Nustyle Appreciation Thread

[Doctor Dave]

For me personally I'd say the Nustyle era was around 2006 - 2010, with the emergence and rise of more complex melodies and distorted kicks that change note to match those melodies

Although when I think Nustyle I think of the less polished sound so maybe 2010 is a bit late, but that's just IMO of course

[battlejellyfish]

While I can't see the dates of all these youtube tracks, is Nustyle this 2008-2010 era BEFORE you can truly call them early Rawstyle and Euphoric? OR are these early examples of both?

I'm even troubled with these but I think "nustyle" can almost be used interchangeably with today's "classic hardstyle" label. Afaik back in the days it was called nustyle because you "had to" make a clear difference (with bad intentions? idk) between stuff that was started and popularized by Headhunterz from around 2006-07 and anything before that. Classic hardstyle came in much later when the 2006-12 era and stuff after became kinda incomparable.

But there are many guys listening to hardstyle way longer than me here who were there in the right time so they might know better

[The Blaster]

you're going to get very different answers but for me starting with donkey rollers - immeasurably up to 2012. more or less 2007-2011, 'bouncy' and 'jumpy' as opposed to what followed in 2012 with euphoric which was more 'flat' especially characterized, but not always, by a reverse bass mid in/outro. By 2012, mainparts still maintained what was left over from 2010-2011, but lost the connection to reverse bass. once that fell, I think you have a new (sub) genre. I'd use Da tweekaz - break the spell as an example.

It is for me, maybe not for everyone, that transition between holding on to the past to create something new. 'Nu' is just the perfect characterisation. I'm not sure it's connection to trance because the entirety of the genre draws influences from trance, stylistically closer to trance than to core, always has been and there's been many waves of the genres coming together and moving apart and using different influences, different parts of tracks.

I'd say music made addict is the most perfect example of nustyle

[ceero]

I would define nu-style as a very specific sound that arose around 2007, was drastically different to what was the standard of the genre back then and which quickly dominated the entire scene and pretty much effectively pushed the previous hardstyle sound away (which made a large part of hardstyle's old fanbase hate it). I don't even think I would strictly define it through the track structure intro-breakdown-melody-climax-outro. In that case not Immeasurably, but Technoboy's War Machine from 2003 would be the first nu-style tune but I don't think anyone would classify that tune as nu-style. No, I think it's the easiest to define it through the soundbanks, kicks, FXs etc. Metallic 'tok' kicks, triplet rhytm, a lot longer breakdowns, generally this more 'plastic' sound. This tune is imo the perfect example of what nu-style is

Spoiler

Compare it the sound of it to typical a tune from just a couple of years earlier (picking up a melodic tune on a purpose)

Spoiler

[DjVero]

This is how I see hardstyle during its 20+ years of existance.

2000 - 2001 = Hardtrance
2002 - 2005/2006 = Early Hardstyle
2006 - 2012 = Nu-Style
2012 - 2017 = Early Raw + a new kind of Nu-Style (it wasn't really the same style as the years before)
2018 - present = Current Raw + Euphoric

Note 1: The years I've given are a rough guess since there are overlapping tracks of course. It's not like the genre drastically changed overnight each time, but 2006 saw a clear rise of melodic tracks, including a whole lot of new artists that jumped on the bandwagon. Same happened with the rise of raw around 2012, again with a new range of artists.

Note 2: Maybe you could classify Sub Zero Project (and similar tracks) as its own style since like 2019, 2020 something, as they basically filled the at that time huuuge gap between Raw and Euphoric.

[[]]

Been a fan forever and never heard this one for some reason. It's been on replay all week and I'm not getting tired of it. That's what underground Hardstyle can that pop Hardstyle can't.

[ceero]

^Ooooohhh yes, that's such a beautiful tune. Together with that other collab of theirs it was released together with. Havent heard this in literal ages, thanks for reminding! A true forgotten gem

[ceero]

Let's bump this! I think the stuff Geck-O made during early 2010's is criminally underrated. Yeah, it might be debatable if his stuff could be called nu-style, but certainly there were a couple of tunes. Oh god, how I can't get enough of these tunes even after all those years I do wish he made a bit more of the 'conventional hardstyle' tunes these days

[Soundphase]

[ThePrincipal]

past 2009 isn't nustyle to me. 2010 onwards is euphoric even if in that same bouncy feel as nustyle.

It was a useful term, not really useful or helpful now. 2007-2012 is all just classic hardstyle now lol