Academic research on Hardstyle & Radioactivity signs

[Theoisgone]

Hey everyone !

I am really happy I joined this community, and hope I will find some answers to my questions.
I am also a Hardcore lover, and for a university research on nuclear waste, I am trying to understand the relation between Hardstyle and nuclear signs.
The biohazard sign in our community is a big thing. But I want to know why ? Why a biohazard sign and not something else ? Where did it come from ? What does it mean for us that we used it to create our identity ? How is it related to nuclear waste ?

If anyone has some answers or some clues, I'd love to hear them!

Thank you for your help guys!

[Reverse Ghost]

I think it's just a carried over thing from the Cyber Goth crowd and to a lesser extent Kandi Ravers, since their whole aesthetic is neon colors and loud designs. Radioactive symbols and such just fit in with them I guess.

[ceero]

The biohazard sign in our community is a big thing. But I want to know why ? Why a biohazard sign and not something else ? Where did it come from ? What does it mean for us that we used it to create our identity ? How is it related to nuclear waste ?

Short answer - It's not.

Where did you get the impression? It might have been 'a thing' to a very slight level around 2009-ish, when most of the music on youtube was not official videos/label previews, but random people's channels. Someone simply started using the radioactive sign as a background for the videos and it --sort of-- caught on for a short time, people started making some hardstyle wallpapers using the radioactive sign, but that's it. Not a single person who truly understands this scene is going to tell you that the nuclear hazard symbol equals hardstyle.

The artists do not embrace it, the promoters do not embrace it, noone is using it for the visuals. Unless perhaps one or two examples which are more likely coincidental that intentional you won't find it as a theme for the music or artworks. You might have had some Australian shuffle dancers using the sign as a part of their imagery, but those people have nothing to do with the actual music scene, they barely contributed to it in any way except some cheesy dance videos which never had any sort of relevance to the music itself. You have a wrong idea about the symbols in hardstyle scene If you are looking for some real symbols, truly representing the scene, you want to look in the direction of Qlimax, Defqon1 or Q-Dance logos.

[DjVero]

The biohazard sign in our community is a big thing. But I want to know why ? Why a biohazard sign and not something else ? Where did it come from ? What does it mean for us that we used it to create our identity ? How is it related to nuclear waste ?

Short answer - It's not.

Where did you get the impression? It might have been 'a thing' to a very slight level around 2009-ish, when most of the music on youtube was not official videos/label previews, but random people's channels. Someone simply started using the radioactive sign as a background for the videos and it --sort of-- caught on for a short time, people started making some hardstyle wallpapers using the radioactive sign, but that's it. Not a single person who truly understands this scene is going to tell you that the nuclear hazard symbol equals hardstyle.

The artists do not embrace it, the promoters do not embrace it, noone is using it for the visuals. Unless perhaps one or two examples which are more likely coincidental that intentional you won't find it as a theme for the music or artworks. You might have had some Australian shuffle dancers using the sign as a part of their imagery, but those people have nothing to do with the actual music scene, they barely contributed to it in any way except some cheesy dance videos which never had any sort of relevance to the music itself. You have a wrong idea about the symbols in hardstyle scene If you are looking for some real symbols, truly representing the scene, you want to look in the direction of Qlimax, Defqon1 or Q-Dance logos.

Not entirely true. The first editions of Defqon were all about (nuclear) waste, e.g. Biological Insanity, Scrap Attack, Get Wasted, No Time To Waste. Maybe the ones you mentioned got their ideas from this

[Double-T]

The biohazard sign in our community is a big thing. But I want to know why ? Why a biohazard sign and not something else ? Where did it come from ? What does it mean for us that we used it to create our identity ? How is it related to nuclear waste ?

Short answer - It's not.

Where did you get the impression? It might have been 'a thing' to a very slight level around 2009-ish, when most of the music on youtube was not official videos/label previews, but random people's channels. Someone simply started using the radioactive sign as a background for the videos and it --sort of-- caught on for a short time, people started making some hardstyle wallpapers using the radioactive sign, but that's it. Not a single person who truly understands this scene is going to tell you that the nuclear hazard symbol equals hardstyle.

The artists do not embrace it, the promoters do not embrace it, noone is using it for the visuals. Unless perhaps one or two examples which are more likely coincidental that intentional you won't find it as a theme for the music or artworks. You might have had some Australian shuffle dancers using the sign as a part of their imagery, but those people have nothing to do with the actual music scene, they barely contributed to it in any way except some cheesy dance videos which never had any sort of relevance to the music itself. You have a wrong idea about the symbols in hardstyle scene If you are looking for some real symbols, truly representing the scene, you want to look in the direction of Qlimax, Defqon1 or Q-Dance logos.

Not entirely true. The first editions of Defqon were all about (nuclear) waste, e.g. Biological Insanity, Scrap Attack, Get Wasted, No Time To Waste. Maybe the ones you mentioned got their ideas from this

This, plus festivals like Ground Zero which are themed around that.
But as ceero mentionned it, it's merely coincidenial I think.

[Segugio]

Defqon.1 is a play on DEFCON 1, which in the US Dept. of Defense means that nuclear war is imminent. It also means the nation should be at maximum force readiness, which means all military units mobilized and ready to deploy. The individual events are always themed more towards fallout, so it seems like we weren't all that prepared. We're always placed in some sort of wasteland, surrounded by scrap, which is simulated quite nicely each June. We form tribes and chant about post-apocalyptic monsters. It's not much of a stretch for people to use the biohazard symbol.