Is hardstyle dead in the US?

By Timo van Dommelen 26 January 2017

A few days ago, an article appeared on the website of Insomniac, organizers of all the EDC festivals, in which they discussed the upcoming genre called psytrance in the US. They also talked about Hardstyle in the US. This is what they had to say about it: “we’ve seen genres explode onto the mainstream, only to nosedive into oblivion just as quickly. For many, hardstyle in America fell victim to that fate.”

Insomniac talked to Astrix, a psytrance DJ. This was his reaction on the quote about hardstyle falling into oblivion in the US: “Hardstyle is a very ‘easy’ genre to produce, and I think there were a lot of low-quality productions that flooded the market, and people just lost interest.”

The statement is clear, hardstyle is dying in the US. Astrix states that people have lost interest in the genre, but have they really? One thing is certain, we disagree with him. On a weekly base, hardstyle artist travel to the US in order to spread the genre and bring the joy of hardstyle to the American people.

atmozfears-tour-schema-gate Last year, Belgian top producer DJ Coone did a full on American tour with his new album ‘Less Is More’ and this year non other than Atmozfears is doing his ‘GATE’ tour througout the US and even Canada and Mexico. Last weekend he started his tour with 3 gigs and will do 6 more in february. So hardstyle is not disappearing from the US, it is growing, with more and more artists who are starting to perform there and doing tours.

A lot of artists have already made the trip to the US in the last couple of months. The live-act Minus Militia, Radical Redemption and Angerfist have performed at Basscon early this year, DJ Thera performed at UNION in Los Angelos and even created an anthem for the show, and TNT, aka Technoboy ‘N’ Tuneboy, even had their 15 years anniversary at the Belasco theater in Los Angelos. All shows were completely sold out.

tnt-at-bass-con-2 Then there is the question if hardstyle is easy to produce, like Astrix point out in the Insomniac article. In an interview we held a while back with Hardwell, two times DJMag top100 best DJ of the world, he states that hardstyle is a very difficult genre to produce: “It is a very difficult genre to produce. My appreciation for hardstyle producers has always been very high, because these guys are able to make to most out of their ideas and sounds.”

Back in 2014 we also witnessed the conflict between Deadmau5 and Wilstylez, where Deadmau5 accused Wildstylez of copying his track. Deadmau5 than said he would produce a hardstyle track within an hour. A lot of people agreed on the fact he kind of messed up. So it really isn’t that easy after all. This doesn’t mean hardstyle is the most difficult genre to produce, but it definitely is not easy either. It is just a matter of opinion.

in the studio on http://t.co/0YuJ4SG8Sz lets make a hardstyle track YAY! should only take about an hour.

— dead mow cinco (@deadmau5) February 20, 2014

“On the stream, the Mau5 had some struggles. He was under the eyes of a good majority of professional hardstyle producers who were watching him make classic rookie mistakes in producing the genre.”

What can be concluded from all this is that hardstyle is definitely not a ‘dead’ genre in the US. More and more DJ’s travel to the US, but also Canada and Mexico, to promote hardstyle and spread it around the world to make sure people get in touch with this amazing musical genre.

Sources:
Deadmau5 tries to produce hardstyle
Insomniac about psytrance and hardstyle

Photo’s:
Atmozfears
Basscon
TNT

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Comments

Amy Melissa 26 January 2017 - 17:13

Hardstyle is 100% NOT dead in America. Although I can only speak on behalf of the east coast since that’s where I from it is clear that hardstyle is growing. You can find hardstyle at major festivals such as Nightmare Festival, Dreamscape, and Electric Zoo. In addition, the biggest names in big room house have consistently been dropping hardstyle in their sets (Hardwell for example). Fantasyland, America’s first and only hard dance camping festival also has had many hardstyle DJs represented on their lineups (both international artists and local artists). International hardstyle DJs continue to come the east coast to play such as Kutski, Brennan Hart, LNY TNZ, and Technoboy to name a few. The east coast is also filled with local hardstyle talent like Kardiak, the Qontrollers, Markove, and Harz to name a few. As much as I love Astrix (I am actually a big fan) I am in disagreement with his statements regarding hardstyle and ensure him that it is not easy to produce and not dead.
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Joe Kelly 27 January 2017 - 05:05

Albany Hard Dance is doing Charlie’s getting Wonkered with Venom & Jimni Cricket……Yeah I’d say totally not dead
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Mr. Hard 26 January 2017 - 22:35

If it’s dead here in the U.S. then we have a helluva zombie problem!

As for easy to produce, that’s debatable. Even if so, might as well dismiss punk rock because it’s too easy to play. Let’s focus more on how long it takes to make a song instead of what that song does to someone, right?

Also, gotta love that psytance is mentioned as “upcoming”!
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Aeryk NYCRavers 27 January 2017 - 02:39

Got a rave in nyc 2/18 with a hard style headliner poised to sell out, I’d say its not dead, http://www.squanchthis.nycr.me
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Doomsday Brand 27 January 2017 - 09:19

It’s not dead it’s growing, we wouldn’t be here if it was not growing.
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Doomsday Brand 27 January 2017 - 09:20

We Live X They Die
DoomsdayBrand.com
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David M 28 January 2017 - 16:07

Hardstyle is FAR from dead. As a matter of fact it, its growing in many markets throughout the USA so for ASTRIX to say something like that is really asinine at best. If he feels so strongly that hairstyle is easy to produce, I would SERIOUSLY love to see him make a perfect hard style track with no rookie mistakes and a killer melody, with his OWN sound design, and his OWN made kicks with NO samples! then he can tell all of us who love the so called “EASY GENRE” that its easy. Artists who boast like that without any knowledge really get me mad because that is when you know their egos have been inflated too much. I am from Orlando, where Coone was actually the first hard dance artist to perform in our city. I wish that we had more coming but sadly Insomniac who handles most of the major bookings in our city does not agree with our cries for more. Yet other regions in my state like South Florida are starting to get more acts coming, and as you can see, the west coast is really getting a large amount and so is the upper east coast (SHOUT TO ECHD!)

Astrid needs to put his money where his mouth is and do what Deadmau5 did and show us that he can muster a quality production! only then can he put his claims to rest. as for Insomniac? they need to really start educating the public about other genres too not just over pushing the same lineups simply because they only look at numbers and inflated demands.
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