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Speedcore is a form of
electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
that is characterized by a high
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
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 drops below 300
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 ( ...
(bpm). Earlier speedcore tracks often averaged at about 250 bpm, which could be defined as terror(core), whereas some tracks exceed 1000 bpm where it becomes known as extratone.


Characteristics

Aside from the very fast tempo, which rarely drops below the 300 bpm mark, speedcore can often be distinguished from other forms of
hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
by an aggressive and overridden electronic percussion track that is often punctuated with a hyperactive snare or tom-tom fills. Most producers will overdrive their kicks so far that they become square waves. Speedcore
DJs A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...
often use violent, vulgar, and offensive themes in their music to push the boundaries of the genre. Since the 2000s, the use of
digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...
s (DAWs) has grown versus the use of analog synthesizers or trackers.


History


Origins (1992–1993)

Speedcore is a natural progression of hardcore techno. Hardcore was already considered fast, however, there were those who were not content to stay at the established speed. Early speedcore was about pushing the limits of bpm and aggression level. One of the first songs to explore higher speeds was "
Thousand 1000 or one thousand is the natural number following 999 and preceding 1001. In most English-speaking countries, it can be written with or without a comma or sometimes a period separating the thousands digit: 1,000. A group of one thousand th ...
" by
Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...
in 1992, which peaked at approximately 1,015 bpm.


Early speedcore (1994–1999)

The term speedcore in reference to high tempo hardcore/gabber can be traced as far back as 1995. Many believe that Disciples Of Annihilation created the name of the genre with their track N.Y.C. Speedcore and Ya Mutha II. It was not until the early 2000s that the genre was commonly referred to as speedcore. Before then, many tracks that would be considered speedcore were referred to as " gabba".


Spread (early 2000s)

The early 2000s saw the birth of many
netlabel A netlabel (also online label, web label, digi label, MP3 label or download label) is a record label that distributes its music through digital audio formats (such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, or WAV) over the Internet. While similar to traditiona ...
s dedicated to speedcore. Many labels who produced vinyls were also publishing
mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
s on their websites, which became increasingly popular and made it easier for new producers to enter the scene.


Internet growth (2010s)

The 2010s had a large growth in netlabels. DAWs made it cheaper and easier for new musicians to make experimental music. The internet allowed producers from around the world to communicate with each other and share their works through netlabels.
Compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
s became very popular for artists to share their music as they could get more exposure than by themselves. A large portion of the speedcore scene now occurs online from netlabels to speedcore promotion channels on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, 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 ...
. Speedcore was no longer restrained to localized areas by where raves occurred and vinyls were released.


Subgenres


Splittercore

Speedcore is often called splittercore when the bpm is between 600 and 1,000. Splittercore is identified by its
minigun The M134 Minigun is an American 7.62×51mm NATO six-barrel rotary machine gun with a high rate of fire (2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute). It features a Gatling-style rotating barrel assembly with an external power source, normally an electric ...
sounding kicks. In the 1990s splittercore was sometimes referred to as nosebleed Techno.


Flashcore

Flashcore is a genre that grew out of speedcore and industrial hardcore. While being originally related to speedcore, flashcore is defined by its complex avant-garde structures and abstract sounds, making it more similar to
electroacoustic music Electroacoustic music is a genre of popular and Western art music in which composers use technology to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds, sometimes by using audio signal processing, such as reverb or harmonizing, on acoustical instrumen ...
and
experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...
rather than any
EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...
genre. Most of the genre's works focus on intense, rhythmic, and layered soundscapes.


Extratone

Songs with a bpm of 1000 or higher are known as extratone songs. At this tempo, the kicks happen so fast that the beat sounds like one constant note with a shifting pitch; extratone often has sudden increases or decreases in tempo to change the pitch of the tone. Extratone originates from combining the two German words ''extrahieren'' (to extract) and ''ton'' (sound).


See also

*
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 ...


References

{{Hardcore dance music-footer 20th-century music genres Hardcore music genres