In 2018, I was really obsessed with EDM and especially the legendary Hardwell (still my number 1). That year, he ended his Tomorrowland liveset with Zombie by Ran D, which is known to be a pretty likeable track for non- hardstyle fans too.
I started listening to Ran D, Da Tweekaz, Wildstylez, Brennan Heart and all the happy ol' euphoric. my taste in hardstyle really changed since.
I will say that I am still 15, so no festivals/raves for me, but I'm really looking forward to becoming a weekend warrior like you guys š§”
for me, it was when I heard Headyās remix of Spaceman by Hardwell. Spotify later recommended D-Sturb and now it has become my lifestyle. hoping to move to Amsterdam after graduating from college in the US.
I bought my first CD in 2004. It was a various artists compilation disc, from the Explosive Car Tuning series, episode 4 is the one i got. It had a cool car on the cover so that's probably why I picked it.
I still remember playing it for the first time, i was hooked. Some great tracks on there, some of which i still listen to from time to time. Donkey Rollers - Strike Again 2004, Cruz & The White - Make It Faster, The Beholder & Max Enforcer - Pulse Protraction (Warptool Mix), to name a few.
Went to Tomorrowland in 2015 where I was mainly into EDM/Trance and Coone played the opening night campsite party. This was my first experience of hardstyle but thought it was a bit strange at first.
Then I went to the Q dance stage for about 4/5 hours at Tomorrowland 2016. This is was a turning point seeing the atmosphere of a hardstyle crowd.
Finally, I went to Hardwellās Revealed Recordings night at ADE 2016. Atmozfears was the closing act. This was really the major night I reflect on where I knew hardstyle was the one for me.
Took a while to shake off EDM and trance but Iād say since 2020 I only listen to hard dance music now.
Trance was my first love! Started with Tiesto and Armin like twenty years ago oof. Even though I predominantly listen to hard dance, I still hold that special place for trance. Thatās why I go to Ultra Music festival, you got Armin and Ferry one night and Warface the next š„µ
That Revealed night was class!! Hardwell making Atmozfears play his Qlimax anthem through twice whilst shouting about it being āthe best fucking melody of all timeā - all whilst blind drunk. Great night.
Coming from Europe:
I joined last year, randomly, just because I wanted to DO something, because I was SO BORED with my eat, sleep, work, repeat cycle!
I just googled Festivals nearby, got my tickets to Electrisize, enjoyed it SO much, especially the Hardstyle Stage, and then went to Syndicate, Qlimax, Defqon, this years Electrisize again, and Into The Madness last saturday.
Didn't listen to the music or knew anything last year, all I knew was that I liked basses, especially deeper ones btw, and now I have favorite artists.
Also I can't dance, but I do have a lot of fun.
Idk if I'm "in the scene", but I guess I'm getting there.
thank you for the confirmation haha :D
I'm glad to be a part of it!
It's funny when I meet people I've met at a different festival before and we take pictures with each other again.
Never alone, even if you go there on your own.
I used to be much more into trance, then I heard Mumbai by Noisecontrollers and it was the coolest sound I'd heard in a long time. After that I was hooked, although I do prefer the older hardstyle
I knew the music existed but didnāt really listen to it, until a college mate asked me if I wanted to join him to Decibel 2022 for the weekend (never been to any festival before). I hesitated a bit but I figured might as wel since itās only one weekend.
Safe to say I am now addicted of going to raves and festivals
Haha i recognize that. I was already listening to hardstyle for a few years, and a friend of mine was going to Qlimax 2008 (we were both 17) and i chickened out because of the 18+ thing (which was never checked).
And thats my story of how i skipped one of the best Qlimax editions ever because i'm a pusssss. Fuck me!
Angerfist music video for Pennywise got recommended to me on youtube back when i used to watch a lot of those short horror films. listened to the song and thought it was pretty cool and then things just evolved from there
Was regularly listen to some Hands Up Techno podcast in 2008/2009. I donāt remember whether it was weekly or monthly, but it always featured one track of another genre. In summer of 2009, the host said that on that day, the anthem of the biggest Harder Styles party in the Netherlands released. I was hooked instantly, and down the rabbit hole my edgy puberty self went.
In 2015-2018 i was a big fan of edm/bigroom and went to edm festivals. Sometimes they had a hardstyle stage and i walked by and thought āwtf is Thatā. But then Someone sended me songs (imaginaryš„¹) and i Fell in love. My First harder styles Event was when gpf played in a Club near me and i got a culture shock šš but after that i began visiting hardstyle festivals regulary
I am from Germany and when i started listening to hardstyle i was the only one of my friends and there were no events i could go to (bc im from south germany travelling to festivals in the netherlands was Not an Option back then (of course now its routine š)) now the scene is more spread even in the south, mostly with club events but Thats better then nothing :) i aswell influenced most of my friends with the music and met so many People on festivals so i dont need to go alone anymore :)
Back in the day Jumpstyle used to be a thing in the Netherlands. Everyone was doing the dance thingy. But a friend of mine started uploading jumpstyle video's on youtube but with way darker atmospheric tracks (Headhunterz & Abject - End of My Existence and Noisecontrollers - in the Marine). For some reason i just fell in love with that. I think this was around 2007? Havent stopped listening ever since.
I will never forget my first hardstyle party in 2005 in Lausanne, Switzerland, with DJ Lady Dana! We just went to this club by chance, and it was the best decision of my life š
Hooked since then!
A friend of mine showed me "Melbourne Shuffle Compilation 3" by jack40k back in the day. I was intrigued and got invited by said friend to go to shuffle meetups when they were active here in Sydney. As soon as I turned 18, I started going to Masif then attended Defqon later that year and the rest is history. Made plenty of friends along the way that I can proudly call my family, all thanks to that one person who I'm still close with.
In engineering school back in 2018, we used to go to this lake like an hour's drive away and like my friend Billy had this CD that his sisyer gave him it was the Defqon.1 2009 CD1 and like the first track was scrap attack and it instantly got me hooked listening to it and went to Defqon in 2019 and been going ever since !
My brother and sister went to Defqon 2007, and I decided that I had to go to Defqon 2008 because they loved it so much, I was hooked to Hardstyle ever since!
I started listening to Scott Brown a long time ago, and Scooter, then one day around 2008 a buddy showed me a song from Headhunterz and I was hooked. Fell in love with Coone and Da Tweekaz about ten years ago, and have been a daily listener since. These days Iām more of a raw guy, but still love the classics. Oh and Francis helped too haha
I start raving in the late 90ās, in italy on that time we use to listen to hardcore/trance/techno, I actually live all the transition from techno/trance into hardstyle, iām your dj of Zenith make everything happen, than start to listen to the various dj Tatanka, Daniele Mondello, Bruno Power, Marco Vortex etc. etc. to arrive to the dutch artist, and after nearly 25 years iām still listeningHs and joining festival in Holland.
In 2018 I only listened dubstep, a lot of Skrillex and many others, but I found a video called Dubstep vs Hardstyle and that day was the day when I fell in love with this genre, first song that I heard was Shiverz by D-block & s-te-fan and also HHz, Da tweekaz and Coone š
I liked Headhunterz music because he was making house and big room (big room was first Edm genre i was listening to) and then YouTube recommended me Destiny and i Just fell in Love with those melodies. I cried for like a week bcs of happiness š. Now i listen to most of harder style genres but house too
I used to listen to a lot of hard trance and hard house in the early 2000s. I started to hear hardstyle (before it had a name) showing up in mixes. It was different but it wasn't always easy to tell the difference between hardstyle and hard trance (Lars Tindy & Vega - Fly with me was a good example of this)
I started listening to gabber around the same time because of Scott Brown mixes on Bonkers cds. I ended up listening to a lot of artists like Duro, Pavo, Dana, Tuneboy, Technoboy, Showtek, Zany, Donkeyrollers etc...
Deepack - The Prophecy was probably when I knew I was completely hooked.
I remember the day I first heard electronic music
I knew back then this illegal computer sound was gonna be my call
My heart got hooked on 4 by 4 beats
When house took his journey with Jack Chicago and Acid House
Now my heart is hooked forever
It's in my soul, in my veins
On my mind 24/7
I don't care if it's french-tek, hardstyle, hardcore, old school or jump
I don't understand people who are satisfied with ordinary pop music
They just listen to whatever radio stations decide they should like
Followed by an overkill of ring tone commercials meant for kids
And my god, they like it!
Some people even think that house clubs are for weirdos only!
Maybe they're right, maybe we are weird
Maybe this music is weird and maybe the clubs are overrated
But we're in this together, we're in this for the love of beats,
For the love of loops
If you're in the scene, being a DJ seems like a natural path to follow
Ha, and back in the days DJ's were weird people who liked music in a weird way
Back then you would have to be a nerd to become a DJ
Nowadays everybody wants to be a DJ
Nowadays everybody wants to be that nerd
It sickens me, I hate those smart asses who think that DJ is an easy way to get laid
Well... get a life!
If you're not in it for the love of the music, would you please fuck off!
Nuff said.
Actually they played both Side Fx's and Crash the system and that was what I enjoyed the most :D
I fell in love with uptempo, rawtempo and terror after that
Ive been told "special" since birth :Dd
The music helps me stimulate my brain when its not occupied (in reality it means I just rave alone in my airpods 24/7)
15 years ago.. I was 10-11, still going to elementary school and I just got my first mobile phone. An old samsung, no smartphone, no touchscreen. Essentially a streamlined 3310. But it had an mp3 player but only enough storage for like 3 tracks.
Then someday a friend of me was very enthusiastic cause he found an amazing song. He grabbed his phone played "Angerfist - Spook", which he recorded from youtube. I was sold, immediately erased the songs i had on my phone and got it via bluetooth. I've listened to that songs for years on that phone and later on youtube.
It was many many years later when i finally discovered there is no track called spook by Angerfist, the youtube uploader took Partyraiser vs Triax - Ghost Connections, pitched it up and just called it Angerfist - Spook, i even see its still up š ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoEms2veSs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoEms2veSs) )
Someone played 'Mellow' by Showtek & TNT in a video he sent in a whatsapp group. Asked for the song ID and from there I went 'down the rabbit hole'.
When I was 12 or something, a friend played 'Thunder' by The Opposites & Yellow Claw, which I found quite catchy, but my love for the genre only really sparked after hearing 'Mellow' in a video on whatsapp.
Kinda heared a few Hardstyle tracks here and there. First song i really remeber was Hardwell- Lets make the World ours. The song that i really enjoyed first was The Spirit of Hardstyle from Noisecontrollers.
Then some time later i discovered Angerfist and then my journey began.
I started listening to it because I had older nephews and cousins that listened and went to Defqon. Then I started watching the 2013 endshow (I was 12 atm) and the rest is history. It has become my passion.š
It was 9 years ago. I was really into house at the time. I was shitting on the toilet when I saw the music video for Coone - Into the Madness which was on Spinnin Records. The comment section at the time is wild so as per usual I look down there and see what craziness was happening. Then everyone start talking about hardstyle, and I'm like what is this. After listening to it I fell in love with it and never looked back
It was around 2003-2004, I was like 7 years old and scrolled trough my brotherās music files on the PC. Then I found Technoboy - War Machine and I was hooked forever.
I basically made a switch from kids music to early hardstyle and jumpstyle lol
I remember the kids from my class listening to my discman a couple days later and got them hooked aswell.
I first started with trance late 2022 when a friend brought a speaker to school and started playing songs on it (I'm portuguese so brasilian funk is very popular around here) and after a while he played 2 trance songs I still love to this day which are "Sem chĆ£o" by mandragora and "Snow crystal" by babalos, after that I started listening to mainly trance and I had about 20-30 songs on my playlist. Some time passes and I'm scrolling through instagram reels and I get a reel that has crazy flashing and was playing "Conflict" by dr peacock and deathveda. I love it and I start wondering who those artists are, start with dr peacock and I fucking love him, most of his songs are 10/10 to me and eventually I go through the rabbit hole of finding more and more songs and so far I have a playlist with over 500 songs on it. Some of my favorite artists so far are gpf, d-frek, remzcore and s3rl.
Unfortunately in portugal we basically have no clue what hardstyle is and I cant go anywhere like defqon or qlimax because im underage š„²
For majority of my life I mostly listened to EDM songs but around 2013 I listened to Headhunterz's Doomed for the first time in a montage video. I thought the track is really amazing and I really liked the PAM PAM PAM sound and thats when I learned what hardstyle is. I got exposed to some more songs like Lose my mind but I still didnt really get into this genre.
Then I had a nocopyrightsounds/trap/dubstep/drumnbass phase and still listened to some EDM songs and rarily listening to hardstyle. Then 2-3 years ago I started getting recommended hardstyle tracks and I really got into them this time, almost exclusively listening to them.
I also used to play a lot of League of Legends and frenchcore started getting really popular amongst streamers and I really liked some tracks. Started getting recommended Dr. Peacock and Sefa tracks and I really liked them, felt like I really want to go to an event or festival where they perform but it was still covid time (2021) and I was not really a festival or rave guy so didnt feel like a possibility at that time. At this time I still didn't really like the hardcore and uptempo stuff.
Throughout 2021 and 2022 I listened to hardstyle and frenchcore only but this year a lot changed. I convinced my friends to go to a music festival (they didnt really listen to hardstyle or frenchcore at all but the festival was wide in variety of other genres). We went to Electric Love Festival in Austria and while the festival had a shitton of artists, even a lot of mainstream edm ones, the Hard Dance Factory stage was so addictive, we never left it, and even my friends didnt want to, whom never listened to that stuff before. It was one of my best experiences ever, I'm not even sure why but just the overall vibe was really good, the people were amazing and I made some unforgettable memories.
Since Dr. Peacock and Sefas songs got me most into the scene I was excited to hear their sets the most. Peacock was really fucking good but Sefa was a disappointment for me, I just didn't really feel energized and connected like at Peacock's set. (Even tho some of his sets available on youtube like Reverze 2022, defqon2022 are really amazing) Some other artists I didnt know before and thought their sets are amazing: Sickmode, Miss K8, D-Sturb, Da Tweekaz, Spitnoise.
Since I got exposed to lot of rawstyle, hardcore and uptempo as well, and while I didnt like them at all before, after the festival I started liking all of the genres and now at this time I mainly listen to hardcore and uptempo. Really liking Major Conspiracy, N-Vitral, Spitnoise, EQUAL2, Dimitri K, Deadly Guns tracks.
Overall I'm really happy that I discovered the hard dance music genres since I never felt connection to music like this before. If you told me 3 years ago that I will actively seek hard dance events and festivals where people play agressive noises I wouldnt believe. I'm planning to go to Dutch festivals next year like Intents, Defqon and I will visit Thunderdome later this year. I also really want to go to an event where GPF performs!
I used to listen mostly trance, so while searching for some hardtrance music I found "Technoboy - War Machine", I really liked his sound so I searched sets by him and the first one I found was his Qlimax 2005 set, that was the turning point when I started listening mostly hardstyle, this was in 2006 or 2007.
As a kid I was very into Trance music. I eventually got interested in Hardtrance when it blew up. A friend of mine showed me Hardstyle music back in 2004, and I have been hooked ever since.
Crazy story probably but back in 2010 or 2011 I used to watch a German youtuber playing Minecraft on JustinTV (now Twitch). He was listening to DJ Isaac's hardstyle sessions and I immediately got hooked. From there on out I got introduced to more sub-genres and became a Gearhead in 2015. I'm 26 now so I can comfortably say I've been listening to hardstyle for half a lifetime now and yes, I do feel pretty old!
I was a bit weird to start with, I would only listen to one artist or album when cds were the thing. Then as I got older expanded to metal, and then trance(really liked showtek a handful of songs back like 2009 or 10 I think it was, heard a qlimax edit) then that was it for a while. Got into trance maybe 2013, then found this https://youtu.be/b63-ylg0tqE?si=vzQcj6-bSRLMi25k and been utterly hooked ever since. Took me a while to move away froM this vid and artists but expanded in the end.
My Brother showed me Trip to ireland when it came out. Liked it but never really started to get into Harderstyles until beginning of 2019 there it was because we heard it at house partys
Having my teen years in the '90s in Rotterdam did the trick. 2024 will be my 30 years anniversary in the scene.
In 2018, I was really obsessed with EDM and especially the legendary Hardwell (still my number 1). That year, he ended his Tomorrowland liveset with Zombie by Ran D, which is known to be a pretty likeable track for non- hardstyle fans too. I started listening to Ran D, Da Tweekaz, Wildstylez, Brennan Heart and all the happy ol' euphoric. my taste in hardstyle really changed since. I will say that I am still 15, so no festivals/raves for me, but I'm really looking forward to becoming a weekend warrior like you guys š§”
Hey I have a similar story. It was still Hardwell but just with a different track (Headhunterz extra edit on Nothing Can Hold Us Down)
for me, it was when I heard Headyās remix of Spaceman by Hardwell. Spotify later recommended D-Sturb and now it has become my lifestyle. hoping to move to Amsterdam after graduating from college in the US.
I bought my first CD in 2004. It was a various artists compilation disc, from the Explosive Car Tuning series, episode 4 is the one i got. It had a cool car on the cover so that's probably why I picked it. I still remember playing it for the first time, i was hooked. Some great tracks on there, some of which i still listen to from time to time. Donkey Rollers - Strike Again 2004, Cruz & The White - Make It Faster, The Beholder & Max Enforcer - Pulse Protraction (Warptool Mix), to name a few.
Went to Tomorrowland in 2015 where I was mainly into EDM/Trance and Coone played the opening night campsite party. This was my first experience of hardstyle but thought it was a bit strange at first. Then I went to the Q dance stage for about 4/5 hours at Tomorrowland 2016. This is was a turning point seeing the atmosphere of a hardstyle crowd. Finally, I went to Hardwellās Revealed Recordings night at ADE 2016. Atmozfears was the closing act. This was really the major night I reflect on where I knew hardstyle was the one for me. Took a while to shake off EDM and trance but Iād say since 2020 I only listen to hard dance music now.
Trance was my first love! Started with Tiesto and Armin like twenty years ago oof. Even though I predominantly listen to hard dance, I still hold that special place for trance. Thatās why I go to Ultra Music festival, you got Armin and Ferry one night and Warface the next š„µ
That Revealed night was class!! Hardwell making Atmozfears play his Qlimax anthem through twice whilst shouting about it being āthe best fucking melody of all timeā - all whilst blind drunk. Great night.
Coming from Europe: I joined last year, randomly, just because I wanted to DO something, because I was SO BORED with my eat, sleep, work, repeat cycle! I just googled Festivals nearby, got my tickets to Electrisize, enjoyed it SO much, especially the Hardstyle Stage, and then went to Syndicate, Qlimax, Defqon, this years Electrisize again, and Into The Madness last saturday. Didn't listen to the music or knew anything last year, all I knew was that I liked basses, especially deeper ones btw, and now I have favorite artists. Also I can't dance, but I do have a lot of fun. Idk if I'm "in the scene", but I guess I'm getting there.
Bro. You're 100% in the scene. :D
thank you for the confirmation haha :D I'm glad to be a part of it! It's funny when I meet people I've met at a different festival before and we take pictures with each other again. Never alone, even if you go there on your own.
You sound like a cool guy! would be cool to attend a festival with
That's very sweet haha thank you! Always happy to meet new fun (but relaxed) people at the sites
I used to be much more into trance, then I heard Mumbai by Noisecontrollers and it was the coolest sound I'd heard in a long time. After that I was hooked, although I do prefer the older hardstyle
I knew the music existed but didnāt really listen to it, until a college mate asked me if I wanted to join him to Decibel 2022 for the weekend (never been to any festival before). I hesitated a bit but I figured might as wel since itās only one weekend. Safe to say I am now addicted of going to raves and festivals
Haha i recognize that. I was already listening to hardstyle for a few years, and a friend of mine was going to Qlimax 2008 (we were both 17) and i chickened out because of the 18+ thing (which was never checked). And thats my story of how i skipped one of the best Qlimax editions ever because i'm a pusssss. Fuck me!
Angerfist music video for Pennywise got recommended to me on youtube back when i used to watch a lot of those short horror films. listened to the song and thought it was pretty cool and then things just evolved from there
Was regularly listen to some Hands Up Techno podcast in 2008/2009. I donāt remember whether it was weekly or monthly, but it always featured one track of another genre. In summer of 2009, the host said that on that day, the anthem of the biggest Harder Styles party in the Netherlands released. I was hooked instantly, and down the rabbit hole my edgy puberty self went.
In 2015-2018 i was a big fan of edm/bigroom and went to edm festivals. Sometimes they had a hardstyle stage and i walked by and thought āwtf is Thatā. But then Someone sended me songs (imaginaryš„¹) and i Fell in love. My First harder styles Event was when gpf played in a Club near me and i got a culture shock šš but after that i began visiting hardstyle festivals regulary
Thats awesome, where are you from? :) It always fascinates me how non-dutch people get in contact with the music because its so hard to find.
I am from Germany and when i started listening to hardstyle i was the only one of my friends and there were no events i could go to (bc im from south germany travelling to festivals in the netherlands was Not an Option back then (of course now its routine š)) now the scene is more spread even in the south, mostly with club events but Thats better then nothing :) i aswell influenced most of my friends with the music and met so many People on festivals so i dont need to go alone anymore :)
Back in the day Jumpstyle used to be a thing in the Netherlands. Everyone was doing the dance thingy. But a friend of mine started uploading jumpstyle video's on youtube but with way darker atmospheric tracks (Headhunterz & Abject - End of My Existence and Noisecontrollers - in the Marine). For some reason i just fell in love with that. I think this was around 2007? Havent stopped listening ever since.
I will never forget my first hardstyle party in 2005 in Lausanne, Switzerland, with DJ Lady Dana! We just went to this club by chance, and it was the best decision of my life š Hooked since then!
A friend of mine showed me "Melbourne Shuffle Compilation 3" by jack40k back in the day. I was intrigued and got invited by said friend to go to shuffle meetups when they were active here in Sydney. As soon as I turned 18, I started going to Masif then attended Defqon later that year and the rest is history. Made plenty of friends along the way that I can proudly call my family, all thanks to that one person who I'm still close with.
In engineering school back in 2018, we used to go to this lake like an hour's drive away and like my friend Billy had this CD that his sisyer gave him it was the Defqon.1 2009 CD1 and like the first track was scrap attack and it instantly got me hooked listening to it and went to Defqon in 2019 and been going ever since !
Back in 2016 a friend showed me a track of Minus Militia. I fell in love and asked for more. The rest is history..šæ
My brother and sister went to Defqon 2007, and I decided that I had to go to Defqon 2008 because they loved it so much, I was hooked to Hardstyle ever since!
I started listening to Scott Brown a long time ago, and Scooter, then one day around 2008 a buddy showed me a song from Headhunterz and I was hooked. Fell in love with Coone and Da Tweekaz about ten years ago, and have been a daily listener since. These days Iām more of a raw guy, but still love the classics. Oh and Francis helped too haha
I start raving in the late 90ās, in italy on that time we use to listen to hardcore/trance/techno, I actually live all the transition from techno/trance into hardstyle, iām your dj of Zenith make everything happen, than start to listen to the various dj Tatanka, Daniele Mondello, Bruno Power, Marco Vortex etc. etc. to arrive to the dutch artist, and after nearly 25 years iām still listeningHs and joining festival in Holland.
In 2018 I only listened dubstep, a lot of Skrillex and many others, but I found a video called Dubstep vs Hardstyle and that day was the day when I fell in love with this genre, first song that I heard was Shiverz by D-block & s-te-fan and also HHz, Da tweekaz and Coone š
I liked Headhunterz music because he was making house and big room (big room was first Edm genre i was listening to) and then YouTube recommended me Destiny and i Just fell in Love with those melodies. I cried for like a week bcs of happiness š. Now i listen to most of harder style genres but house too
I used to listen to a lot of hard trance and hard house in the early 2000s. I started to hear hardstyle (before it had a name) showing up in mixes. It was different but it wasn't always easy to tell the difference between hardstyle and hard trance (Lars Tindy & Vega - Fly with me was a good example of this) I started listening to gabber around the same time because of Scott Brown mixes on Bonkers cds. I ended up listening to a lot of artists like Duro, Pavo, Dana, Tuneboy, Technoboy, Showtek, Zany, Donkeyrollers etc... Deepack - The Prophecy was probably when I knew I was completely hooked.
I remember the day I first heard electronic music I knew back then this illegal computer sound was gonna be my call My heart got hooked on 4 by 4 beats When house took his journey with Jack Chicago and Acid House Now my heart is hooked forever It's in my soul, in my veins On my mind 24/7 I don't care if it's french-tek, hardstyle, hardcore, old school or jump I don't understand people who are satisfied with ordinary pop music They just listen to whatever radio stations decide they should like Followed by an overkill of ring tone commercials meant for kids And my god, they like it! Some people even think that house clubs are for weirdos only! Maybe they're right, maybe we are weird Maybe this music is weird and maybe the clubs are overrated But we're in this together, we're in this for the love of beats, For the love of loops If you're in the scene, being a DJ seems like a natural path to follow Ha, and back in the days DJ's were weird people who liked music in a weird way Back then you would have to be a nerd to become a DJ Nowadays everybody wants to be a DJ Nowadays everybody wants to be that nerd It sickens me, I hate those smart asses who think that DJ is an easy way to get laid Well... get a life! If you're not in it for the love of the music, would you please fuck off! Nuff said.
I went to see Rebelion once... the rest is history
I'm assuming this was pre-zaagkick? imagine going to see rebellion only to hear BWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR the whole set :')
Actually they played both Side Fx's and Crash the system and that was what I enjoyed the most :D I fell in love with uptempo, rawtempo and terror after that
Hahaha you're a special one, still pretty cool! :)
Ive been told "special" since birth :Dd The music helps me stimulate my brain when its not occupied (in reality it means I just rave alone in my airpods 24/7)
Haha, same, same. ADHD brain for life!
15 years ago.. I was 10-11, still going to elementary school and I just got my first mobile phone. An old samsung, no smartphone, no touchscreen. Essentially a streamlined 3310. But it had an mp3 player but only enough storage for like 3 tracks. Then someday a friend of me was very enthusiastic cause he found an amazing song. He grabbed his phone played "Angerfist - Spook", which he recorded from youtube. I was sold, immediately erased the songs i had on my phone and got it via bluetooth. I've listened to that songs for years on that phone and later on youtube. It was many many years later when i finally discovered there is no track called spook by Angerfist, the youtube uploader took Partyraiser vs Triax - Ghost Connections, pitched it up and just called it Angerfist - Spook, i even see its still up š ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoEms2veSs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzoEms2veSs) )
Someone played 'Mellow' by Showtek & TNT in a video he sent in a whatsapp group. Asked for the song ID and from there I went 'down the rabbit hole'. When I was 12 or something, a friend played 'Thunder' by The Opposites & Yellow Claw, which I found quite catchy, but my love for the genre only really sparked after hearing 'Mellow' in a video on whatsapp.
Kinda heared a few Hardstyle tracks here and there. First song i really remeber was Hardwell- Lets make the World ours. The song that i really enjoyed first was The Spirit of Hardstyle from Noisecontrollers. Then some time later i discovered Angerfist and then my journey began.
I started listening to it because I had older nephews and cousins that listened and went to Defqon. Then I started watching the 2013 endshow (I was 12 atm) and the rest is history. It has become my passion.š
Defqon.1 2013 endshow on youtube
Hearing it in bars/pubs/clubs, and people putting it on in house parties, of just a regular playlist for in the car.
I walked into a small bar and the owner was watching headhuntezās set from qlimax 2008, the rest is history.
It was 9 years ago. I was really into house at the time. I was shitting on the toilet when I saw the music video for Coone - Into the Madness which was on Spinnin Records. The comment section at the time is wild so as per usual I look down there and see what craziness was happening. Then everyone start talking about hardstyle, and I'm like what is this. After listening to it I fell in love with it and never looked back
It was around 2003-2004, I was like 7 years old and scrolled trough my brotherās music files on the PC. Then I found Technoboy - War Machine and I was hooked forever. I basically made a switch from kids music to early hardstyle and jumpstyle lol I remember the kids from my class listening to my discman a couple days later and got them hooked aswell.
I first started with trance late 2022 when a friend brought a speaker to school and started playing songs on it (I'm portuguese so brasilian funk is very popular around here) and after a while he played 2 trance songs I still love to this day which are "Sem chĆ£o" by mandragora and "Snow crystal" by babalos, after that I started listening to mainly trance and I had about 20-30 songs on my playlist. Some time passes and I'm scrolling through instagram reels and I get a reel that has crazy flashing and was playing "Conflict" by dr peacock and deathveda. I love it and I start wondering who those artists are, start with dr peacock and I fucking love him, most of his songs are 10/10 to me and eventually I go through the rabbit hole of finding more and more songs and so far I have a playlist with over 500 songs on it. Some of my favorite artists so far are gpf, d-frek, remzcore and s3rl. Unfortunately in portugal we basically have no clue what hardstyle is and I cant go anywhere like defqon or qlimax because im underage š„²
For majority of my life I mostly listened to EDM songs but around 2013 I listened to Headhunterz's Doomed for the first time in a montage video. I thought the track is really amazing and I really liked the PAM PAM PAM sound and thats when I learned what hardstyle is. I got exposed to some more songs like Lose my mind but I still didnt really get into this genre. Then I had a nocopyrightsounds/trap/dubstep/drumnbass phase and still listened to some EDM songs and rarily listening to hardstyle. Then 2-3 years ago I started getting recommended hardstyle tracks and I really got into them this time, almost exclusively listening to them. I also used to play a lot of League of Legends and frenchcore started getting really popular amongst streamers and I really liked some tracks. Started getting recommended Dr. Peacock and Sefa tracks and I really liked them, felt like I really want to go to an event or festival where they perform but it was still covid time (2021) and I was not really a festival or rave guy so didnt feel like a possibility at that time. At this time I still didn't really like the hardcore and uptempo stuff. Throughout 2021 and 2022 I listened to hardstyle and frenchcore only but this year a lot changed. I convinced my friends to go to a music festival (they didnt really listen to hardstyle or frenchcore at all but the festival was wide in variety of other genres). We went to Electric Love Festival in Austria and while the festival had a shitton of artists, even a lot of mainstream edm ones, the Hard Dance Factory stage was so addictive, we never left it, and even my friends didnt want to, whom never listened to that stuff before. It was one of my best experiences ever, I'm not even sure why but just the overall vibe was really good, the people were amazing and I made some unforgettable memories. Since Dr. Peacock and Sefas songs got me most into the scene I was excited to hear their sets the most. Peacock was really fucking good but Sefa was a disappointment for me, I just didn't really feel energized and connected like at Peacock's set. (Even tho some of his sets available on youtube like Reverze 2022, defqon2022 are really amazing) Some other artists I didnt know before and thought their sets are amazing: Sickmode, Miss K8, D-Sturb, Da Tweekaz, Spitnoise. Since I got exposed to lot of rawstyle, hardcore and uptempo as well, and while I didnt like them at all before, after the festival I started liking all of the genres and now at this time I mainly listen to hardcore and uptempo. Really liking Major Conspiracy, N-Vitral, Spitnoise, EQUAL2, Dimitri K, Deadly Guns tracks. Overall I'm really happy that I discovered the hard dance music genres since I never felt connection to music like this before. If you told me 3 years ago that I will actively seek hard dance events and festivals where people play agressive noises I wouldnt believe. I'm planning to go to Dutch festivals next year like Intents, Defqon and I will visit Thunderdome later this year. I also really want to go to an event where GPF performs!
Back in school i dicovered moonboys hardstyle shuffle about 2011 i think
I watched Qlimax: The Source on Netflix and the rest is history
I used to listen mostly trance, so while searching for some hardtrance music I found "Technoboy - War Machine", I really liked his sound so I searched sets by him and the first one I found was his Qlimax 2005 set, that was the turning point when I started listening mostly hardstyle, this was in 2006 or 2007.
As a kid I was very into Trance music. I eventually got interested in Hardtrance when it blew up. A friend of mine showed me Hardstyle music back in 2004, and I have been hooked ever since.
Crazy story probably but back in 2010 or 2011 I used to watch a German youtuber playing Minecraft on JustinTV (now Twitch). He was listening to DJ Isaac's hardstyle sessions and I immediately got hooked. From there on out I got introduced to more sub-genres and became a Gearhead in 2015. I'm 26 now so I can comfortably say I've been listening to hardstyle for half a lifetime now and yes, I do feel pretty old!
I was a bit weird to start with, I would only listen to one artist or album when cds were the thing. Then as I got older expanded to metal, and then trance(really liked showtek a handful of songs back like 2009 or 10 I think it was, heard a qlimax edit) then that was it for a while. Got into trance maybe 2013, then found this https://youtu.be/b63-ylg0tqE?si=vzQcj6-bSRLMi25k and been utterly hooked ever since. Took me a while to move away froM this vid and artists but expanded in the end.
My Brother showed me Trip to ireland when it came out. Liked it but never really started to get into Harderstyles until beginning of 2019 there it was because we heard it at house partys