Hardstyle

Originated from hard trance, gabber and rave music with influences from UK hard house and jumpstyle. The place of origin is believed to be the Netherlands, where the first hardstyle events started near the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000. Persons accredited in the development of the style is Dov J. Elkabas aka The Prophet, Raoul Van Grinsven aka Dj Zany, Wouter and Sjoerd Janssen aka Showtek and Dana van Dreven aka Lady Dana.

In 2007 the style started becoming popular in several countries in the world, including: Belgium, Poland, Estonia, Denmark, Australia, South Africa and United Kingdom.

The English sound was very popular in the Netherlands for a short time, but it soon appeared that the Dutch public preferred a harder bassline. Artists like Dana, and Pavo & The Prophet combined the English sound with new productions. This sound also gained some popularity in Germany, where it was picked up by the German label Tracid Traxxx (who defined their own sound as a combination of trance and acid), and later also by Blutonium Records and Resident E Recordings.

Afterwards, hardstyle productions briefly became popular in Italy, and later in Germany. This led to the emergenece of new hardstyle which eventually arrived at and became popular in the Netherlands. Q-Dance organised a monthly event in the (known today as the North Sea Venue) under the name Qlubtempo, an event which could be called the melting pot of the Hardstyle. Nowadays hardstyle events are very common in Dutch clubs. Artists who had never performed in the Netherlands before were flown over to bring there the new sound. Artists such as Technoboy, Super Marco May, and Gary D acquired a large reputation in the Netherlands this way.

Hardstyle is a rising star the same way house music was, with events like Qlimax, Hardbass, Defcon.1 and many more the hardstyle sound gathers tens of thousands of fans from all over the world.

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