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
Carnival: Usually has a fast hat pattern, and is combined with heavy Dubstep growls, screeches, and synths as well. It is typically accompanied by Hybrid Trap or Brostep.
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.
Frenchcore: A subgenre of Hardcore that employs offbeat basslines, heavy kicks and massive melodies at fast tempos of 190-230 BPM. The genre can be rather light or very heavy and abrasive, making it one of the more diverse genres of Hardcore.
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) and punchy kicks, 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. Happy Hardcore is often written in Major keys.
Hardcore: Typically faster than Hardstyle, ranging from 160 - 190+ BPM. Hardcore songs usually have less distorted and more compressed kicks than Hardstyle.
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 distinctly more clear in the mixes due to the syncopation needed to create the groove in the track.
Psycore: Not to be confused with the Psytrance subgenre of the same name, Psycore (the Hardcore variant) is comprised of UK Hardcore structures & tempos sitting around 160-190 BPM with Psytrance tritonals and beat patterns within the drops.
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, nostalgic and heartfelt vocals, and heavy pitch shifting within its kicks. Euphoric Hardstyle is considered the most "commercial friendly" subgenre of Hardstyle.
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 utilizes harsh and distorted synths, detuned and distorted sounds accompanying the main instruments along with a lot of poetry and story telling within the music.
Nu-Style: The name for the distinct type of Hardstyle made between 2005-2010. Often times mislabeled as "Jumpstyle" do to the dance style known by that name being performed to Nu-Style incredibly often.
Psystyle: A combination of Hardstyle and Psytrance, characterized by its hybridized usage of Psytrance triplets with a Hardstyle kick drum. Artists such as Sub Zero Project are known for starting the movement of Psystyle.
Rawphoric: A combination of harsher kicks from Rawstyle combined with melodies and climaxes seen in Euphoric Hardstyle.
Rawstyle: A type of Hardstyle influenced from hardcore or older hardstyle resulting in darker melodies, screeches and deeper-sounding kick drums. Distortion is often times used to give songs a dark feeling and crunchier kicks.
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. Often used in Mid-Intros within Hardstyle songs as a precursor to the more melodic climax later in the song.
X-TRA RAW: Massive gated kicks and deadly screeches create an even more abrasive version of Rawstyle. Dark and often times vulgar samples are used to create dark and evil atmospheres.
Trivia
Hardcore began being posted in every 3-4 monthly Monstercat album as of Album 028, due to Stonebank producing this genre more often. It began appearing even more since 030 - Finale, because of the addition of artists such as Darren Styles, Gammer, Kayzo, and others.
