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Hard Dance is a blanket term used to describe the genres & subgenres of Hardcore & Hardstyle. Hardcore mixes influences from Eurodance, Hard House, & Hard Trance. Hardcore incorporates strong synths, percussion and echo effects from Eurodance, and generally uses more euphoric melodies, as well as less harsh-sounding kick drums. Hardcore is distinct and separate from Hardstyle or Reverse bass which typically consists of a bass-driven heavy kick drum, intense faded or reversed basslines accompanying the beat, a dissonant synth melody, and detuned and distorted sounds.

The color associated with this genre for Monstercat is green.

Hardcore Subgenres

  • Eurodance: often carries a positive, upbeat attitude; the lyrics usually involve issues of love and peace, dancing and partying, or expressing and overcoming difficult emotions. The early to mid-1990s Eurodance vocals were frequently done by a solo vocalist or a mixed rapper-vocalist duet. Sometimes non-rap vocals are used. Almost all Eurodance emphasizes percussion and rhythm. The tempo is typically around 140 beats per minute but may vary from 110 to 150.
  • Freeform: A subgenre of Hardcore which used to be known as Trancecore. It sits within a BPM range of 140-160, and can be boiled down to a hybrid between Trance & Hardcore. There is a new, derivative form of the subgenre known as Psycore, which is a combination of Psytrance & Hardcore (See the Trance article for a description of Psycore).
  • Gabber: characterized by its bass drum sound. Essentially, it comes from taking a normal synthesized bass drum and over-driving it heavily.
  • Happy Hardcore: typified by a very fast tempo (usually around 160–190 BPM), often coupled with solo vocals or sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat happy sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore, which tend to be darker.
  • Hardcore: typically faster than hardstyle, ranging from 160 - 200+ BPM. Hardcore songs usually have less distorted and more compressed kicks than hardstyle. Hardcore songs, such as Rock the House and The Pressure, have been mislabeled as Hard Dance when in reality they are actually hardcore.
  • Powerstomp: A Hybrid genre between Melbourne Bounce and UK Hardcore, generally known for the typical Reverse Bass hardstyle kick and swing in the bassline, however without distortion and usually at a BPM between 140-170. It is also characterized by a screechy UK Hardcore lead, or a nasal Big Room lead, percussion is distincly more clear in the mixes due to the syncopation needed to create the groove in the track.
  • UK Hardcore: a characteristically harder style by its "thicker, harsher bassline, as well as less of the breakbeat associated with the happy hardcore music of the 1990s.

Hardstyle Subgenres

  • Dubstyle: Tends to have reversed wobble basslines and take the kick styling of hardstyle tracks, while combining them with the rhythm, groove, and dubstep tempo and effects a fusion of elements of hardstyle with a dubstep rhythm, usually a 2-step or a breakstep rhythm.
  • Euphoric Hardstyle: Characterized by highly emotional melodies and heavy pitch-shifting of kicks.
  • Hardstyle: Consists of an overdriven and hard-sounding kick drum with a lot of sustain, with intense faded or reversed basslines accompanying the beat. Hardstyle also utilises harsh and distorted synths, detuned and distorted sounds accompanying the main instruments along with a lot of poetry and story telling within the music.
  • Psystyle: A combination of Hardstyle and Psytrance/Psycore, characterized by its hybridized usage of Psytrance triplets with a Hardstyle kick drum.
  • Rawstyle: A type of Hardstyle influenced from hardcore or older hardstyle resulting in darker melodies, screeches and deeper-sounding kick drums.
  • Reverse Bass: A form of Hardstyle production that reverses the sound design of a typical Hardstyle kick and bassline, but uses the same structuring as regular Hardstyle.

Trivia

[ vte ] Alphabetical List of Hard Dance Songs (Genre)
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Quake
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