Happy hardcore

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Happy Hardcore
Stylistic origins: Rave, Acid house, Bouncy techno
Cultural origins: 1994, United Kingdom
Typical instruments: Synthesizer – Drum machine – Sequencer – Keyboard – Sampler
Mainstream popularity: 1996 Large
1999 Small
2006 Large
Subgenres
Freeform, UK Hardcore, Hardcore breaks
Fusion genres
none
Other topics
Electronic musical instrument – Computer music

Happy hardcore is a form of dance music typified by a very fast tempo (usually around 165-180 BPM), often coupled with male or female vocals, and saccharine lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of breakbeat hardcore, which tend to be "darker". In its original incarnation, it was often characterised by piano riffs, synth stabs and spacey effects. This genre of music is closely related to the typically Dutch genre of Gabber. Happy hardcore evolved from rave music around 1991–1993, as the original house music-based rave became faster and began to include breakbeats, evolving into breakbeat hardcore.

In the UK, happy hardcore was at its peak between 1994 and 1997 and was more popular in north of England and in Scotland than elsewhere in the country. In the more recent past Happy Hardcore has made a large re-emergence into the mainstream, more specifically it has received coverage in Mixmag. It has spawned various new record labels in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Japan and continues to grow in popularity. In 2002, the compilation series Bonkers was relaunched after a 3 year hiatus and have proved to be successful, releasing eight compilations between 2002 and 2005. The 21st century sound of the genre is notable by the lack of the bouncy synths and piano lines that were trademarks of the genre in the 90s. The genre now has a more euphoric trance feel to it not too disimilar to the sound of the late 90s trance that was popular in Ibiza at the time, albeit at a higher tempo.

Contents

[edit] Development of happy hardcore

By mid-to-late 1992, hardcore breakbeat was shifting to its darker elements. The "cheesier" elements of the hardcore scene (speeded-up vocals, choruses, rolling piano lines, stabs, etc.), which were being blamed by the purists for the commercialization of the music, had started to be eliminated by the new breed of ravers, who wanted to take the music back to the underground with darker, more minimal tracks.

Some producers (Luna-C (who was one of the men behind the Smart E's), Slipmatt (of SL2), Red Alert & Mike Slammer, Brisk, DJ Vibes, Wishdokta, etc.), however, utilized these elements for their own sound. The pushed forward the genre so that there were now polyrhythmic breakbeats, half-speed dub-bass and no 4/4 kick drum (which attracted many black ravers, who promptly introduced MCs into the scene). But, apart from this, the E-rush of hardcore continued for quite some time, just as the music was still getting faster and faster. Dark side and the happier tunes were being played together at the same raves, the same pirate stations, etc.

Slipmatt's "SMD #1" was quite a culture shock to most of the ravers. It was not euphoric and it was most definitely not dark. It increased the intensity of the happiest, cheesiest treble elements of rave and was loved by some and hated by many. It also reintroduced the 4/4 kick drum, had fewer snare breaks and a more techno-influenced bassline. It had a profound influence on the whole of the hardcore scene. After several months, the darker tunes were dying and being replaced by the bittersweet nature of ambient jungle/drum'n'bass. Some of the once happier tunes had darkened up a bit and turned the bass right up and ragga jungle and jump-up jungle itself had arrived. The other happy ravers (still using the jungle-style rhythms for a while) gradually took Slipmatt's lead and happy hardcore was born.

By late 1994, happy hardcore had broken away from Jungle (which was now accepted by the mainstream) and had its own network of DJs (Slipmatt, DJ Force & Styles, Vibes & Wishdokta, Hixxy, Brisk, Clarkee, etc.) labels (Kniteforce, Slammin Vinyl) and clubs/raves (Die Hard, United Dance, Dreamscape, etc.) It was rejected by the dance mainstream and had its own media and pirate radio. Other US DJs would follow in the next few years, Venom, Phil Free Art, Matt Positive, Muppetfucker aka. Noahphex, Spree, Cloudskipper, and many more.

In this course of time 1995–1997 the music was still evolving. There were now almost no breakbeats and the music had become faster and stompy, with a progressive rhythm. The scene was now set for the genre's merge with bouncy techno and 4-beat. Around 1999 various UK rave culture publications started announcing the largely mistaken "death" of Hardcore, but it had instead just gone back to its underground roots.

Also around this time the UK Happy Hardcore had started taking influences from the mainstream trance tunes heard virtually everywhere. While this move attracted new listeners it also began to alienate some of its long time producers, many of which switched to producing Hard house or simply retired. It was this merging of trance influences with hardcore that caused the birth of a new genre Freeform Hardcore. This style of music blended the earlier dark influences, the breakbeats, as well as various trance influences. Freeform also created its own network of DJs and producers most noticeably CLSM, Sharkey, AMS, Kevin Energy, and lesser knowns such as Tilzs, AC Slater, Sunrize, Daywalker, Oli G, White Russian, Brak, Bounce and Dodgee.

Freeform hardcore, and other trance influenced happy hardcore attracted a new audience to the music and caused a major upsurge in interest among the European and American ravers, causing remixes of classic happy hardcore anthems to reach the pop charts. Examples include tracks such as "You're Shining" or "Heartbeatz" both by Styles & Breeze.

Hardcore also received its own special in 2004 on BBC Radio 1 entitled John Peel Is Not Enough named after a CLSM track of the same name.

[edit] The Change

Happy Hardcore had a slow period of growth and popularity from 1998-2001 which can be seen in the number of happy hardcore artists and producers leaving happy hardcore for other genres of music and some record labels stop releasing records.

Several possible contributing factors lead to the decline of the genre during 1998-2001. Several major UK distributors for the genre going bankrupt and with it label profits instantly destroying some labels such as Hectech Records. Another less public contribution was the closure of Q-Records. Q-Records was based in Tokyo, Japan and was a major distributor and rental store for all of Japan. In their prime Q-Records exclusively distributed Happy Hardcore and Drum n Bass and was at the time of operation was solely responsible for selling 40-60% of all hardcore records worldwide. Q-records operated between 1996-1999. Other people point to that it was happy hardcore's time was up with people arguing that the sound itself didn't evolve to support itself.

Happy Hardcore ultimately merged into what is referred to UK Hardcore in and around 2002-2003 with flyers and internet forums referring to the new style of hardcore as UK Hardcore (ref1, ref2)

Some of the key songs that mark the change over from Happy Hardcore to UK Hardcore are Hixxy - Welcome (RaverBaby), UFO & Breeze - Deep Inside (New Infinity), Hixxy - Castles in the Sky (RaverBaby), Hixxy - I want to be a hippy (Unreleased). Most people point to the hardcore producer Hixxy and his record labels RaverBaby & JellyBaby as a major contributing factors to the change. To kick start the sound so to speak, initially the record label RaverBaby pressed promo copies of the first 12 releases on RaverBaby and sent them to nearly every influential DJ around the world free of charge. Most of these promo's would make it to full releases on the label wirh the ones that didn't now considered rare vinyl collectors items.

UK Hardcore is sometimes referred to as a hybrid of Trance music based of the instruments and sounds used in current songs. It's arguable to if this is correct or not, and for the most part depends on the path of music genres the listener traveled to arrive at UK Hardcore as their favorite style of music. UK Hardcore focuses largely on fast 4/4 beats with uplifting leads, looped vocals and extended builds leading to frantic crescendos, before 'dropping the beat'. Breakbeats are used less throughout the songs. BPM range is 165 to 170 or more. Well known DJs and producers include Scott Brown, Hixxy, and Breeze & Styles. Although the style follows rigid musical structures and is beat lead there is sufficient diversity for niche genre's, hence the confusing number of names which refer to a musical sound many outside the scene might think to be the same genre.

[edit] Artists, DJs and producers

[edit] External links

[edit] Artists, DJs and producers

[edit] Record labels


Hardcore
Bouncy techno - Breakbeat - Breakcore - Darkcore - Freeform - Gabber - Happy - Hardcore Breaks - Industrial - Makina - Speedbass - Speedcore - Terrorcore - Trancecore - UK
Other electronic music genres
Ambient | Breakbeat | Dance | Drum and bass | Electronica | Electronic art music | Hard dance | Hardcore | House | Industrial | Synthpop | Techno | Trance
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