Cultural origins Early 1990s, UK | ||
Stylistic origins House
hardbag
Hi-NRG
acid house
hardcore
breakbeat hardcore Typical instruments Synthesizer
drum machine
sequencer
sampler
keyboard | ||
UK hard house or simply hard house is a style of electronic dance music music that emerged in the 1990s and is synonomous with its association to Trade club and the associated DJ's there that created the style. It often features a speedy tempo (around 150 BPM), offbeat bass stabs, hoovers, horns and crowd cheering samples. It usually contains a break in the middle of the track without drum. UK hard house often uses a long and sharp string note to create suspense. Most of the time, the drops are introduced by a drum roll.
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Hard bounce
Hard bounce (or more originally known as bouncy hard house) is a style of UK hard house which first emerged around 1999. Unlike other hard house genres, it features an upbeat, energetic sound and heavily focuses on the 'pipe' sample as an offbeat bassline, which usually represents a 'donk' sound. In recent years, hard bounce has come to refer as style far less uplifting trance orientated than the original Scouse house genre, which also utilizes the same sample but takes a slightly more commercial approach.
Hard dance
Hard dance is a cross over genre between hard house, Eurodance and hard trance. This first appeared in the UK around 1998-9. Unlike the classic hoover sound of hard house and the rolling basslines, hard dance incorporates strong synths, percussion and echo effects from Eurodance and a lot of pitched up trance music and is generally regarded as happier sounding music than pure hard house.
Confusion
Hard house is similar to, but distinct from hardstyle. Confusion can sometimes arise as some club nights and events will play both hardstyle and hard house. This may be because hardstyle is quite well-known across western Europe, whereas hard house has only ever had a limited audience outside of the UK, so there is more new music being released in the hardstyle scene.