Breakbeat hardcore is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from hip hop. In addition to the inclusion of breakbeats, the genre also features shuffled drum machine patterns, hoover, and other noises originating from new beat and Belgian techno, sounds from acid house and bleep techno, and often upbeat house piano riffs and vocals.
A rave is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, trap, break, happy hardcore, trance, techno, hardcore, house, and alternative dance. Occasionally live musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as go-go dancers and fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large subwoofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by laser light shows, projected coloured images, visual effects and fog machines.
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. The thing that makes happy hardcore stand apart from happy gabba, is that happy hardcore tends to have breakbeats running alongside the 4/4 kick drum.
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.
Bouncy techno is a hardcore dance music rave style that developed in the early 1990s from Scotland and Northern England. Described as an accessible gabber-like form, it was popularised by Scottish DJ and music producer Scott Brown under numerous aliases.
Suburban Base Records is a British breakbeat hardcore, rave and jungle/drum and bass record label. It is based in Romford, Havering, England. It was established by Danny Donnelly and operated in the UK from 1990 to 1997 and in the United States from 1994 to 1997, however, started to release again in 2014.
Curtis Alan Jones, better known by his stage name Green Velvet, is an American disc jockey, singer and record producer. He is also known as Cajmere, Geo Vogt, Half Pint, Curan Stone, and Gino Vittori.
Matthew Nelson, better known as DJ Slipmatt, is a British electronic music producer and DJ. He was one half of breakbeat hardcore group SL2, who had a 1992 UK hit with "On a Ragga Tip".
Helter Skelter was one of the longest running dance music promoters in the UK, which began organising megaraves in the early 1990s. Its largest-ever rave was "Energy 97 – The Carnival of Dance" in Northamptonshire which attracted 18,000 revellers. The electronic dance music featured at its events was characterised as "happy hardcore". By New Year's Eve 1999, its popularity had declined, as garage music clubs became more mainstream. It regularly held events at Sanctuary Music Arena in Milton Keynes until the venue closed in 2004.
Top Buzz were a British breakbeat hardcore and jungle DJ/MC crew.
The Sanctuary Music Arena was a 22,000 sq ft, 3,500 capacity music venue in Denbigh North, Milton Keynes in the UK, and most well known for its connection to the rave scene.
DJ Dougal, is a British UK Hardcore and Happy Hardcore artist and DJ.
Fantazia was a rave music promoter and organiser based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1991 by James Perkins, Gideon Dawson & Chris Griffin, and held a number of seminal raves at the height of the breakbeat hardcore scene in the early 1990s.
Darren James Mew, better known as Darren Styles, is an English record producer, DJ, singer and songwriter from Colchester, Essex, England. Originally a member of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force & the Evolution, Styles found success during the 1990s as one half of Force & Styles. The duo were pioneers of happy hardcore and wrote several well-known songs such as "Heart of Gold", "Pretty Green Eyes" and "Paradise & Dreams".
Yoji Biomehanika, also known as YOJI, Mutant DJ, Ozaka Oz, Bionico, Biomehanika, Yōran and The Arcade Nation is a Japanese trance/hard trance DJ. A household name in the Japanese club scene in the 1990s, Yoji entered the international scene in 2001 when he was featured in the lineup for the Dance Valley music festival in the Netherlands in front of 90,000 people. He then started headlining some of the largest international music events such as Sensation Black, Tomorrowland and Street Parade. He is now considered one of the icons of hard dance music.
Kurtis Campbell, better known as DJ Kambel, is a British electronic music DJ. While DJing in the UK happy hardcore scene, he composed many works for the mega-hit compilation Dancemania's Speed series, which made him one of the most frequently appearing artists on the series along with the likes of CJ Crew, Captain Jack, Bus Stop, E-Rotic and Smile.dk.
Raindance are British rave event organisers. They were one of the best known rave names on the rave scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Scott McIlroy, better known as Doc Scott or Nasty Habits, is a British drum and bass DJ and producer.
Graeme Park is a British house music DJ and is widely credited as one of the original founders of the UK's rave/club scene, notably as a leading figure of The Haçienda club in Manchester, England.
"Toy Town" is a happy hardcore track by British duo DJ Hixxy and MC Sharkey. Released in 1995, the single was a hit in the UK clubbing scene, peaked at number 24 in the UK dance singles chart, and had a pivotal impact in the UK rave music scene with a move away from breakbeat towards the newer happy hardcore "cheesy" sound.
