Hardcore is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorted sawtooth kick, the intensity of the kicks and the synthesized bass, the rhythm and the atmosphere of the themes, the usage of saturation and experimentation close to that of industrial dance music. It would spawn subgenres such as gabber.
Hardstyle is an electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and hardcore.
Sydney born Nik Fish is an Australian DJ.
SCANTRAXX is a Dutch record label founded by Dov Elkabas in 2002, specializing in both hardstyle and hardcore music.
Raoul van Grinsven is a disc jockey and former member of Shadowlands Terrorists, now specialising in hardstyle. He is currently the owner of Fusion Records.
Willem Rebergen, better known by his stage name Headhunterz, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. Rebergen is also a voice actor. He has done dubbing for several movies and TV series. He started his career in 2005 working on Hardstyle music.
Q-dance is a Dutch company that organizes events and festivals that focuses on the harder styles of dance music – mainly hardstyle, hardcore, and hard trance. Popular events and festivals organized by Q-dance are Defqon.1 Festival, Qlimax, Qapital, Impaqt, EPIQ, and X-Qlusive. The events of Q-dance are easily identified by the letter “Q” on the event names. The logo of Q-dance is inspired by the knobs on DJ mixers, which if turned 120 degrees to the right creates the letter “Q”.
Pontuz Bergman is a Swedish DJ and hardstyle producer. Wasted Penguinz was originally a duo act that consisted of Bergman and Jon Brandt-Cederhäll, who left in 2020.
Joram Metekohy, better known by his stage name Wildstylez, is a Dutch hardstyle DJ and record producer. Having previously released hardstyle records under the alias 'Seizure', Joram Metekohy had his first solo release as Wildstylez in 2007 on the Scantraxx sub-label Scantraxx Reloaded. In 2010, he started the record label Digital:Age in collaboration with Noisecontrollers. After he stopped releasing on Digital:Age, and its subsequent collapse, Wildstylez had a string of releases on Q-Dance Records and also released many tracks for free via social media. In 2013, Wildstylez founded his own hardstyle label, Lose Control Music, under the parent label Be Yourself Music. As of 2014, he and Max Enforcer now release their own music through Lose Control Music. Later, in 2018, Wildstylez founded the label Art of Creation with Headhunterz.
Frenchcore is a subgenre of hardcore techno. The style differs from other forms of hardcore in terms of a faster tempo, usually above 190-250 BPM, and a loud & distorted offbeat bassline.
Audiotricz are a duo from Nunspeet, Netherlands, consisting of Kenneth Kroes (20/01/1990) and Leon Benschop (27/12/1990) who perform and produce music together within the Hardstyle genre.
Thijs Ploegmakers, known musically as Adaro, is a Dutch DJ and producer. He has produced music in several dance styles, and in 2008 started producing raw hardstyle, which he is considered to be one of the originators of.
Corey Soljan, better known by his artistic name Code Black, is an Australian hardstyle-DJ and music producer.
Fabian Bohn, better known by his stage name Brennan Heart, is a Dutch DJ and hardstyle producer.
Randy "Ran-D" Wieland is a Dutch DJ and music producer.
John-Paul Pirrello, known onstage as Outbreak, is an Australian DJ and music producer. Since 2002, he has been active in producing and performing hard dance music, specifically hardstyle since 2002.
Tim van de Stadt, known his stage name Atmozfears, is a Dutch hardstyle artist. Atmozfears was previously a trio, consisting of Tim, Kevin Keiser and Michael Jessen, formed in 2009. By the end of 2012, Jessen had left the group. In February 2012, Atmozfears joined the hardstyle label Scantraxx Records. Atmozfears has played at such festivals as Defqon.1, The Qontinent, Q-Base and Tomorrowland.
Joey van Ingen, known professionally as Radical Redemption, is a Dutch hardstyle DJ and record producer. He has played at several festivals such as Defqon.1, Dominator and Loudness.
Kateryna Kremko, known professionally as Miss K8, is a DJ from Kyiv, Ukraine. She played at music festivals including Defqon 1 and Masters of Hardcore, gaining recognition for her performances. In 2019, Kateryna took some time off due to pregnancy.
Bas Oskam, better known by his stage name Noisecontrollers, is a Dutch DJ and hardstyle music producer based in Veenendaal, Netherlands. Noisecontrollers was formerly a duo before Arjan Terpstra left the project in 2013, prompting Oskam to continue as a solo act. They are regarded as one of the pioneers of hardstyle music. Since leaving the project, Terpstra has been producing music using the stage name Bloqshot, focusing on different musical styles.
