Frenchcore is a subgenre of
hardcore techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...
. The style differs from other forms of hardcore in terms of a faster tempo, usually above 190-250 BPM, and a loud & distorted offbeat bassline.
In the 1990s,
drum machines and
samplers were used to make this style. As technology developed,
DAWs such as
Ableton
Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. ...
and
Cubase
Cubase is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Steinberg for music and MIDI recording, arranging and editing. The first version, which was originally only a MIDI sequencer and ran on the Atari ST computer, was released in 1989. Cut-dow ...
became the standard for production. Modern frenchcore is often performed with live musical performers and sampling alongside a DJ set.
History
Frenchcore is a product of the
rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
and
freetekno
Freetekno is a cultural movement that is present in Europe, Australia and North America. Freetekno sound systems or tribes form in loose collectives, frequently with anarchist philosophies. These sound systems join to hold parties wherever a ...
scenes in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
dating back to the mid-1990s. The first frenchcore act, Micropoint, was founded by DJ Radium and Al Core in 1992. In 1994, DJ Radium focused on his solo career and became known as the most significant contributor to the genre in the late 1990s. He founded Psychik Genocide, one of the first frenchcore labels. Radium eventually became a touring artist and performed across
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The genre remained underground for many years, being based mostly in France and Italy with artists as Androgyn Network, The Sickest Squad, Psiko, Maissouille, X-Fly and DOM.
In the second half of the 2000s the genre, which initially relied on
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
loops, percussion, vocal chops and rhythmic effects, started to develop an alternative melodic and psychedelic style, influenced by
UK hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. ...
and
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
music. This trend, initially experimented with by artists such as The Speed Freak, Hunterwolf and Roms, took a different direction from the classic frenchcore sound pioneered by DJ Radium.
The 2010s saw the reinvention of frenchcore, the rise of new artists, and a heavy Dutch influence as the genre became increasingly more popular in the Netherlands. In 2011, the first edition of "Frenchcore S'il Vous Plait" took place in
Culemborg
Culemborg () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands. The city had a population of 29,386 on 1 January 2022 and is situated just south of the Lek river. Direct train lines run from the railway station towards the cities of U ...
; 2012's edition of
Thunderdome, the world's biggest hardcore festival, had an area dedicated exclusively to frenchcore. In 2014,
Defqon.1
Defqon.1 Weekend Festival is an annual music festival held in the Netherlands. In the past, it was also held in Chile and Australia. Founded in 2003 by festival organizer Q-dance, the festival plays mostly hardstyle and related genres such as Ha ...
, the world's largest hardstyle festival, added a frenchcore stage for the first time.
![Peacockinconcert](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Peacockinconcert.jpg)
The releases on Peacock Records deepened the shift in the genre to an even more harmonic and modern sound created by younger producers. In 2016, modern frenchcore's popularity expanded beyond Europe for the first time when
Dr. Peacock
Stefan Petrus Dekker (born 31 July 1988), better known by his stage name Dr. Peacock, is a Dutch frenchcore DJ and record producer. He has performed on the main stages of major festivals like Thunderdome (music festival), Thunderdome, Defqon.1, ...
toured through the United States with performances in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
and
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. Dr. Peacock also performed in
Sydney, Australia
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...
that same year.
Several members of Peacock Records started taking more inspiration from
hardstyle
Hardstyle is an electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and hardcore.
Early hardstyle was typically written at 140 BPM (''beat ...
artists and calling their genre "Euphoric frenchcore" around the year 2016. With the new melodic influence in the genre, the style began to appeal to listeners of hardstyle. Many frenchcore artists began experimenting with the integration of live instruments in their performances, as opposed to performances only using DJ equipment. The genre's popularity grew rapidly when Dr. Peacock's 17 year old protégé Sefa released his first album "Leven is Lijden" in 2018. The album introduced many hardstyle fans to frenchcore, and Sefa began to perform at major hardstyle festivals regularly.
Frenchcore's presence at harder styles festivals grew in the year 2018. Dr. Peacock performed on the main stage of Defqon.1 and closed out
Qlimax
Qlimax is an annual hardstyle and hard dance event in the Netherlands. It is a major attraction held by Q-dance, and considered to be one of the leading hardstyle events, attracting nearly 30,000 people annually. It contains some of the most sophi ...
,
Q-dance's yearly indoor event at the
Gelredome
The GelreDome () is a football stadium in the city of Arnhem, Netherlands. It is one of the largest and most modern stadiums in the country, built from 1996 to 1998 at a cost equivalent to €75 million, that opened on 25 March 1998. The stadium ...
. He was the first artist to play a frenchcore set in the event's history. In 2019, Sefa was responsible for the first frenchcore Defqon.1 anthem, and performed the closing set of the festival.
The music industry suffered significant losses due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
in 2020, causing many events to happen virtually. Dr. Peacock performed with live musicians at the
Pyramid of Austerlitz
The Pyramid of Austerlitz is a 36-metre-high pyramid of earth, built in 1804 by Napoleon's soldiers on one of the highest points of the Utrecht Hill Ridge, in the municipality of Woudenberg, the Netherlands. Atop the pyramid is a stone obelisk fr ...
as part of the virtual edition of Defqon.1, and Sefa performed in a hot air balloon as part of
Mysteryland
Mysteryland is the leading electronic dance music festival in the Netherlands, organized by the Netherlands-based promoter ID&T. Being the first of its kind in the country when it was established, its organizers have billed the event as the o ...
's virtual edition. That summer,
Masters of Hardcore
Masters of Hardcore is the name of a Dutch hardcore music label and of its related music festival events.
Label
Masters of Hardcore music label was founded in 1995 in the Hemkade in Zaandam by DJ Outblast and King Matthew.
Bass-D & King Matthe ...
launched a new euphoric frenchcore label in collaboration with Re-Style, Rapture Records. In the fall of 2020, Q-dance released their first film Qlimax: The Source, which features a frenchcore section produced by Sefa. The film was added to
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
on December 22.
In 2021, Dr. Peacock & Sefa performed with several live musicians on the Dutch sailboat ''De Vrijheid'' on the
IJsselmeer
The IJsselmeer (; fy, Iselmar, nds-nl, Iesselmeer), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed off inland bay in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with an a ...
as part of Defqon.1 at Home. A few days later, they played a 30 minute frenchcore set on Dutch national radio station
SLAM!. In the end of the summer, Sefa performed frenchcore sets at multiple Unmute Us protests in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
in protest of the Dutch government's treatment of the entertainment sector during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The protests filled the streets of Amsterdam with 70,000 protestors. At the
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
edition of the protests in September, frenchcore & uptempo event organization BKJN Events organised a full lineup of frenchcore and uptempo music at the protest.
Style and performance
![Frenchcore soundsystem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Frenchcore_soundsystem.png)
Frenchcore is characterized first and foremost by its fast tempo and offbeat distorted bassline. Frenchcore, like most forms of electronic dance music, was initially only produced in 4/4 time. The style has recently developed to include different
time signature
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
s such as 3/4 and 5/8 and more advanced compositions influenced by classical music.
Since the mid 2010s, tracks became more harmonic through the use of pitched kick & bass, just like
hardstyle
Hardstyle is an electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and hardcore.
Early hardstyle was typically written at 140 BPM (''beat ...
or
mainstream hardcore
Mainstream hardcore, mainstyle, nu style gabber or newstyle hardcore is a subgenre of hardcore techno. The essence of mainstream hardcore sound is a distorted bass drum sound, overdriven to the point where it becomes clipped into a distorted s ...
. A frenchcore track typically either has a melody accompanied with the kick & bass harmonically, or the kick & bass on its own in a rhythm focused form.
Tempo wise, frenchcore is usually performed at around 200
beats per minute
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery ( ...
with variation. Since frenchcore tracks are produced at different tempos and performers have to account for their timeslots and different types of events, the tempos within a frenchcore set can vary from 180 BPM all the way to 220 or more, with artists sometimes ending their performances with terror or
speedcore
Speedcore is a form of electronic music that is characterized by a high tempo and aggressive themes. It was created in the early to mid-1990s and the name originates from the hardcore genre as well as the high-speed tempo used. This music rarely ...
. Since uptempo hardcore lies in a similar BPM range, frenchcore artists sometimes mix in uptempo tracks into their sets. Artists from both genres often perform on stage side by side together mixing both genres in one set.
Initially, frenchcore was performed by a
DJ or a
sound system (see
free tekno
Free tekno, also known as tekno, freetekno and hardtek, is the music predominantly played at free parties in Europe. The spelling of the word tekno is made to deliberately differentiate the musical style from that of techno. The music is fast ...
) playing
vinyl record
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...
s. The genre could be heard at
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
s or
teknival
Teknivals (the word is a portmanteau of the words tekno and festival) are large free parties which take place for several days. They take place most often in Europe and are often illegal under various national or regional laws. They vary in size ...
s. Modern frenchcore performances often take place at nightclubs,
concert halls
A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats.
This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that ma ...
or
music festivals
A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or hol ...
, are now much more commercial and performed on standard DJ equipment. They also sometimes feature extra instruments to add a live element to the show.
See also
*
Dr. Peacock
Stefan Petrus Dekker (born 31 July 1988), better known by his stage name Dr. Peacock, is a Dutch frenchcore DJ and record producer. He has performed on the main stages of major festivals like Thunderdome (music festival), Thunderdome, Defqon.1, ...
*
Hakken
Hakken (sometimes Hakkûh) is a form of rave dance originating from the Dutch hardcore and gabber scene. The dance is very similar to earlier European folk dance and is thought to be a sub form of zapateo with less airborne moves (unlike jumpst ...
*
Hardstyle
Hardstyle is an electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and hardcore.
Early hardstyle was typically written at 140 BPM (''beat ...
*
List of gabber artists This is a list of notable gabber artists and DJs.
* 3 Steps Ahead - Netherlands
* Angerfist - Netherlands
* Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo - Netherlands
* Critical Mass - Netherlands
* Brutalismus 3000 - Germany
* DJ Paul Elstak - Netherlands ...
*
List of electronic music genres
This is a list of electronic music genres, consisting of genres of electronic music, primarily created with electronic musical instruments or electronic music technology. A distinction has been made between sound produced using electromechanical ...
Notes
{{Electronica
Hardcore music genres
Dutch styles of music
21st-century music genres
1990s in music
2000s in music
2010s in music
2020s in music
hu:Hardcore techno#Szubkultúra