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Stylistic origins Hard trance, nu style gabber, hard house, hardtechno, industrial
Cultural origins Late 1990s, early 2000s, Netherlands
Typical instruments DAW, synthesizer, sequencer, sampler, turntables, TTS
Derivative forms Early hardstyle, nu-style, tekstyle, rawstyle, euphoric hardstyle, power hardstyle, dubstyle
Other topics
Hardcore - Happy hardcore - Gabber - Dubstep - Drumstep - Complextro




Hardstyle was influenced by hard trance, gabber, and hard house. Hardstyle has its origins in the Netherlands where artists like Dana, Pavo, Luna and The Prophet, who produced hardcore, started experimenting while playing their hardcore records. The first Hardstyle events, like Qlubtempo,[2] took place at the beginning of the 21st century. The first few years of hardstyle were characterized by a tempo of around 140-150 BPM, a compressed kick drum sound, a short vocal sample, a screech and the use of a "reverse bass", which can be heard on the offbeat after each kick.





In early 2010s, a new variation in hardstyle, named dubstyle[6] was introduced. Dubstyle is the name given to the genre fusion of hardstyle and dubstep. 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.[7] Because of the sporadic beat in dubstyle, the bass is often more dragged out and/or it doesn't follow a strict offbeat pattern that regular hardstyle incorporates, which in turn results in dubstyle basslines bearing similarities to dubstep basslines.


Since around 2011, more terms to identify developments of hardstyle were introduced. Rawstyle is a type of hardstyle influenced from Dutch hardcore or older hardstyle resulting in darker melodies and deeper-sounding kick drums with more distortion through VST plug-ins such as Devastor, CamelPhat, Ohmicide & TriDirt.[8]

Notable related events[edit]

Notable artists[edit]

Notable labels[edit]


  6. ^ dubstyle.nl, Dutch website on dubstyle
  8. ^ Article on the split between rawstyle and euphoric hardstyle by Fear.FM