Hardstyle
Hardstyle is a hard dance style with a distorted, pitched kick drum, tempos around 150 beats per minute and big, anthem-like synth melodies.
It emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, growing out of hard trance with influences from hardcore and techno. Early tracks ran at about 140 beats per minute and leaned on an offbeat 'reverse bass'. From around 2010 the sound split toward euphoric hardstyle, with emotional melodies, and a darker style known as rawstyle. Its kick drum has a long sustained tone, so producers can play basslines with the kick alone.
Artists it is known for: Headhunterz, Showtek, Brennan Heart, Noisecontrollers.
- Family
- Electronic & Dance
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, late 1990s
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 2%
About 1,400 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have hardstyle among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Hardstyle artists
prodArvee
HOLY PRIEST
Sickmode
SICK LEGEND
ANGUISH
Lil Texas
GoldZoro
Enmity
Lekkerfaces
hornjaThe hardstyle artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.