Quote Originally Posted by MARK EG
That's really made me think Wez. You're so right. It's an underground pop idol approach to music which quite frankly, isnt underground at all. i'm not going to give up on hardstyle because i still find hardstyle records that i like but all the time i'm thinking - have they sampled that bass? have they sampled that sound? And usually if the answer is yes, the release is shit. There ARE some good hardstyle records out there but its seeming more and more that hardstlye by numbers is the way to go and I don't like that at all about this music. Mind you hard trance is to a certain extent music by numbers and I've loved that for years. And so is acid techno. But to me the forumla's are alot less than those that hardstyle is using now.

Formulated cheesy, pop idol hardstyle I will not be buying.

There are some good tracks out there. But with hard trance, I dont remember having to search this hard through the shit. Mind you like I said in another post today, output of records and crap producers has increased in all genres.

This is my conclusion. Does this not prove we are all becoming robots? Victims of our own love of technology? Everyone now has a studio in the corner of their living room. Everyone's using the same programs, everyone elses 'samples'. Where's the true innovation in music? Because if we really do want to be honest about it, we've all been listening to the same record (ie dance music) for the last 20 years.
The growth of hardstyle was amazingly quick, not as quick as hard house (now THAT WAS simple to make/recreate!) but its that speed and greed of record labels that has screwed the fans of hardstyle over. Profit over quality.

I don't believe we are victims of our love of technology, technology after all brought us this sound. I feel that its the lack of vision of some labels and producers to evolution. I'm exactly the same in that I rip a hard style track to shreds upon hearing it, especially if I recognise elements and sounds from other hard style tunes in that release. It's just lazy and not thinking or trying to create good music...

Inovation has been lost and systematic approach to production has curiously taken over. I think this is because people can't beat the best of hardstyle that has already been made. You can either make it hard and harder until it becomes something else or silly, or make it more melodic until it becomes hard hard trance. Hard Style doesn't need to get harder, it needs to become more interesting. It needs to use completely new sets of sounds. NEW tricks and to have build ups and break downs completely re-written.

One track I really like for its production is Deep Pack - 100%
(http://germantrance.com/content/_rams/7006585B.ram for Geoff!) - it BUILDS lovely, and I think this is where hard style needs to go. Instead of being "banging" from the first time the beat comes in, it should build up and build up percussively over longer periods... and then hit you with a great break and hard kick & bass. I love the way this track has that crazy part where the synth roller coats in to snare and drums before brining in the harder kicks. Clever and interesting production...

I dunno... but that's what my feelings tell me....