I’m right there with you. Diving into hardcore electronic music is not easy, considering there are so many subgenres. This page will act as a glossary for styles of hardcore techno and will be added onto as I also learn the nuances and intricacies!
Dezzy’s Hardcore Essentials Playlist (accessible through its own page on my site) is arranged in the order of subgenres below, with 2 songs designated for each genre so you get a little taste of everything! Most of the genre stuff is adapted from Rate Your Music.
This page is a work-in-progress.
Subgenres
Hardcore – Also called Hardcore Techno, this is an umbrella term for any sort of fast-paced electronic dance music (EDM) developed in the 90s.
Breakbeat Hardcore – Also called Oldskool Hardcore/Rave, this subgenre combined sampled drums (called breakbeats) and energetic rave rhythms. Starting in the 1980s in Britain, this is what is considered the founding style for most rave music and what really kicked off Hardcore Techno as a genre.
Gabber – Originating from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Gabber is characterized by its fast-paced, distorted kick drums and aggressively energetic sound. The word gabber actually means “buddy” in Dutch! Gabber songs are around 160-220 BPM.
Jungle – A precursor to the genre of Drum & Bass, Jungle relies on a strong bass and lots of drum breaks! Jungle can also feature Reggae vocals, and can also use a lot of samples.
Drum & Bass – As the name would suggest, this subgenre features sampled or programmed fast drum breaks and has prominent basslines. Sometimes abbreviated as DnB, songs in this style can be around 160-180 BPM. The most commonly used drum sample in this genre is what’s called the Amen break, which is taken from a song called “Amen, Brother” by The Winstons.
Happy Hardcore – Emerging from the UK Breakbeat Hardcore scene, Happy Hardcore is super-duper upbeat! If sugar rush and bright colors had a sound, it would sound like Happy Hardcore. The vocals in these songs are sweet and playful, and the music consists of a fast 4-beat with futuristic sound effects.
Electronic Body Music – First used by Kraftwerk to describe their music, EBM is very mechanical, with hard and heavy beats combined with provocative or militaristic-sounding lyrics. It’s sort of a form of industrial music, and this style often utilizes the sounds of tools or alarms to create an industrial ambiance.
Intelligent Dance Music – Abbreviated as IDM,
Drill ‘N’ Bass –
Electro-Industrial –
Digital Hardcore –
Indietronica –
Breakcore – A type of hardcore relying on chopping up breakbeats to get a sort of stuttering effect. Characterized by its noisiness, chaos, and lots of layers of samples from many different sources.
Mashcore – Pretty much breakcore but very sample-oriented. Hard kicks, upbeat melodies, can sound very glitchy and choppy.
J-Core – Japanese hardcore techno. It started around the 90s, when gabber was getting popular. It uses samples from video games, anime, and uses colorful or kawaii imagery on album covers. It can also be heard in rhythm games!
Hardstyle –
Jumpstyle –
Synthesizer Terms
Oscillator –
Low Frequency Oscillation (LFO) –
Modulation –
Attack –
Decay –
Sustain –
Release –
High Pass –
Low Pass –
Envelope –
Gain –
Equalization –
Other Terms
Four-on-the-floor –
Syncopation –
BPM – Beats per minute. How fast a song is.