Hardcore Techno (1990): Hardcore techno formed between 1990 and 1992 across Frankfurt, New York and Rotterdam, as techno pushed its kick drum into distortion and its tempo past 150…
Gabber (1992): Rotterdam, 1992: pure Dutch hardcore, crushed kicks at 160 to 190, hoover stabs, shaved heads and Australian tracksuits. A massive working class, popular…
Terrorcore (1994): Terrorcore is the hardest wing of 1990s hardcore, faster and darker than gabber, built on horror movie samples and New York nihilism at labels like Industrial…
Speedcore (1993): Speedcore pushes beyond 250 beats per minute, sometimes past 1000, until tempo itself becomes the subject of the music rather than just a setting. It grew out…
Nu Style Gabber (2003): Nu style gabber is hardcore reborn at the turn of the 2000s in a slower, heavier form: long, sculpted kicks around 150 to 160 BPM, modern mixing, and MC…
Uptempo Hardcore (2013): Uptempo hardcore is the acceleration of the 2010s and 2020s: nu style pushed past 200 beats per minute, kicks riddled with rolls in the frenchcore tradition,…
Doomcore (1992): Slow, funereal hardcore invented by The Mover out of Frankfurt: pads of apocalypse, cavernous kicks, and the atmosphere of an empty cathedral after the end of…
Frenchcore (1998): France hardened hardcore in its own way at the end of the 1990s: a punched, bouncing, almost melodic kick around 200 beats per minute, rooted in free parties…
Dubstyle (2010): Dubstyle was a brief hybrid from the early 2010s that crossed the kicks and structure of hardstyle with the wobbles of dubstep, played at half tempo against…
Happy Hardcore (1994): The smiling half of the 1993 hardcore split: euphoric pianos, helium-pitched vocals, sped-up breaks giving way to 4/4 kicks, teenage ecstasy at 170 beats per…
Bouncy Techno (1993): Bouncy techno came out of Scotland and the north of England between 1993 and 1996, sitting between happy hardcore and gabber: a bouncing four on the floor…
UK Hardcore (2000): UK hardcore is the modern continuation of British happy hardcore after 2000: polished trance-style production, supersaw leads, fully sung vocals rather than…
Raggacore (1998): Raggacore is breakcore that chooses dancehall over dread: the Amen break and hard kicks driven under sped-up ragga toasts, sound-system culture run through a…
J-Core (2003): J core is Japan's hardcore: happy hardcore and gabber digested by otaku culture, anime melodies, vocaloid voices and the speed of a rhythm game. It was born…
Hardstyle (2007): The Netherlands invented, around the turn of the millennium, a more accessible successor to gabber: the tempo dropped to 150, kicks grew huge and precisely…
Jumpstyle (1999): Belgium and the Netherlands, around 2007: a simplified, bouncing form of hardstyle at 140 to 150 BPM, built for a codified jumping dance that YouTube turned…
Lento Violento (1999): Lento violento is Gigi D'Agostino's own invention: hardstyle and Italian dance music slowed down to 100 or 120 beats per minute, heavy slow-motion kicks, and…
Makina (1989): Northern Spain, Valencia then Catalonia in the 1990s: local hardcore between Barcelona's makina and Valencian bakalao, hard kicks, simple epic melodies, a…
Digital Hardcore (1994): Digital hardcore was founded in Berlin in 1994 when Alec Empire started the label Digital Hardcore Recordings, welding together saturated breakbeats, screamed…
