Hardstyle, an EDM genre, was created as an
alternative to hard house, hardcore, and gabber which were seen to be becoming too hard, fast, repetitive and invasive by the crowds.
Hardstyle is characterized by the heavy kickbass with subbass frequencies at about 130-150 bpm, accompanied by a high tempo melody, which creates an "adrenaline rushing and/or euphoric" feeling among fans at a live event.
Originating from
the Netherlands around 1999-2000 and was an immediate success at raves, clubs and festivals.
The creation of Hardstyle is credited to Dov Ekrebas aka. The Prophet, however this is disputed.
Often confused with hard house, hard trance, psy trance or hardcore, its creation was intended to be a refined combination of the other harder styles, and to create a more crowd friendly hard dance scene.
The most influential artists of Hardstyle include : The Prophet, Zany, Technoboy, Headhunterz, Pavo, Dana, Luna, Noisecontrollers, Isaac, D-Block and S-Te-Fan, Tatanka and Blutonium boy
The Biggest Hardstyle raves and festivals are mainly held in
the Netherlands.
Dutch
entertainment enterprise Q-Dance presents the main events such as Defqon 1, Qlimax, Q-Base, In Qontrol, Qountdown, X-Qlusive and Qlubtempo.
Other notable events are Mysteryland, Decibel, Hardbass and Sensation Black.
