

well maybe people have started using it as a genre to descibe a cirtain sound. because i've heard records refered to as energy and nu energy in the past and they cirtinally wernt glazby style music and wernt the nu energy label (which i was already aware of)