In the case that anybody needs a guide that’s actually ACCURATE, here’s a multi-part thread that will be updated over time. In each post you’ll find characteristics, a small history, popular artists, common genre mashups and interesting points, and some example songs.
Gabber
Gabber is considered the father of modern hardcore techno. While a lot of earlier tracks sounded a lot like older rave music, the common defining factors are a silly bouncy rave stab melody, and a kick that’s overdriven to sound like a rubber band. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8X4SiisO4) Modern gabber is closer to mainstream hardcore, because not many people like the old sound, but gabber kicks are popular in all sorts of genres, even uptempo hardcore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDDGv5QxP8I
These days you can listen to nearly any artist and hear gabber kicks, but artists like Nosferatu focus on the modern gabber genre.
Jumpstyle is a variant of Gabber with slower kicks that developed in Belgium rather than the Netherlands. Rather than the “Hakken” style of dancing, people started dancing “Jumpstyle”, which looks objectively less goofy.
Hardstyle
Over time the gabber genre developed more and more and people started coming up with stranger ways of distorting their kicks. A normal EDM kick suddenly becomes a weird growly sound with a punch that sounds like choking a dog while it’s barking. While gabber was more of rave like genre, hardstyle became the anthemic style we know today. Artists like DJ Brennan Hart, Sub-Zero Project, and Headhunterz are known for Hardstyle, but it’s common to hear anthems in a Reverse Bass track.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rqVDx2zRSyg&t=0s
Reverse Bass & Hardpsy
Reverse Bass is a variant of Hardstyle that is characterised by a… Well… Reverse bass. Hardstyle was evolving into two genres, Rawstyle and Reverse Bass, which both took the original sound of the kick and modified it to fit the genre. Reverse bass usually takes a hardstyle kick, cuts it in half and replaces the punch with a normal EDM kick, or something similar. Hardpsy is similar, expect kicks follow the psytrance kick pattern (quarter beats.) TNT, Coone, and DJ Issac are considered the pioneers of this genre, and it’s still massively popular today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbILEQUrrs
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RTGydo5098A&t=155s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlPeZApKSr8&pp=ygUQI2tva3dha2hhcmRzdHlsZQ%3D%3D
Rawstyle (Raw Hardstyle)
Rawstyle is a more recent genre that focused on the darkness and hardness of tracks rather than anthemic sound. Instead of the usual 150 bpm that all of the previous genres follow, Rawstyle is usually around 160-180 bpm, and the kicks have some of the most extreme sound design heard in EDM, only really beaten by some IDM and Dubstep/Riddim/DnB etc. Today, Rawstyle artists are everywhere, but Sickmode and Rooler are an extremely iconic duo, maybe also Warface too…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTwF3sCk4kU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HgjirQqVS8 (Zaag kicks in Rawstyle? More on that later.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4eKtuf-RiU
Rawphoric and Euphoric Hardstyle
Subgenres of Rawstyle and Hardstyle respectively, these two are focused on the melodies of the track rather than the kicks themselves. That said, they will usually follow the general structure of the genre they come from, just with a bit more melody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOVtSvWyQmc - Rawphoric
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKv9LZH6K8g - Euphoric Hardstyle
Xtra Raw
A slightly experimental take on Rawstyle - these tracks take sound design to the absolute limit with very distorted kicks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO0pnS-eDlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpHyvO7nkPc
Mainstream Hardcore
Mainstream Hardcore is a (really bad) genre that fills in the space between Uptempo Hardcore and Rawstyle. Usually around 180 BPM, this genre focuses on dark themes and usually has a very wide, stereo kick. I don’t listen to this genre, lol, so you’ll have to find some other artists yourself, but Angerfist is popular in the scene and basically carries Mainstream Hardcore as a genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE-DYdK6ISY
Uptempo Hardcore (Or just Uptempo)
At 190 bpm up to about 260 bpm is the best genre of hardcore techno - Uptempo Hardcore. This genre is very fast, aggressive, and usually quite minimal. The genre focuses on velocity and kick hardness over anything else, and some tracks don’t have a melody, just kicks, percs, vocals, and screeches. There are a lot of Uptempo producers, but some really well known ones include Dimitri K, EQUAL2, and GPF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z_H-HxqRD0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0fmcbU6Hz4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOhOgfE9PsU
!BASS | Mecha_Twitchy | MECHA_TWITCHY
Rawtempo
Rawtempo is a subgenre of both Rawstyle and Uptempo where the kicks from Uptempo are slowed to Rawstyle tempos (around 160). There are subgenres of this too! Anything slower is considered Deutscher Krach, pioneered by Noiseflow. While a lot of uptempo artists can and will make rawtempo, Dr. Donk, Noiseflow, and (technically) Krowdexx all make good tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwaM0J9vH4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3GpWN2yaM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4aVwrLvrBE
Vengaboys - Up and Down (MECHA_TWITCHY'S RAW AND ZAAG BOOTLEG) | Mecha_Twitchy | MECHA_TWITCHY
Frenchcore
I’ve talked about this one before… Frenchcore is sort of like a faster and more aggressive version of reverse bass. The kicks are often punchy and have a buzzy, aggressive, and monotone tail. The kings of Frenchcore are Sefa and Dr. Peacock, but it’s common to see Frenchcore and Uptempo blends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IgtxOas6vc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZN8Ex_saaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvrvQTUbUcA
Oh wow, that took a LONG time to write out
I will be updating this with a kicks type, because it’s not all just “hardcore kicks” as you can probably hear. Keep in mind that these are the genres that fall into the “Hard dance” culture, and there are MANY more hardcore techno genres that aren’t listed (like Speedcore, Subground, Bubspep, etc.)
A lot of people will listen to these tracks and think: “Oh man, this stuff is painful to listen to.” But it’ll grow on you…