Mecha's Guide to Modern Hardcore Techno Genres

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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 :sweat_smile:
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…

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Amazing

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Kick types.

This list might actually end up being bigger than the genres list because these days there is just so. much. variety.
I’ll probably lump together the types if they’re similar, like laser and mid-intro kicks, but I’ll make sure to include genres and any songs that showcase them (if they’re not already in the genres list).
For a brief overview, all hardcore kicks will have a punch (transient or sharp sound) and a bass (usually filled with sub.) Punches will either be pitched (so, you could play a melody with them,) atonal (they are kinda just wide and noisy,) or resonant (the punch will nearly bleed into the tail for a looping effect.) Tails are usually what make a genre, so they’ll be explained below.

Gabber Kick

This is the first type of hardcore kick. Ever. It’s almost always in mono, and has a fat sound due to the clipping used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlPeZApKSr8&pp=ygUQI2tva3dha2hhcmRzdHlsZQ%3D%3D - 2:19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKnpGKeKdk - 0:54

Hardtekk Kick

Hardtekk is actually considered to be a different genre, but it’s basically defunct these days. The kick is very heavy and has a reversed bass. It’s considered to be the father of Frenchcore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhM2QQRkq04

Hardstyle Kick

Hardstyle kicks are very woofy, and the bass has a characteristic sound that just gives anthem vibes. Some people get Rawstyle and Hardstyle mixed up, but the easy distinguishing factor is the “thok” punch in Hardstyle Kicks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvFHe2jxeWQ - 2:42

Reverse Bass Kick

Reverse bass kicks take the woofy bass of the Hardstyle kick and use it in a half beat fashion, replacing the tok with a punchy edm kick. Some older kicks use synths for basses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUAgsJNHYnA - 0:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgE5J0DSGjc - 0:22

Hardpsy Kick

Hardpsy and Reverse bass sound related because they both use hardstyle bass, but Hardpsy kicks can be used anywhere, as long as they have some sort of distortion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc2R_xo46a8 - 0:58
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKdQxIHbmzY - 0:12
(Insert unreleased Mecha_Twitchy ID here)

Raw kick - Gated

Raw hardstyle kicks are very powerful kicks with a lot of sound density, but gated kicks don’t actually have a tail pitch, and it’s just a rumbly bass sound with a bleeding punch. That said, gated punches can be used with normal tails. Usually gated punches are very wide and atonal, and sound like somebody’s punching a hole through drywall, but not always.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JpSRISfqeY - 2:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgbaF74yD7I - 1:01

Raw kick - Kloenk / PVC

PVC kicks are so named because of their monotone and bassy punch. This gives them a “plastic pipe” feel. PVC kicks also have a bassy and rumbly tail, just like the gated kick. PVC kicks are usually pitched to match the song key, but some pre drops consist of mini-melodies played with the punches. Dual damage are considered the fathers of this kick type.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYGrXr69Z58 - 0:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQT22oCSLFg - 0:50

Midintro and Laser kick

Mid intro kicks and laser kicks are both defined by the punch only. Both midintro and laser kicks are just sine waves passed through a pitch envelope very quickly to make a kick sound. The only difference between the two is that the laser kicks have a slightly more linear envelope to give a zappy “pew” sound rather than a boofy kick. Rooler is a Rawstyle artist who’s characteristic midintro kick only uses a saw wave for the tail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHOMRPvY5QE - 0:41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D-OPe7gO5Q&pp=ygUJI2F0b29nb2xk - 1:12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iw7_5AjbPQ&pp=ygULI25vbnVzbGlrZXM%3D - 1:36

Mainstream hardcore kick

Very wide kicks, usually quite intense and buzzy, too. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the kick is Mainstream, Uptempo, or Frenchcore, but you can just look at the bpm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L29sg3ZoVFs

Uptempo kick - Zaag Kick

The zaag kick is a type of kick that is all distortion, usually with no / a non-transient punch. “Zaag” is the dutch word for saw, appropriate considering the kick sounds like you’re cutting through something. Zaag kicks are very noisy and can be found in other hardcore genres, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B2Cb5R4ZaM - 1:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ObQjc_BxXQ - 1:08
DISFIGURED! | Mecha_Twitchy | MECHA_TWITCHY - 1:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HgjirQqVS8 - 1:15

Uptempo Kick - Piep Kick

Originally a joke, piep kicks are defined by having a very resonant and high pitched punch that bleeds through the kick (and makes your ears bleed.) Nowadays artists like GPF and Unicorn on Ketamine have massive fanbases that actually enjoy the hardness of the kicks (they are actually kinda cool).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlex9gTQlgc - 0:29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbC4hIKJjE - 2:51

Uptempo Kick - Helicopter kick

Due to the lack of transients in some Zaag kicks, artists can essentially play the punch of a kick multiple times in the space of one beat. Like psy, this gives the tracks an energetic feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KrnzIusFqA - 0:36
!BASS | Mecha_Twitchy | MECHA_TWITCHY - 1:36

Frenchcore Kick

Much like a reverse bass kick, frenchcore kicks are half punch and half bass, but they’re a lot faster and are typically entirely distorted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeX08QmEyvk - 1:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iw7_5AjbPQ&pp=ygULI25vbnVzbGlrZXM%3D - 3:30 (More mileage :slight_smile: )

I might be missing a few types, but these are all common kicks you’ll hear in hard dance today. All of these kicks can be stitched together in different ways, and you might hear a Kloenk kick but with a Hardpsy character. Generally speaking, the kick never defines the genre.

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