Deeper meanings with Thera: Why are there no real ideologies in Hard Dance music?

From an outsiders’ point of view, the Hard Dance scene is often recalled as a primitive scene where the music is more monotonous than melodic and its people are permanently cooked. Sure, the cooked faces in the after-movies are correspondent to the drug-related stereotypes, as are the high level of “Fuck” and “Motherfucker” in the music’s lyrics, which can be quite stimulative to the patronising perspective of outsiders. The latter often makes me wonder why artists in the Hard Dance scene aren’t using the full potential of lyrics. In other music genres, artists like Beyoncé and Coldplay use the power of their music to spread a certain message. Beyoncé is continuously reminding her audience to fight the inequality between ‘blacks’ and ‘whites,’ whilst Coldplay is trying to raise attention for the disunity in the world by claiming that we are all ‘world citizens.’

Why is it that barely any DJs and producers in the hard dance scene use the enormous range of their music to spread the same sort of messages? Why does it seem that the intertwinement of music and ideology is almost entirely absent in this scene?

It is quite difficult to talk with producers and DJs about the intertwinement of music and ideology, simply because this connection is almost inexistent. Most artists never even considered the option to put ideological loaded lyrics in their songs, simply because… why and how would they even do that? And more importantly, would it diminish the roughness that Hard Dance is known and loved for?

Recently, I spoke to Theracords head honcho DJ Thera about this matter.

Thera, who was already producing Hardstyle back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, was the outspoken person finding some answers to the previously mentioned questions: “The combination of Hard Dance music and ideology is possible. However, I feel as if religion, politics, and ideologies are personal choices, so it needs to be kept away from the scene and the music as far as possible.”

In other words, his answer to the question why producers and DJs aren’t intertwining a certain message within their music is that they shouldn’t risk burning their hands on private matters like religion, politics, and ideologies. At first, this answer felt slightly unsatisfying. I still couldn’t understand why DJs and producers didn’t feel the urge to use that unique possibility of reaching thousands and thousands of people with bigger issues. However, as time passed, Thera’s answer slowly began making sense…

To state that the act of spreading an ideology is totally absent in Hard Dance music is false. DJs and Producers are – mostly unconsciously – spreading an ideological loaded message; simply by not mentioning one at all. Unlike producers from other genres, they almost entirely repel their music from any form of ideology, politics, or religion. By doing so, they have stripped the music into a pure form – a form that is about music and music only.

Consequently, they made their listeners (for a moment) forget the stratifications that are created by features of politics, ideologies, and religions – in contrast to artists like Beyoncé and Coldplay who are constantly reminding their audience about the inequality in the world. In this way the intents solidarity is created; music is what unites us all and no further questions are asked. This is what creates the solidarity the Hard Dance scene is famous for. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you believe and what your background is – the love for the same music is what unites us all. The scene doesn’t acknowledge the differences over skin-colour, gender and religious beliefs, simply because these differences do not matter in our world.

Probably because of this insight, Thera made the statement during our the interview that “The general ignorance within the scene is a shame as outsiders, politicians and the media in particular, can learn a lot from the solidarity that thrives throughout the scene and its festivals.” It is arguably the strength of the scene that it doesn’t inflict itself with politics, ideologies, and religion. Simply by erasing these features, the scene creates the solidarity others (e.g. politicians) are so desperately longing for.

If you ask producers and DJ’s directly why they don’t inflect particular messages in their lyrics, you won’t get a well formulated answer. This was exactly what happened with Thera, and this was what unsatisfied me at first. However, when one looks closer, it seems that the individuals in this scene held a specific implicit knowledge that it is simply not right to inflect the music with political, ideological, or religious feature – and for a good reason. The music should be free from all of this, so it can erase all the negative stratifications existing outside this scene, and create the unity this scene is famous for.