WHAT IS HARDCORE MUSIC?
The essence of Hardcore sound is a distorted bass drum sound, overdriven to the point where it becomes clipped into a distorted square wave and makes a recognizably melodic tone.
Hardcore is popular in many countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy. It also has a newfound popularity in Australia and Brazil.
Next to the mainstream hardcore sound, several subgenres have developed over the years, including Speedcore, terrorcore, industrial hardcore and Frenchcore. The hard sound of the first years are now often referred to as early hardcore
THE ORIGINS OF HARDCORE
The Hardcore sound derives from the early hardcore (still called gabber at the time). In the late 1990s, the early hardcore became less popular than the Hardstyle. After surviving underground for a number of years, in 2002 the gabber regained some popularity in the Netherlands, although the sound is more mature, darker, and industrial. Some producers started embracing a slower style characterized by a deeper, harder bass drum that typically had a longer envelope than was possible in the traditional, faster style. In this aspect, this new form of gabber obviously cannot be considered less powerful than its precursor.
Most hardcore today is produced in a range of 160-180 bpm. This style is typically a bit slower than the Rotterdam style of the mid-1990s.