Outsider’s most common misconceptions about Hard Dance music & the scene

I bet that at least 90% of readers have attempted to lure in a friend or family member into the beloved 150BPM and above by showing them a selection of music or even taking them to a festival or indoor event. Sometimes you are successful with your endeavours and have exposed a new fan to the scene; however, sometimes your loved ones are reluctant to come around based on society’s common misconceptions when it comes to hard music.

So, what is a misconception and what does this have to do with Hard Dance music? Well basically, a misconception is a view or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty thinking or a misunderstanding. In terms of hard dance music, outsiders who aren’t fully exposed to the scene and its music may form misconstrued ideas from many sources such as the media, word of mouth and societies generalisations. Due to the fact that Hard Dance music is on a spectrum that’s not made to be commercial or accessible, many ‘outsiders’ may build up inaccurate sentiments about the music, the scene and the people who thrive on this kind of music.

As one of the most vocal, dedicated and tight-knit scenes around, it’s important that we shed people of these misconceptions and show them how great the music and scene is! We decided to speak a little bit more about the most common delusions that strangers to the scene have and bust the myths behind them!

1. Hard dance is too rough and is not ‘real’ music:

My mum: This hardstyle or whatever you call it is not real music! It’s just ‘doof doof.’ TURN IT OFF!

Me: Aw c’mon mummy, at least wait for the fat drop… The kick is insane!

Mum: What is a drop? And please don’t kick people; I do not condone violent behaviour.

I can wholeheartedly understand why many outsiders may make this misconception, (especially parents) mainly because hardstyle and hardcore don’t have the word ‘hard’ in it for no reason. Hard dance music isn’t for everybody. I mean, most fans probably grew up listening to other kinds of music before getting into hard dance, so a lot of us have been on the other side of the medallion and can see why 150BPM isn’t for everybody.

As I mentioned earlier, hard dance isn’t produced to be commercially appealing or accessible for everybody, but to say that it’s not ‘real’ music is plain stupid. There’s plenty of artists who produce hard dance that’s not unbearably rough and raw and many sub-genres that can be appealing to listeners who are new to the scene.
Let’s put it this way – if everything that’s produced electronically isn’t classed as ‘real music’ then a majority of the Top 40 bullshit played on the radio actually isn’t classified as real music, nor is deep house, big-room house, electro house and every other genre that’s made with computers.

Hard dance may be rough and hard, but it does contain many musical elements and the simple fact that you can dance to it says enough.

2. The people are unfriendly and scary as fuck:

Unless you’ve lost your crew at The Qontinent and wind up in a tent with French Speedcore fans at 8AM then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Second that, the speedcore Frenchies on the campsite aren’t even that bad when you compare them to all of the ‘Shred4Stereo’ fuckwits in Australia.

Hard dance fans are mostly friendly and very welcoming and the community is known for its tight bond. Even if you accidentally spill a drink or bump into somebody at a festival, they won’t staunch you and knock your head off (We’re not saying that you should go spilling drinks on people for fun).
Just because the music is hard and aggressive, that doesn’t directly correlate to the mind-set of the fans. Most of them are harmless and don’t go to events just to pick fights with people – I mean, no hard dance fan wants to risk getting kicked out of Qlimax because they punched somebody in the face.
Hard dance fans are very welcoming people who love to party, love music and just love having an all-round great time; they’re not the kind who are up for a fist-fight whilst blasting angry hardcore.

3. Hard Dance music is only for people who use drugs:

Sadly, this is probably the most common misconception of them all but before you go pointing the finger, why don’t you take a look at all of the buckled cunts standing at Tomorrowland’s mainstage first?

I’m not going to sugar-coat this for you: Yes, you will see a lot of drug use at hard dance events; however, other events with other genres of music also have a large portion of attendees on drugs. Take Techno for example, most of the attendees at a techno event or club have taken so much ketamine that they don’t even know where they are. If you think I’m making this shit up then go watch Berlin Calling and see for yourselves (epic movie btw with lots of drugs).

Hard dance music caters for a scene of extremely dedicated individuals who solely attend events not to take handfuls of pills but to watch their favourite artists and truly enjoy the music which is quite unique when you compare it to other genres.

4. Every song sounds the same:

To those anti-hard dance people, this is the biggest LOL I’ve ever fucking heard  and is in fact pure idiocy. Yes, hard dance music is based on hard kicks and high BPM’s but those are among the only similarities.

First of all, within hard dance music you have different genres and within those genres you sometimes even have sub-genres, that’s how broad hard dance is. At first, those who aren’t familiar with hard dance music may think that the same song has been playing for 10 hours straight, however there’s so much more to the music than first meets the eye. Yes, the hard kicks and intense bass may be a little overwhelming at first, but once you ease into listening then you will start to notice some of the smaller details in tracks and artists’ distinct sounds.

If I use hardstyle as an example, there are many different sounds within that one genre. You have harder, rawer tracks and you also have softer, melodic and more easy-going tracks. Within hardcore, you have so many different sounds and sub-genres that it’s hard to keep count!
So for those who think that all hard dance sounds the same, maybe if you actually gave it a chance and listened to a few different tracks then you’d understand how creative this scene can be.

5. Isn’t hard dance music for people ferals/bogans/people who dress head to toe in fluro/ weirdos wearing masks?

*This image busts this myth straight away. It’s a fact that there’s a ton of hot chicks at hard dance festivals!*

A lot of outsiders imagine the stereotypical raver as somebody who dresses and carries themselves in a certain way, however this is a misguided generalisation based on a stereotype made by the fucking dickheads of society.

Of course you’re going to find khandi ravers and weird Angerfist look-a-likes at every event you go to, but they only constitute a small percentage of the thousands of people who attend. And besides, those fluro ravers aren’t bad people, if anything they’re actually really nice with their whole ‘PLUR’ attitude and I’m almost certain that they don’t walk rock up to their job in their rave gear. Sometimes people just want to get out of their ordinary and dress up fun for their weekend activities and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Secondly, those who misconceieve hard dance fans as ferals/bogans are making one of the stupidest generalisations, just because somebody likes a certain type of music, it does not dictate how they dress or the kind of person that they are.

All in all, the vast majority of hard dance fans are ‘normal’ looking people who dress in presentable manner and at events you even spot some massive hotties, especially in The Netherlands.

 

What other myths have you come across during your experience within hard dance? Let us know in the comments below! Together, lets unite and spread the hard dance love to all corners of the globe and prove that this scene is like no other!