Jumpstyle

Jumpstyle is an EDM dance style and music genre popular in Northwestern Europe, United Kingdom, as well as certain parts of the United States. The word originates from a movement of progressive house music followers, and especially those devoted to its post-2007 European "hard" subgenres (as opposed to the 2009-10 American revival of "mild" progressive, which has nothing to do with jumpstyle).

Jumpstyling is often referred to as "Jumpen": a combination of the English word 'Jump' and the Dutch & German suffix '-en' (meaning "to jump" or "jumping") .^[2]

It originated in 1997 in Belgium^[3] but gathered bigger popularity in their neighboring country the Netherlands in the 2000s.

History

Jumpstyle, originally known simply as jump, was created in Belgium and started in 1997. It was a short-lived small genre that didn't gain popularity in its original form. However, it came back to the public during the turn of the century and fandom began increasing throughout Europe after undergoing significant changes in Germany in early 2003.

Popularity

After acquiring its current name, jumpstyle was reintroduced to many electronic dance clubs in Europe and in 2005 saw artists and groups producing and releasing its music.

The first key stage of its popularity came between 2007 and 2008 due to the success of music videos such as Scooter's 'The Question Is What Is The Question' and 'Jumping all over the World' which led to their 13th studio album reaching #1 in the UK charts.

In addition, Patrick Jumpen's 'The Secret' and 'The Holiday' peaked the top 20 in Dutch singles.

A few other artist who gained popularity during its peak are DJ Coone, Sheffield Jumpers, DJ Porny and Jeckyll & Hyde.

Despite the lack of American audience, Los Angeles band Captain Ahab attempted to bring the music to United States.

Because of its popularity around the time, it suffers image-problems especially in the Netherlands. Thus, the euphoric/melodic jump-like sound made between 2006 and 2008 is not being released.

However, there are still some radio stations left, broadcasting Jump in its traditional form. The oldest Jump radio was founded in 2005 and still exists today under the name of JumpStation.FM.^[4]

The style has also been fused with other genres, for example, Major Lazer & The Partysquad mixed a unique jumpstyle track with a jungle vocal sample in the track "Original Don".

Performance and dance

The modern dance associated with Jump, has evolved from skiën (lit. "skiing"). Performance by more than one person is the most popular. The legs are the most important part of the body in jumpstyle. It is performed by a series of forward and backward swings of the legs on the rhythm of the music.

Styles

Jumpstyle has various styles, but while all of these styles vary quite a bit, they still fall under the category of jumpstyle. In the descriptions below, suggestions to how the styles are performed will be made. However, the styles are not necessarily limited to these suggestions.

Old School This is the simplest form of jump that almost all jumpers will learn when starting out. It is something anyone can pick up, which is what makes jumpstyle so accessible to the masses. It is made from 5 basics steps.

Hardjump The emphasis in this type of dance is put on the 6-step HardJump basics, make it necessary to aggressively preload with full leg stunts are of secondary importance.

Sidejump Its roots subspecies Sidejump takes from ownstyle . Sidejump is a kind of style, running with multiple rotations, the combinations protivohoda. Sidejump distinguish from other sub-genres jump Style is not so difficult. It has a lot of tangles with elements such as wheel (i.e. the rotation of the knee joint), Spin (air, ground). As for the hard emission feet, then Sidejump such bundles are optional, but you can still use them at the discretion of the dancer. There is another distinctive feature in Sidejump . Most of the tricks, in particular element of wheel you will not be able to make clear to the beat, and so it seems that the dancer does not fall to the rhythm of music and dancing too fast. For Sidejump-a characteristic of the music with a fast barrel, in order to attend the dance effect "Yule" .

Freestyle In this article you will find the sub-genres of dance JumpStyle called Freestyle. As we know, Freestyle - it is a style that uses a lot of tricks and bundles of them, but it is forbidden rotation leg at the knee at various turns (from the English. "Wheel" ).

Ownstyle Today's most popular subspecies Dance Jumpstyle is the world's style OwnStyle . In English language means " his own style . " Style originated around 2007-2009. Ownstyle founders were prominent Polish dancers Danniel, Iceman, Rumun, Noiz, Fantom. Dancers from other countries began to develop not copy Polish ownstyle, and their own styles in the direction of dance Jump Style. Currently around the world a lot of dancers who know their style. Most of them, of course, in Russia and Ukraine. This subspecies Jumpstyle 'and is the most interesting of all styles of dance JumpStyle, but at the same time the most difficult, because to work through your own style takes a very long time.

Tekstyle An interesting area, very unlike the other JumpStyle. It is danced to the music of TekStyle JumpStyle (Industrial Jump). Most dance is different in that the dancer often uses movement and broken hands may touch their feet.

Starstyle Very similar to TekStyle, but the movements in the dance are more smooth.

Duojump Any type of JumpStyle can dance in pairs, it is necessary to agree in advance on the sequence of movements that you will use and do synchronized with a partner. TrioJump - the same rules as in Duojump, but on the three dancers. GroupJump - also all dancers participating in the group requires synchronization of actions, which is reached after prolonged exercise. Usually danced in a group of more than 4 people.

Tournaments and leagues

There are various jumpstyle leagues across the world; mostly in the form of online video submissions and internet competitions. However, in Belgium there have been staged tournaments such as the European Jump Masters.

The UK was the first to officially establish online leagues to an international level with the FIJL (First International Jumpstyle League) but unfortunately support was lacking and many competitors pulled out leaving much confusion.

On the upside this sparked several International Leagues in countries such as Australia, Russia, Germany and Spain.^[5]

Some of the most popular ones in recent years are Russian and Polish-based.

Producers and dancers

• Patrick Jumpen
• Scooter
• DJ Coone
• Jekyll & Hyde
• Sheffield Jumpers
• The Sektorz

Similar dance styles

There are numerous dance styles connected or partnered with jumpstyle; whether because of its similarities in origin (underground dances that gain notoriety online) or due to its community within the rave and hard dance scene. An example of these are Melbourne Shuffle, Tecktonik (Electro Dance), Freestep, Drum & Bass Step, Dubstep dance and Tekstyle (fusion/variation).

Music

Jumpstyle music is an offspring of jump-up, techno, hardstyle and gabber. Its tempo is usually between 140 and 150 BPM. However, it cannot be seen as merely a slowed down version of gabber. It is characterized by a 909 kick drum used in a four on the floor beat. It also has influences from Hard House and Dutch House. Starting around 2012-13, jumpstyle music begins to gain influence from hardstyle sound, such as pitched basslines set at a melody, more complex, multiband distortion, and synthesizers utilizing square waveforms.^[6]

References