In a recent article in the Australian magazine 3D World, Showtek gave an interview publicizing their upcoming Australian tour, during which they mentioned “We’re not going to stay a hardstyle act.”

Woah, what?

So, maybe it isn’t as dramatic as it seems, they add: “We are really working on our own sound and I think we’ve already accomplished a lot. Tiesto, for example, is not a trance DJ – but his music sounds a bit trancy. He’s just a brand nowadays, and, with Showtek, it’s actually the same”. They follow it up with “We are not going to make house or trance. We are going to develop our sound even more – tracks like Electronic Stereophonic is really our stuff. You’ll see”.

So how did we get here? Firstly, it’s not surprising that Showtek are breaking away from hardstyle. Showtek have always been a strange brand, an outsider, a Dutch duo far more embraced worldwide than in their homeland. The most recognizable and arguably the most successful hardstyle act ever, yet they do not garner the respect amongst the hardstyle faithful that other legendary artists do. Their sound is one of the few to break free from the constraints of hardstyle, one of the few hardstyle brands recognizable in pop culture.

And their split from hardstyle has been further facilitated recently with Showtek deciding to split with the Platinum booking agency to form their own booking agency to handle them and other Dutch Master Works artists, after a rumored falling out with Platinum refusing to book them at a certain hardstyle festival (for those who don’t know: Platinum booking agency handles most big names in hardstyle, and Q-Dance almost exclusively books through Platinum, leading to allegations of corruption, shady dealing and anti-competitive practices).

Showtek are one of the few hardstyle acts who have the crowd pulling ability to do this (as they effectively waved goodbye to ever playing at a Q-Dance event again), and they have an unashamedly popular, worldwide sound. No massive name in hardstyle could afford to not be booked at Q-Dance parties; but Showtek are not trying to be a massive hardstyle name, they are trying to be a massive name full stop.

So what will this Showtek actually sound like, if it isn’t hardstyle? Obviously their recent album is a good indicator, especially the track “Electronic Stereophonic”, of which I have never seen a producer beat off to their own track as much as showtek have with this one, mentioning it in almost every interview since the album came out.

Ultimately, it seems like a more accessible sound, without as much of the “distorted and aggressive sounds” that accompany most hardstyle, to use Walt’s words. Think a softer “hard dance” sound that blends genres, coming from a hardstyle direction but containing elements from different genres like rock, trance, house and pop. It’s still undeniably Showtek, with their sound almost instantly recognizable from their productions. In fact, it’s really a sound that is just more Showtek, and less hardstyle, to sum it up.

And so, we see this positioning makes sense in a wider view of Showtek trying to really forge their own place, their own niche in the hard dance scene – not limited by any genre expectations, producing whatever they want, playing at what parties they like, globetrotting worldwide. Analogue players in a digital world, anyone?

Discuss this in its thread on our forum.

Here’s one for all you budding producers out there. Seemingly, backpeddling in an effort to clear up the meaning of the vocals in his somewhat controversial track Push Play!, Brennan Heart and our friends at Scantraxx are giving fruity loopin’ losers the chance to have their track released on the final album sampler for his album, Musical Impressions.

Mr. Heart has this to say about the apparently misconstrued lyrics of the track:

“I’m really supporting the new generation. Sometimes it’s too bad to see that a lot of young ‘producers’ are focusing too much on the internet and writing on forums. Some of them seem to have lost focus. Making music isn’t about being “blogger #1”. With ‘Push Play!’ I was inspired by this internet and forum phenomenon. Maybe not the best way to make friends, but I felt the need to express my opinion on the matter. The new generation needs to re-focus on the music itself again, because the scene needs it.”

While the intent of Push Play! is certainly an attitude I’m sure many artists and fans share, the execution of the message was done somewhat distastefully, and left a lot to be desired. The reason people misunderstood the lyrics was because the lyrics themselves had little connection to the message that was apparently being tried to convey. The smug-sounding, repetitive vocalist and lack of elaboration didn’t really help to enforce the intended meaning either. There’s no doubt it’s controversial lyrics were written with intent to cause a stir, as to generate a bit more hype and talk about the album, and it has clearly succeeded.

Like many artists and vocal supporters of where the scene is currently heading, in argument to the lack of quality of many releases in recent times, they are somehow caught up in the notion that you can either slog it out in your studio, producing, or spend time on forums. Not both. We are led to believe doing so will get you nowhere and you’ll never make it in the ‘bizz’.

But enough of that, onto the details:

You are to submit a remix of any of the following:

• Memento
• Revival X
• Faith in your DJ

Download the remix resource pack from the M!D!FY site.

Ensure that you adhere to the following rules:

• Remix has to be a ‘Hardstyle’ remix
• Only ‘FLS’ users can join the contest – How they’re going to verify this, I have no idea.
• Contest closes at 30-11-2009
• You can submit as many remixes as you want
• Please send an e-mail with a download link to rmx@brennanheart.com
• Download link: please use YouSendit or Megaupload to send the remixes
• WAV files only
• Send your full name, address, telephone number and email address
• Only complete e-mails will be accepted
• Winner will be announced in the first week of December 2009

As of the 15th this month, the Analogue Players in a Digital World website has officially launched, which gives us some insight as to what fans can expect on the album, and a bit of background information in regards to the many recent achievements of Showtek. This is not to mention the duo leaving Platinum bookings earlier this year to join Marcel Scheffers’ (Marcel Woods) booking agency, 2Dutch, which has seen the amount of bookings, and the diversity of locations of those bookings expand immensely.

We’ve been fed a couple of teasers from the album courtesy of the Showtek YouTube channel, the first being The World is Mine, an FTS-style track, including vocals which can be interpreted in numerous ways depending on how you take the context of the lyrics. The other, We Speak Music, uploaded yesterday, is a melodic nustyle track with a rough edge, which is fairly typical of the Showtek production style. On the album website, we’re treated to two more musical gems, the first, entitled ‘Freak’ and a seemingly unexpected remix of the already great We Live for the Music by one of the biggest names in the scene at the moment, Noisecontrollers.

The description of the album written on the website reads that it’s ‘… all topped of with devastating powerful riffs, attended with vocals and lyrics that will easily suit a pop band.’ Devastating, powerful riffs are always a good thing, but the ‘lyrics that suit a pop band’ worries me a little, for obvious reasons. However, Showtek have proven time and time again that their almost unrivaled production skills and knowledge of the crowds can be used in combination to create fresh, innovative sounds that always have a hard edge to them. This even counts with ‘pop band vocals’, as we’ve so clearly seen in tracks such as Hold Us Back and their remix of Timbaland’s Apologize, so perhaps there should be no cause for concern if they’re going down the vocal route.

The album is scheduled to be released on the 24th of October. With the album release comes the album launch world tour. Starting in late 2009 moving through to 2010, from the US to the UK, all over Europe then down to the exploding scene in Australia, Showtek will be performing in over 30 cities to promote the new album, and if you’re someone who’s seen Showtek play elsewhere, particularly in a club, you’ll know what a show this will be. Not only this, but joining them will be the likes of Zany, Dutch Master, Donkey Rollers LIVE, Noisecontrollers, Southstylers LIVE, Abyss & Judge, Jowan and MC DV8.

Cities visited are as follows:

Keep an eye out as we’ll be posting the exact venues they’ll be playing at as they’re announced.

An interesting idea was thus raised in a discussion with a person on a certain hardstyle forum, who I won’t name (nor post naked pictures of) – that DJs such as Pila, Pavo, Dana and Luna, who used to be very big names in the earlier hardstyle scene (perhaps less so now, but thats tangential) were forced by Q-Dance to play more nustyle in their sets, else they wouldn’t be booked at the big events. Straight up I’m going to say I’m not a huge fan of any of those four. None of them are particularly noteworthy producers, personal preference being that I have more respect for those who practice the far trickier art of producing than DJing. A DJ is just a glorified jukebox, but it doesn’t sound very good when a producer with no mixing skills rocks up and trots out 13 of his own tracks start to end (I’m looking at you, Headhunterz), so I have to admit there is a place in the scene for skilled DJs even if they do nothing more than that. So the idea is this: Q-Dance orchestrated some conspiracy to push newer style music to the masses, presumably because they’re nefarious bastards who like destroying things you enjoy, and the old DJs either complied or were phased out, both against their wishes.

Firstly, consider money. You can be sure that where an event organizer makes a decision, it’s done for money. Q-Dance (and of course its parent company, ID&T) are businesses which are run to make a profit, and everything at some level comes back to that basic fact. (We could get sidetracked here and envision a utopia society made of unicorn farts and PLUR where events are run by people because they really, really care about the music and want to simply let everyone have a good time- but lets stay in reality). The only question is, was Q-Dance’s decision (if it were made at all) a reactive or proactive one – did they realize the hardstyle population was moving towards nustyle and reacted to ensure the maximum audience for their events, or were they clever and realized that if they steered hardstyle to a softer, more accessible sound, the audience would eventually be bigger?

I honestly believe the former, and here’s why: Q-Dance events were wildly popular and successful before the specter of nustyle raised its ugly, bland head. There was obviously a sufficient market there. Which raises the thought, why would they fuck with something that was working? Organizers love nothing more than a guaranteed success, with events being such a risky business proposition in general. Why try and change your audience to something new, when you are the big fish in the scene? What is the gain? Especially considering most of their events sold out to capacity previous to that point anyway, and so there would hardly be a massive profit to reap. Ah, I hear you say, but lots of people who go to the big events go for the festival / party atmosphere, not the music, and so Q-Dance wouldn’t have been responding to their desires- yet if this were true, then why would Q-Dance change their music at all if it doesn’t matter to the people going? Between the choices of that they saw the market shifting and made an adjustment, or that they executed a contentious, risky and brilliant maneuver on the market for marginal returns, I have my opinions about which is more likely.

Secondly, it doesn’t actually appear to me as though Q-Dance is pushing nustyle that much. Since I’m not lucky enough to be living in Europe I won’t comment on the parties there, but the Q-Dance productions in Australia have been pretty standard fare – ’08 X-Qlusive Showtek featured very little nustyle considering the times (which, if the theory about switching to nustyle to gain new audiences is true should have featured alot of nustyle as Australia is an emerging market which Q-Dance seems is trying to build up), Q-Dance world tour in march of this year contained quite a bit more but varied as you would expect from artist to artist, with most opting for a set containing both styles. But again, the idea of Q-Dance pushing a style seems silly to me. When you are THE organizer in a scene, why would you so boldly favor one style over another instead of merely picking what is most popular and presenting it to your loving fans? It would be like a greengrocer aggressively trying to sell oranges to people who like apples, instead of just fucking selling them apples. Except in the case of Q-Dance, there isn’t even any cost from switching between oranges and apples. They don’t have ten thousand spare goddamned oranges to get rid of. They didn’t see that the softer, more accessible taste of the oranges could appeal to a bigger market if they could get people to switch. They don’t care. They’re just selling what people want.

Lastly, even IF Q-Dance did demand that those artists change their playing styles in order to be booked for their parties, so what? Since they are a private company, surprise, they can do whatever the fuck they want. They are fronting up their money to put on their party, so they have every right to hold it however they like. As audiences, all we can do is vote with our feet – if you don’t like it, don’t attend their parties. And yet, we all know, they have always sold out, and they will continue to sell out- because the population in general is happy with the sound they are hearing. If Q-Dance really did change the sound of hardstyle against people’s wishes, where are the alternative events catering for the mass who like old hardstyle? Oh wait, that’s right, there isn’t any, because there isn’t a big enough mass of people who like old hardstyle. If there was, then there would be a market to exploit, and someone would do it. People can harp on for hours with theories about this and that and all manner of things but I hold my ultimate faith in the self interest of DJs, producers and organizers- if there was a market to cater to, someone would do it.

I have heard some frankly laughable retorts from people who believe that Q-Dance (and I presume event organizers in general) should not have the right to select what sort of music is played at their event, but should be open to all styles. This is ridiculous. The fact that festivals of the harder styles of music exist is dependant on the organisers selectively choosing the lineup, otherwise the festival would just be horrible. Can you imagine a festival where the organisers do not use their discretion in picking the lineup, even if it were sanely limited to artists within the harder styles? Someone please hold one, and I will turn up and put “I Kissed A Girl” on repeat for an hour. Again, since the organisers are the ones fronting the money for the event, they have the rights to choose who they want to play- and since their decisions are based on profits, it is in effect a giant democracy – unpopular artists and styles are not going to be picked. From a purely artistic viewpoint this can be a negative – but unlike in a real world democracy where the tyranny of the majority means that some people are unhappy with the result – there’s nothing stopping anyone unhappy with Q-Dance’s selection from not going to the event, from going to a different event that caters for what they want, or from starting their own event.

I can readily accept people liking the older sound more- music being subjective, each to their own – but the population in general enjoys the newer sound, and that’s what will be catered for at the parties. Q-Dance is merely a vessel through which hardstyle runs, and hardstyle as a genre has moved on from the earlier sounds. Even if it’s not the tok tok of nustyle, general hardstyle is now a more melodic, refined and ultimately softer sound than it was before.

So in the end, Occam’s Razor – which is more likely – a giant conspiracy to change the sound of hardstyle, or just a reaction to what people want? Make a decision for yourself. In reality, in this crazy world of compromises we live in, the truth is probably somewhere in between – it’s not hard to see Q-Dance in general favouring a softer sound but it’s hard to see them aggressively pushing it, let alone being THE driving force behind its rise. Not to mention all the producers making it in the first place. It would be great to see someone prove me wrong and hold some events dedicated to what they perceive as the anti nustyle sound – and if people are serious about reclaiming their genre, through events is how it would be done, since that is how it was supposedly stolen.

This is a guest post written by Gareth. He’s a guy that listens to hardstyle who also lives in Sydney, Australia.

The attack

First of all, let us take a look at the incident that prompted us to explore Headhunterz’ background in the first place. Yesterday, towards the end of the afternoon, Carl surprised me by sending a link to Headhunterz’ homepage, of all places. As I got there I quickly realized what was wrong: a lame and direct assault towards ScuL, aka Martijn Bakker,  founder and developer of Global Hardstyle Forum. About an hour later the post had already been removed but furious GHF denizens had been quick to take a screenshot of it – it is posted below. What you cannot see is that the picture in the post redirected to the GHF frontpage.

What could have brought Rebergen to such an act? Clearly, the image could have been anyone and it certainly is not really Bakker. Besides, thanks to the screenshots hell and internet drama were raised on major and minor forums across the web, with some people appreciating the joke factor, but most comments recognizing the childish sneer that this really was. There appears to be no direct cause for Headhunterz to do this. GHF is widely known for being generally anti-nustyle and criticizing the works of Headhunterz and his likes ferociously, and the public debate fulminated in Rebergen making Hate It or Love It. However, ScuL has been bored of the debate for a long time and hasn’t even commented on HHz’ latest releases.

This curious and unwarranted lash at GHF and its owner gives good reason to try and comprehend the mind behind the music, a thing I have long been fascinated by. In order to do this we have to make a short biography. Unfortunately, I have to base a lot of it on rumours – I will try not to make this a tabloid article, so please bear with me.

A rock & roll blitzcareer

Rebergen’s career started back in the year 2003. He had always been into music, having been in a kid’s choir for years, but at the time, he went to his first parties. Among them was Qlimax. He promptly picked up producing and was quick to push out his first releases, together with his friend Bobby van Putten under the Nasty D-Tuners alias. When they were starting to be recognized as upcoming talents, things became busier and Willem focused less and less on his studies at the Rock Academy, at which Bobby was also a student. It is said that Willem was kicked out of the house, yet in this Partyflock interview he states that during that period, he could rely on his mother to help him with his troubles. Luckily, hardstyle mobster The Prophet recognized their talent and supposedly even let Rebergen move in with him for the time being.

Whether Rebergen had a roof over his head or not, Prophet & Headhunterz went into the studio together and they were given the chance to release more of their work. Smash hits like The Sacrifice ensued. Thanks to The Prophet’s major influence within the scene, Headhunterz were booked for a performance at Defqon.1 2006. According to Willem, Bobby quit hardstyle right before that gig in order to focus on his studies. Rebergen, on the other hand, decided to pursue a hardstyle career, dropped his studies and went to Defqon – where he collapsed on a toilet due to drug (and alcohol?) abuse.  Be it the nerves or careless thrillseeking, he arrived for his gig 15 minutes late, after being awoken by a group of friends who happened to know which Dixie-bauthaus he was in.

Later that year, he got the opportunity to play at Qlimax, only 3 years after first visiting it and being introduced to the scene. Again, this was thanks to the Prophet’s influence. A q-dance.nl interview taken after the gig gives us a unique insight into the young man’s – he was 21 at the time – mind. In it, he says he is so happy he has finally ‘found something at which I succeed reasonably well’. The image of a troubled youngster with unusually low self-esteem arises – a gullible guy introduced into the word of hardstyle & roll, drugs and fame way too fast to handle properly.

That image of insecurity is backed further by the aforementioned interview on Partyflock. An entire paragraph is devoted to Rebergen’s description of how Dov Elkabas aka The Prophet has supported him over the past few years, guarding him from the neverending evil of criticism, bookings, copyrights; of being a big shot musician in general. Even more confirmation can be found in an interview with The Prophet, A-Lusion & Headhunterz from october 2007. Both Prophet and A-Lusion are laid-back, speaking casually about the upcoming SWAT. Headhunterz, however, is clearly not at ease, smoking and giving off a truckload of nonverbal signals that indicate nervosity.

Popstar syndrome

Despite his apparent insecurities, the fame that he attained way too quickly seems to have made Willem Rebergen develop a kind of popstar syndrome. An I’m-the-best-and-I’ll-do-what-I-want attitude that can also be spotted in certain famous rappers, for example. Illustrations of this mindset of his are plenty. During recent years, there have been various reports of him threatening people recording his new tracks with mobile phones. Stanley3000‘s first YouTube account was closed after complaints from Rebergen – he did not want his new tracks to be known to the public, apparently. From first-hand experience I can say that when encountered at parties, he often radiates so strong a mixture of anger, arrogance and total disinterest that it becomes frightening.

So far, we have not even considered certain releases of his. Besides Hate It or Love It, Just Say My Name is the most blatant example of Headhunterz’ style. Even though the message behind it is completely justifiable – dealing with mindless bashing all the time must be a pain – the way in which it is brought is plain wrong. It truly reminds of that gangsta hip-hop attitude: diss battles, unnecessarily insultive behaviour, and above all an unhealthy love for one’s own self.  Rebergen, tucked up in the comfort of this newly found barrier against the evil outside world, does not seem to realize it is an attitude the rest of the hardstyle world despises, further damaging his reputation with other DJs and producers. A reputation which purportedly wasn’t too good already, which makes us wonder how things will go for Headhunterz in…

The future?

Through analysis of his career, several interviews, and finally a lot of rumours we have come to the conclusion that Willem Rebergen is irrefutably one of the least loved people in the hardstyle scene. The cause for this appears to be a certain mindset caused by a combination of internal and external factors, the most important being his way too fast rise to fame. At the moment, a large part of the public still adores his music. Yet if he is to retain his position within the scene he will have to change his attitude soon, as more and more people start to dislike and even hate him. He cannot afford more jokes like the one towards ScuL, ever increasing his amount of enemies while decreasing his amount of fans.

With melodically undeniably good releases like Forever Az One and Rock Civilization, it can be said that there is some kind of enlightened spirit within the man’s mind. However, it seems to have retreated into the darkest depths of his psychological shell: pompous, arrogant, driven by nothing but fame from an era fading quickly. 2009 will be crucial for Headhunterz: will he choose to be enlightened spirit once more? Or will the spirit part, leaving behind nothing but an empty shell…?

Disclaimer: There are a few points that, if left unattended, would make this article below my quality standards. Yet it is impossible to integrate these into the article itself, so I shall address them here.

First of all, bashing. This article probably seems like yet another mindless Headhunterz bash. I can tell you it certainly is not: I have pondered long on what to write here exactly, and tried to be not exclusively negative. I would also like to state that I still love quite a couple of the man’s releases. However, his attitude, as is obvious from the article, bugs me a lot.
Second, arrogance on my part. To think that I can get to the bottom of a man’s mind from just a few rumours and interviews? Arrogance, you say! And you’re right about that. So hereby, I say that in my personal opinion, the above is the most likely explanation for his behaviour. I do not claim to be certain about this, yet I feel that my findings are at least partially true.
Third point. Hi Willem. Yes, I do realize that this piece of writing may very likely end up being read by the very person it is about. And let me tell you, if I read something like this about myself I would be furious. This is why, should Headhunterz read this, he is invited to contact me at ool@theharderview.com. Even though in this article I have drawn some negative conclusions, my attitude is still open and I would in fact like to be proven wrong. So shoot.