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Cultural origins | Late 1980s – early 1990s,Netherlands |
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Hardcore punk |
Hardcore electronic dance music, also known as Hardcore EDM (often abbreviated to hardcore), formerly called hardcore techno, is a subgenre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands from the emergent raves/gabber in the 1990s. Its subgenres are usually distinguished from other electronic dance music genres by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more), the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass (in some subgenres), the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes (sometimes violent), the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music.
To understand the emergence of hardcore one has to go back to the 1970s, to find signs of hard electronic dance music within industrial music. Groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Foetus and Einstürzende Neubauten produced music using a wide range of electronic instruments. The message diffused by industrial was then very provocative. Some of the musical sounds and experimentation of industrial have directly influenced hardcore since the beginning of the movement.
In the mid-1980s, under the influence of the Belgian group Front 242, electronic body music (EBM), a new genre more accessible and more dancing inspired by industrial and new wave, appeared. This style is characterized by minimalism, cold sounds, ridden of the Afro-American influences unlike disco, funk or house, powerful beats, generally combined with aggressive vocals and an aesthetic close to industrial or punk music. When EBM has met new beat, another Belgian genre, and acid house, the music has changed to a harder sound. All the elements were here for the arrival of hardcore.