A nightcore edit is a version of a track that increases the pitch and speeds up its source material by approximately 35%. This gives an effect almost identical to playing a
33⅓-RPM vinyl record at
45 RPM. This 35% increase in
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
causes the note
C4 to become slightly lower in pitch than the note
F#4 (261.63 Hz becomes 353.19 Hz) which is an increase of approximately 5 and a half
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
s.
The name is derived from the Norwegian musical duo Nightcore, which released pitch-shifted versions of
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 ...
and
eurodance songs. Nightcore is also commonly associated and accompanied with
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
and
otaku
is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...
culture, with many
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
thumbnails of nightcore remixes containing anime characters and art.
History
2000s: Origins
The term nightcore was first used in 2001 as the name for a school project by
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
DJ duo Thomas S. Nilsen and Steffen Ojala Søderholm, known by their stage names DJ TNT and DJ SOS respectively. The name Nightcore means "we are the core of the night, so you'll dance all night long", stated in its website named "''Nightcore is Hardcore''".
The two were influenced by pitch-shifted vocals in German group
Scooter's hardcore songs "
Nessaja
"Nessaja" is a song written by Peter Maffay and Rolf Zuckowski from the musical '' Tabaluga'' released in 1983 on the album ''Tabaluga oder die Reise zur Vernunft''. German band Scooter released a version as single on 8 April 2002. It features a ...
" and "
Ramp! (The Logical Song)", stating in an interview that "There were so few of these kinds of artists, we thought that mixing music in our style would be a pleasure for us to listen to" and "Nightcore has become a style of music, a way to make the music happier – 'happy hardcore' as they say."
The duo set a template of a track in the style: a 25–30% speed-up (commonly to around 160 to 180
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 ...
) of a
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 ...
or
eurodance song.
The nightcore music has been compared to
happy 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 1990 ...
and
bubblegum bass
Hyperpop is a loosely-defined music movement and microgenre that predominantly originated in the United Kingdom during the early-to-mid 2010s. It is characterized by a maximalist or exaggerated take on popular music, and artists within the genre ...
because of its fast tempos, energetic feel, and high-pitched vocals.
[Harshman, Heath (July 25, 2015)]
"Why We Welcome Nightcore As The Next Breakout Genre"
. Dance Music Northwest. Retrieved September 18, 2016. Nightcore made five albums of sped-up versions of trance recordings, including its 2002 thirteen-track debut album ''Energized'' and the group’s later albums ''Summer Edition 2002'', ''L'hiver'', ''Sensación'' and ''Caliente''.
The group’s first album was made with
eJay
''eJay'' is a series of musical arrangement software, and video games, primarily for Microsoft Windows. The first edition, ''Dance eJay'', was released in 1997. It supports eight tracks of audio and, as with its successors, permits the arrangemen ...
, while all of its later work was made with what the duo described as "top-secret" programs.
All of its records were sold to their friends and DJs around the group’s area.
[Fan Fiction (August 7, 2015)]
"Nest HQ's Guide to Nightcore"
. Nest HQ. Owsla
Owsla (stylized in all caps) is an American record label and creative collective. It was founded by Skrillex, Tim Smith, Kathryn Frazier, and Clayton Blaha in 2011. Skrillex announced the label on August 17, 2011. The label's first release was ...
. Retrieved September 18, 2016. Nightcore's works started appearing on services such as
LimeWire
LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of pirated materials, particularly pirated mus ...
in mid-2003 and
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
in 2006. The first nightcore track to appear on the latter site was "Dam Dadi Doo" by the duo. Only two of the project's albums have surfaced on the Internet.
One of the first people to distribute nightcore music on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
was a user going by the name Maikel631, beginning in 2008. The user uploaded about 30 original tracks by Nightcore on the Web site. In 2009, they found a "new" nightcore track, as well as the technique to make material in the style:
2010s: Popularity
One of the first major nightcore videos was for
Rockefeller Street, a song by
Getter Jaani
Getter Jaani (born 3 February 1993) is an Estonian singer and actress. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song " Rockefeller Street".
Early life
Getter was born and raised in Tallinn. In 2015, she graduated n ...
that was performed at
Eurovision 2011
The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...
. The song became an internet meme after the nightcore version was posted to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
by a user known as Andrea, who was known as an ''
Osu!
''Osu!'' (stylized as ''osu!'') is a free-to-play rhythm game primarily developed, published, and created by Dean "peppy" Herbert. Inspired by iNiS' rhythm game ''Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan'', it was written in C Sharp (programming language), C# ...
'' player.
From there, the music rose in popularity with more people applying the nightcore treatment to more non-dance genres such as
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...
and
hip hop. Many of the pioneer uploaders of nightcore including Maikel631 have called these non-dance edits "fake".
The nightcore scene then crossed over to
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...
with the help of artist lilangelboi, who had released around ten to fifteen edits on the service before signing with Manicure Records. The head of Manicure, Tom "Ghibli" Mike, recalled, "I just got totally obsessed with it. I put up that one he did, "Light"; we had him up here to DJ a few parties; and then he moved here. That was totally how nightcore became a thing for us."
The label's #MANICURED playlist consisted of nightcore renditions of
K-pop and
electro house
Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aok ...
tracks, a few of them also incorporating production techniques outside of pitch-shifting and speeding up the source material, such as "Mile High" by Chipped Nails and Ponibbi and "Fave Hours" by F I J I.
By the mid-2010s, the nightcore scene had garnered attention from musicians such as
Djemba Djemba, Maxo and Harrison,
Nina Las Vegas,
Ryan Hemsworth
Ryan Hemsworth (born 23 April 1990) is a Canadian record producer and DJ. He specialises in electronic music and sampling. He has produced tracks for Tinashe, Tory Lanez, Mitski, and E-40.
Biography
Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Hemsworth a ...
,
Lido
Lido may refer to:
Geography Africa
* Lido, a district in the city of Fez, Morocco
Asia
* Lido, an area in Chaoyang District, Beijing
* Lido, a cinema theater in Siam Square shopping area in Bangkok
* Lido City, a resort in West Java owned by MN ...
, Moistbreezy, and
PC Music
PC Music is a record label and art collective based in London and run by producer A. G. Cook. It was founded in 2013, making its music available on SoundCloud that year. Artists on its roster have included Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, Danny L Harle ...
founders
Danny L Harle
Daniel Jack Eisner Harle is a British music producer and composer who records under the alias Danny L Harle. He was formerly signed to the London-based PC Music label and is a member of Dux Content with A. G. Cook. He has produced, composed, a ...
and
A. G. Cook
Alexander Guy Cook (born 23 August 1990) is an English music producer, singer, songwriter and the head of the UK record label PC Music.
Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah ...
.
Harle and Cook have claimed nightcore to be influences in interviews,
the former saying in an interview,
A
Thump writer described it as the "groundwork for some of the most innovative club music today" and wrote that it also led to a number of "awful"
internet memes
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
:
Dance Music Northwest described nightcore as "too catchy, too danceable, and far too much fun to not welcome into the dance music mainstream."
David Turner of
MTV described a nightcore remix of "
7 Years" by
Lukas Graham
Lukas Graham is a Danish pop band consisting of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lukas Forchhammer, bassist Magnus Larsson, and drummer Mark Falgren. The band released their first album, '' Lukas Graham'', with labels Copenhagen Records ...
as the same as "the normal
..song" and "
plagiarism."
2020s: TikTok
As social media platform
TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version o ...
rose to prominence in the 2020s, music magazine ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' noted: "Much of the music that performs well on TikTok has been modified slightly, either sped-up or slowed-down." ''Pitchfork'' quoted one nightcore TikTok creator: "Editors really enjoy sped-up music because edits with sped-up audios are much more energetic and interesting to watch."
See also
*
Chopped and screwed
Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a music genre and technique of remixing music that involves slowing down the tempo and deejaying. It developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the early 1990s by D ...
*
Audio time stretching and pitch scaling
Time stretching is the process of changing the speed or duration of an audio signal without affecting its pitch. Pitch scaling is the opposite: the process of changing the pitch without affecting the speed. Pitch shift is pitch scaling implement ...
*
Vaporwave
Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music fro ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Internet culture
Electronic music genres
Internet memes
Internet memes introduced in 2001