Hardstyle, in the United Kingdom sometimes referred to as hardbass, is a genre of electronic dance music that is closely related to hardcore and hard trance. Being a fusion of both hard trance and hardcore (also known as gabber), hardstyle is grouped in the hard dance section. Its sound is usually characterized by a four to the floor kick beat and an off-beat gabber style bass line, hard trance like synth stabs and sweeps and miscellaneous samples. Tracks often feature excessive reverb and/or other effects, breakdowns and occasionally small breakbeat sections. The average tempo is between 130 and 150 bpm, around 30 slower than nu style gabber.
