have a search mate, there's a few threads with varying thoughts of what hardstyle is....
to me, my preferred style of hardstyle (yes, hardstyle has different styles) is a raking reverse off beat bassline (from german/itlian hard trance), a deep heavy distored kick drum (dutch hardcore/gabba) and interesting screehy synths with wicked snare rolls..
the dutch have their own style, the itlians as well and the germans' is slightly different again...no one in the UK makes decent hardstyle yet, but i know there is some talent coming through and i suspect that will also have it's own distinctive sound, prob combining the best bits from the other countries :lol: