New to Era, just saw this thread -
Completely shocked to see folks talking positively about hardstyle/hardcore now. Not sure how I feel about these becoming more popular and mainstream, but I think my time in that scene has mostly passed by now anyways and my musical tastes are stagnating a bit. I personally still enjoy most of it, but generally prefer the 2007-10 period. Good times.
Back when I was super into hard dance, the genres were often derided as being shallow and ludicrous. Honestly, I can't make a solid argument against that point. But, it took what I loved about trance from the late 90's and turned it up to another level, and I've always enjoyed it for what it is.
Allow me to have my "old man yells at cloud" moment, though: my least favorite trend in hardstyle, apart from splitting into melodic and raw, is the move toward including more singing/vocals in the songs - even hardcore! Some of the vocals are cringeworthy to me...well, at least more so than they always have been, heh. Ok, old guy rant over.
Whatever the case, I suppose it will have its time in the spotlight for a while before folks move on to something different, just like all genres. It's just weird for me to see such acceptance now, I guess!
Apart from that, like the rest of the folks here, I listen to most of the styles of electronic music. The current techno scene is superb right now, I've been incredibly impressed by some of the newer music coming from over there. And I've gotten really into DJ Rush's sets, would be amazing to see him live!
Apologies for the rant-y tone of my first post! I'd love to talk more about hardstyle, hardcore, or any of the genres, really. Glad to have found this OT!