In the Netherlands, hardstyle is one of the more popular music genres within the dance scene. However, the genre remains almost invisible on mainstream radio stations such as Radio 538, Qmusic, and 3FM. These large stations primarily focus on other music styles, and hardstyle rarely gets the chance to break through to the radio audience. The genre remains mostly confined to platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud, festivals, and events, where it has a huge following.
READ ALSO: ‘Year of Summer’ is the first hardstyle track ever in the Dutch Top 2000
According to a recent study by Radiomonitor, radio is the largest source of exposure for hit music in Europe, with a reach at least five times greater than Spotify. In countries like the United Kingdom, this difference is even ten times larger. This highlights the influence radio still has in spreading music to a broader audience. Yet, despite its popularity at festivals and on platforms like YouTube and Spotify, hardstyle remains a niche genre that is barely heard on mainstream radio stations.
This graph shows the number of streams of tracks compared to their position on the charts. It shows that in the Netherlands, radio streams are five times higher than Spotify streams. The graph below shows that in the United Kingdom, radio streams are more than ten times higher.
Hardstyle radio successes
Although hardstyle rarely reaches mainstream radio charts, there are a few tracks that have broken through. For instance, Year of Summer by Wildstylez reached third place on the Dutch Top 40 in 2013 and stayed on the chart for 23 weeks. In 2023, the track also became the first hardstyle song to reach the Dutch Top 2000. Additionally, Ran-D received a platinum award from 3FM last year for his hit Zombie. Since 2023, at the request of 3FM DJ Barend van Deelen, there has also been a hardstyle evening at Serious Request, where artists such as Wildstylez, Headhunterz, Sefa, and Outsiders have performed.
For those who still want to listen via radio, there are online platforms like Q-Dance Radio and the Dirty Workz stream. These platforms play hardstyle 24/7, and there is also a monthly radio stream from I AM HARDSTYLE. But the question remains: should hardstyle get more airplay on regular radio, or is it better off in its own online space?
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Beeldmateriaal via: NPO 3FM
