“Social media is turning music into fast food,” says Liam Howlett of The Prodigy in an interview with Mixmag. The frontman of the legendary rave act lashes out at the fleeting way in which music is now made, shared and consumed. “I hate going on about nostalgia,” he adds – but the message is clear: real experience, emotion and rawness are becoming increasingly rare in a world ruled by algorithms and viral trends.
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And while Howlett is mainly referring to the wider music industry, his words also ring true within the hardstyle scene – where the same balance between creativity, innovation and authenticity is constantly at play.
Fast food vs fast release
Hardstyle artists know the pressure to constantly reinvent themselves. Where bands once could tour for years living off the same hits, producers are now expected to drop new music every few months (or even weeks) to stay relevant. Warface captured that feeling in last year’s REBiRTH Podcast: “Bands tour their whole lives with the same hits, while we release new music faster and faster. We make so many tracks that we could, in theory, release an album of twenty songs every year.” His words perfectly illustrate the “fast release culture” Howlett is worried about. The attention span of listeners keeps shrinking, and the creative process becomes ever more rushed.
Sound Rush mentioned in the first episode of this season’s PLAFONDDIENST that hardstyle fans tend to be more critical than the average pop audience. While big-name pop artists can tour with identical shows for months, hardstyle fans expect constant innovation. “If you play a set that’s the same two or three times in a row, you’ll quickly hear people say, ‘same set again,’” said Sound Rush.
“I hope it comes back, that people will start to appreciate older tracks again in regular sets.”
Liam Howlett says he doesn’t want to get stuck in nostalgia, yet The Prodigy continues to build on the raw energy of the ’90s – with new shows, new music and the same DIY attitude as back then. Perhaps that’s the lesson for hardstyle too: innovation is powerful, but identity is what lasts. The energy of the old Qlimax anthems, the emotion of a Defqon moment, the connection of a real community, that’s not nostalgia, that’s the essence.
Where The Prodigy stands against the fleeting nature of social media, hardstyle represents the opposite movement: a genre still driven by fans, togetherness, and energy you feel rather than just scroll past. Yet Howlett’s warning remains relevant – if we move too fast, we risk losing our soul. Or as Warface hopes: “I hope it comes back, that people will start to appreciate older tracks again in regular sets.”
Cover: Electric Love Festival
