Unpopular opinions

[Ferren]

This is a real grudge I have that made many artists boring to me for several years.
For me, a DJ is supposed to surprise me and give me new horizon on tracks and artists.
This has not really been the case for the last 10 years or so. People just play their inhouse productions.
Is that wrong? No. Is it wrong to call their set a DJ set? Yes.
They are more or less performing a live act with their latest and unreleased work.

That is why I always looked up to DJ's that are less producer focused (Dana, Pavo etc), because you will never know how their tracklist will turn up or what new tunes or artist you will discover and impact your during the set.

Now it is 30min of Sub Zero productions, 30min of Zatox productions and so forth.
So no, I would not call it a DJ-set. Call it a Artist performance or a Live act.

I would love to see Q-Dance events with more focus on DJ's and not artists.

[Puszek]

This is a real grudge I have that made many artists boring to me for several years.
For me, a DJ is supposed to surprise me and give me new horizon on tracks and artists.
This has not really been the case for the last 10 years or so. People just play their inhouse productions.
Is that wrong? No. Is it wrong to call their set a DJ set? Yes.
They are more or less performing a live act with their latest and unreleased work.

That is why I always looked up to DJ's that are less producer focused (Dana, Pavo etc), because you will never know how their tracklist will turn up or what new tunes or artist you will discover and impact your during the set.

Now it is 30min of Sub Zero productions, 30min of Zatox productions and so forth.
So no, I would not call it a DJ-set. Call it a Artist performance or a Live act.

I would love to see Q-Dance events with more focus on DJ's and not artists.

[battlejellyfish]

I agree with you and your wishes wholeheartedly dude but the demands are not really favoring this direction. It seems people are much more focusing on the visual experience and/or what new tracks their favorite producers play. Can't think of anything else than supporting the ones you want to, especially in these times (Geck-o as a reasonable choice, maybe?)

[Tomix]

Geck-o as a reasonable choice, maybe?

Dude, look at his (listen actually) recent mixes (all time mixes probably). There is more skill and creativity stuffed into those than a whole night of Q event in terms of DJing, past few years

[Alex149]

To be fair, I dont think the Artists nowadays refer to themselves as DJ's still - and indeed more as you say as "Artist". Almost no one still has a "DJ" in his artist name. Although I understand it is debatable whether just playing your tracks like a DJ makes it sufficient to be called a "live experience".

I just think its safe to say there are barely any "full" succesful DJ's in the hardstyle scene anymore.

[Ferren]

I just think its safe to say there are barely any "full" succesful DJ's in the hardstyle scene anymore.

Hardstyle is not really a "DJ-genre" anymore. 25sec intro and 25 outro with a echo bass break that removes all opportunities to blend in two tracks for a longer period of time? Fair enough, this is nothing really new, but Hardstyle is meant for Radio and not DJ's.

The most successful DJ in Hardstyle right now is Spotify, and damn she's good, she even take requests.

I agree with you and your wishes wholeheartedly dude but the demands are not really favoring this direction.

This is true, but then again, that is why I don't care so much anymore, I stick with my Early Hardstyle gig on Twitch, I just hope there will be a change perhaps in the future.

(Geck-o as a reasonable choice, maybe?)

Geck-o is awesome, not a fan of his productions though but he is really a DJ with his creativity and choice of tunes.

[Gommes_]

Yeah I always disliked that about the scene. When hardstyle started they played all kinds of tracks, mixing jump, hardstyle and closed with hardcore. Now they only play their own tracks or tracks from their label. It's really boring and other genres do it so much better! The worst is that new talents who are not signed yet barely get pushed by other artists.

[DjThera]

It's indeed all about what the (bigger) crowd wants. I personally also LOVE LOVE LOVE dj's that are actually creative with track choice, transitions etc and I also always try to make it something special and different.

Most of the people just don't really care for it and in the end it's all about demand. If more people would start really support the artists they love in stead of focusing only the things they hate (and therefor give that more attention which actually makes it even more popular), that would be great..!

[Ferren]

Most of the people just don't really care for it and in the end it's all about demand. If more people would start really support the artists they love in stead of focusing only the things they hate (and therefor give that more attention which actually makes it even more popular), that would be great..!

I'm not part of the establishment or a big time producer or famous, but as a Hardstyle follower since 2002, I have the following philosophy about Hardstyle in general;

It has always been a "mainstream" genre that target young audience. There is a reason why almost everyone starts listen to Hardstyle when they are 13-15 years old (I'm one of that category). Hardstyle is about taking a light mainstreams sound and do it with a hard approach.

Back in the day Hardstyle took influence from Trance 'n techno and it appeal to people who wanted it harder.
Today Hardstyle takes influence from EDM (Big Room etc) and takes it on a harder approach.

Hardstyle has always been that genre that takes what's famous at the moment and throws in the distorted kicks and melodies. Is that wrong? Of course not, that is the fundamental of Hardstyle, that has always been it's establishment as a genre in the big music world since the beginning and that is what I fell in love with.

2008-2015 was a interesting time though in Hardstyle. It was then Hardstyle was stuck between two worlds; The old sound and the Big room sound. It combined and it was really interesting. After that Hardstyle left it roots and became more focused on what is right now.

Feels like right now people see Hardstyle as a genre that came about in 2009 an that offends me, when events announce Early Hardstyle and starts playing Noisecontrollers and Zany from 2012 makes me sick.
But that is what I get for being an old relic of the past

Anyway, I don't say that this is true, this is just my take on it, for better or for worse .

[battlejellyfish]

If more people would start really support the artists they love in stead of focusing only the things they hate (and therefor give that more attention which actually makes it even more popular), that would be great..!

That's okay but I guess it also depends on what type of negative comment that certain artist gets. I have nothing really to add to simple hateful ones saying "fuck HHz" or "euphoric/raw is shit why does it exist" other than it's going in circles uselessly. I mean, I get it, you don't like it but maybe giving some time to express the reasons?

But I honestly feel like it's also not really "worth" taking part in a bit more subtle conversation if the aim is to change the artists' mind or put some pressure on him/her. Not going to work. I think the artist's decision about what style they're working in is strong enough not to be changed by couple of critical comments. "Mental warfare" (if I can put this way) is only successful when the artist feels like he/she is capable of creating something whichever tracks the critical part of the crowd points to. But it should be clear when a producer passes that point so it's useless anymore to keep asking the very same questions regarding to the old style they did. And I think the best thing artists can come up with is a mix filled with his old tracks and/or favorites in that case and that's it.

I have also tried producing as a hobby without any bigger success - I have no idea how I'm able to finish anything if I get bored of what I do after a few hours because I'm not satisfied already lol I think it would be a good idea to present a producer masterclass with a more crowd-friendly way besides targeting guys who actually want to produce. With the producers' inner motives. Maybe some people would realize how it might be so easy to ask such a seemingly simple question to come back to some previous style and see how it's hard from the producers side to do so.