Hard house has an unprocessed punchy kick, while hardstyle has a distorted long-tail kick and reverse bass

Hard house and hardstyle are frequently confused, partly because some club nights and events play both, and because hardstyle has far wider exposure across western Europe while hard house has only ever had a limited audience outside the UK, Australia and South Africa — so far more new hardstyle is released. The genres are nonetheless distinct: hard house is built around the off-beat bass stab as its hook and uses a punchy (not distorted-tail) kick, whereas hardstyle centres on a distorted, tuned long-tail kick and a distorted reverse-pitch bass. The discriminating cue is the kick transient and whether the hook is an off-beat stab or the kick tail.

Examples

A Roland TR-909 kick compressed hard = hard house kick. A processed, pitch-bent, distorted long kick with a tuned falling tail = hardstyle kick. The difference is audible in the first 200 ms of the transient.

Assessment

Listen to one hard house track and one hardstyle track at the same BPM. Without looking at labels, identify which is which by describing the kick’s transient shape and the bass approach. Articulate the rule you used.