Happy Hardcore

Happy Hardcore, also known as happy rave or happycore, is a genre of hard dance typified by a very fast tempo (usually around 160–180 BPM),often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of hardcore, which tend to be "darker". It is typically in a major key. In its original incarnation, it was often characterized by piano riffs, synthetic stabs and spacey effects.

The genre of music is closely related to the typically Dutch genre of gabber. Happy hardcore evolved from breakbeat hardcore around 1991–1993, as the original house music-based rave became faster and began to include breakbeats, one evolving into oldschool jungle which evolved into Drum And Bass and the other into UK Hardcore, with a 'harder' style and less breakbeat. Some of the most famous artists of this genre include Scott Brown, Darren Styles, Hixxy and Sharkey.

Links To Peel
Peel was a fan of Happy Hardcore and on his 05 February 2003 show enthused about the music:


 * "We're just mad for this stuff here on this programme, I have to say, because it is so much in the spirit of where popular music has been since the days of Elvis. Elvis would have understood this I think because people curl their lips at it and say it's uncool. We think it's fantastic."

Around the mid 90's, Peel started playing the music when it evolved from breakbeat hardcore, which he would often play on his shows. In 1996, Scott Brown was the first happy hardcore artist to do a Peel Session, also in the same year, listeners voted Fireworks by Happy Hardcore artists DJ Force & Styles, at number 30 in the 1996 Festive Fifty. Peel called the track the most requested record of the year and even asked DJ's to play it on Sheila's 50th birthday in 1998.

In 2000, Peel nominated DJ Kaos' Hold Me Now, a Happy Hardcore track that sampled vocals from Chicago's 'Hard To Say I'm Sorry' for his Peelenium 1996.

When the music evolved into UK Hardcore in the 00's, Peel continued playing songs from that genre, some of them got into the Festive Fifty including the 2003 Festive Fifty track called "John Peel (Is Not Enough)" by CLSM reaching number 9, which even surprised Peel himself on the high entry. The record started the campaign to get UK Hardcore music their own show on BBC Radio One, which resulted in 2005 a monthly show and then a weekly show from 2008. Many of the UK Hardcore artists including Darren Styles, Hixxy and Sharkey had session sets on Peel's show between 2003 and 2004.