The Harder View

So it seems you can’t be a true hardstyler these days unless you’re complaining about how nustyle has ruined hardstyle, what with it’s formulaic and boring construction, “tok tok” kicks and basslines pitched higher than a stoner in Amsterdam. Although I agree in the sense that I find a lot of producers disappoint with repetitive, unoriginal sounds that are just a melody, plus a poor intro and outro tacked on, it seems that people cherry pick the past when comparing new to old, forgetting that actually the majority of old hardstyle is unlistenable crap that you don’t (want to) remember. It’s easy to pick songs to compare to show either style as clearly superior, but that hardly proves anything. However I didn’t write this article to start yet another pointless wankfest that is any discussion of something as subjective as musical taste (not least on the internet). Instead, a more interesting idea: how much of the popularity of nustyle is due to it being pushed by producers and event organizers (qough qough) and how much of it is demand from the public? Is nustyle, as it is claimed, being forced down the throats of an unwilling audience or is it simply more popular? Supply, or demand?

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.