It's All About The Music

Throughout all music genres, among them there are always more genres offshooting from the differentiating styles and structures. There are too many types of music to name; and more are being created every day. Of course, throughout the dance scene, there are several particular genres which seem to dominate the Australian rave scene.

In my opinion, these are..
(The artists included are moreso the ones which have made these genres for what they are; but there are afew that still influence the scene today..)

• Acid house - Phuture, 808 State, The KLF, Guru Josh
• Breakbeat Hardcore - Acen, Brainstorm Crew, The Prodigy
• Goa Trance - Hallucinogen, Astral Projection, Infected Mushroom
• Drum & Bass/Jungle - Pendulum, Andy C, Goldie, Dieselboy
• Hardcore Techno styles: Happy Hardcore, Gabber - Dune, Luke Slater, Dave Clarke, Darren Styles, Neophyte, Enzyme X, Tommyknocker, Hellfish, Vagabond
• Hard Trance - Cosmic Gate, DJ Scot Project, Alphazone
• Hardstyle - Technoboy, DJ Zany, Donkey Rollers, Q-IC, DJ Greg, Blutonium Boy
• Breakbeat - DJ Mikey Mike, DJ 303, Brad Smith and DJ Phunx

Non-dance styles that might be heard in "chillout" arenas:

• Ambient Music - Brian Eno, Harold Budd, The Orb
• IDM - Aphex Twin, Autechre

There are many more, but of course, the list continues endlessly of what any individual can produce. However, two of the most popular in the contemporary rave scene (in my opinion, please comment with other suggestions..) would have to be hardstyle and happy hardcore. Now I know at least thousands of people across Australia would disagree with me on this, however, in my experience these are the genres which attract the bigger crowds and what the majority of raves are based around.

In most of the harder genres; the average tempo is between 140 and 160 bpm (so generally, rather fast..)

The typical Hardstyle sound generically consists of various musical elements: a heavy sounding kick which is extremely unique to hard dance, intense reverse basslines, and "adrenaline-rushing" melodies which usually come in at the middle of the song, the "Qlimax". Mostly, the genre coincides with the same elements as Hard Trance, yet heavier and faster.

So Hardstyle holds it's stylistic origins in Hard Trance and Gabber, of which it employs many of their elements which has resulted in a totally unique sound which has swept the rave scene by storm since the 80s/90s.

Culturally, Hardstyle originates from the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, as most of the decent dance genres originate from. The Netherlands and Germany in particular, still pump out some of the hottest DJ's of today.

The typical instruments that hardstyle artists/DJ's use would have to be software synthesizers, sequencer(s), sampler(s), audio filter(s).

The countries of today which still hold the top names and events of the dance scene would have to be Amsterdam (Yes, I am aware that this is not a country, but it pretty much should be in regards to it's dance culture, I mean wow..), The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Spain.

If you have been, or know of anyone who has been to any overseas raves (or simply any crazy experiences at raves that are worth telling) then please comment this. I'm sure we all want to hear about the culture over there, although Australia's own Melbourne created the shuffle; pretty sure the massive dance parties over there wouldn't even compare to here.

So moving on to the next popular genre, HAPPY HARDCORE ! Now, this form of music seems to either be passionately loved or severely hated by people. I generally don't like it that much, although I love DJ Hixxy who is definitely a HH artist, and I see it as a lighter form of "hard" dance which is just generally 'happier' and easier to listen to.

Happy Hardcore is based around a VERY fast tempo (usually ranging between 170 - 190) BPM. It is often supported by solo vocals, and sentimental lyrics. If you check out the link I've put up on DJ Hixxy's name to his myspace, go have a listen and you'll see what I'm talking about. Much of his music is defined by a beautiful soprano solo female singer, mainly singing about love of the hardcore scene and other deep philosophies about life and raving (however, this can be seen across the genres, such as hardstyle artists like technoboy, showtek, nik fish and "trippier" artists such as infected mushroom and pendulum). Its 4/4 Time Signature (alike the majority of rock and classical music, surprisingly enough) seems to separate happy hardcore from many other others which are generally more "darker". Happy Hardcore can still be seen standing out among the rave scene today by it's beginning use of piano riffs, synth stabs and 'spacey' effects (which again, can be seen in DJ Hixxy's music).

Now, I could go on all day about all of the defining points of each genre; however I have something more important to talk about. So, for more info on happy hardcore check out Wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_hardcore

Anywho, in my opinion the most outstanding attribute of all of these dance genres would have to be the generic song structure of this music.

Now, in many other music genres (rock in particular) song structure goes like this:

Intro - Verse 1 - Chorus - Verse 2 - Chorus - Outro

(although there may be bridges between Intro's & Verses, or between Verses & Choruses, or between Choruses/Verses/Outros - generally speaking it goes something along those lines)

I think the structure of the harder dance style genres suit the rave scene and all-night parties so well, primarily because of it's structure... It goes something like this:

Intro (sometimes with a dark voice, or someone speaking to introduce a philosophical side to the song, or passion about the music & rave scene) - Taste of the chorus (generally this is just has the same tones, beat or rhythm but it is not the chorus yet, it is more of an introduction) - Breakdown (this may just consist of afew "bell" sounding beats, that are light, soft and quiet. This serves as time for the dancers to stop and rest as they prepare for the chorus. Slowly and slowly this builds up to the chorus, getting faster and heavier) - Qlimax (An explosion of fast bass, the chorus is complete, lights and smoke accompany the explosion of sensory overload and everyone goes nuts) - Broken Down Chorus (The rhythm and the tones stay the same, however it may be slower - you may still be able to hear voices/singers, however it is starting to wind down) Here There Is Either Another Chorus, Then A Fade Out, Or An Outro (If they use an outro is usually just consists of the same repetitive beat, and it melts into the next song which will then become an intro)

Sorry if that explanation was a little vague, its the best way I could seem to explain it without being too simple/complicated.

I love this form of structure - most people can seem to predict music even when they're listening to a song for the first time, knowing when the chorus is about to come in, when the song is about the end. Although you still can with this music, it just totally stands out from all of the other genres. With this structure, DJ's are enabled complete control over the atmosphere of the crowd, they know when to turn it up, turn it down, make it complex or make it simple. They know which order to play their songs, in order to build up to the perfect Qlimax in the middle of their best song. They know how to calm down the crowd at the end of the night in order to prevent people getting too wild.

It is not only the structure of this music that makes it what it is, and why it does what it does so well, to those who partake in it - all of the things that I have spoken about in this blog, the special moments, the closeness that you have with fellow ravers that you can't find in today's world, being engulfed by such beautiful sounds - all mix up into one large and relatively safe subculture that is generally overlooked and stereotyped by those outside it.. why is it that 'techno' DJ's aren't considered 'musicians', when they employ all of the musical elements that intrumentalists and artists do, yet with a more technical side to it? Why is it that when someone has never been to a rave before, when they think of one they automatically assume dancing on drugs? Why is it that the media has portrayed these events as a gateway to hard drug use, addiction, and excessive violence? Why is it that this music and this subculture, surrounded by passion and love by those inside it - is ridiculed and stereotyped by those outside it?

I want your opinion.