What is Nightcore?

For Nightcore discussion in general.
Watch4FallingRock
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by Watch4FallingRock » July 16th, 2014, 2:48 pm

I don't mean to offend anyone by asking this, but what criteria makes nightcore a genre? I'm kinda curious.
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Fernandez
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by Fernandez » July 17th, 2014, 1:38 am

Watch4FallingRock wrote:I don't mean to offend anyone by asking this, but what criteria makes nightcore a genre? I'm kinda curious.
I think that nightcore is a genre because it has a distinctive sound. To me, it's more the sound than the method that determines whether or not a form of music is a genre. Sure, all you need to do is increase the speed of a techno song to make nightcore, but the sound you get feels very different from what you started out with.

I would even say that nightcore is different from happy hardcore (its closest similarity). I just happened to listen to a mix of nightcore and happy hardcore, and I would say that I heard some differences. Happy hardcore, despite its name, tended to have rough "choppy/cutting" bass kicks. With nightcore on the other hand, those same kicks felt more smooth and bouncy.

Another argument I sometimes hear is that nightcore isn't a genre because you are using someone else's song. But keep in mind that a piece of music need not be completely original to be assigned a genre. If you make a metal cover of a rap song, your cover has a genre: metal. If you make a dubstep remix of a country song, your remix has a genre: dubstep.

If you work with someone else song and manipulate/remix it and come out with a new distinctive sound, you could very well have produced a new genre.

Thus, I think a genre of music where all songs are remixes of someone else's songs is plausible.

To sum up, I think it's more about the sound than the method that determines if a form of music is a genre. In my opinion, nightcore does have a sound distinct enough to qualify as a genre.
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Tennessee Titans
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by Tennessee Titans » September 18th, 2014, 9:56 pm

What happened to the Nightcore group from 2003-2011?

Nightcore doesn't seem to have released any new tracks since 2012, but at least they post on their Facebook page now.

But back then, they didn't say a single word, no news, releases, or anything.

Any idea on why the group "disappeared" back then? Or is it one of those mysteries that will never get solved?
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Watch4FallingRock
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by Watch4FallingRock » October 18th, 2014, 4:29 pm

Kirby wrote: Q: Did someone named Nightcore produce all the songs labeled "Nightcore" on YouTube?

A: No. As explained above, Nightcore IS an artist. However, they inspired a style of editing songs that extended way past the amount of songs they edited themselves. Not all of their songs have surfaced on the Internet; the ones that did are listed below.

5 Elements
All I Want For Christmas
Another Night
Astral Plane
Breathe Without You
Dam Dadi Doo
Destiny
Don't Say Goodbye
Don't You
Don't Let Me Down
Du och Jag
Fallin'
Feel the Stars
Find My Way To You
Forever
Hater Å Elske Deg
Here In My Heart
History
Into The Sky
Life Is A Mystery
Look At Me Now
Lucky Star
My Name Is Rose
Now I'm Free
Promised Land
Rainbow
Reaching Out
Sending S.O.S.
Stop That Time
Ta Sama Chwila
Take Me
Trip 2 Wonderland
Walk Alone
Where Are You Now
Why
Will My Heart Survive
Without You
Wriemia Agniej
So basically, if a song isn't on this list, it wasn't made by the original group?

On sites like Amazon, Itunes, Last.fm, I keep seeing albums such as Dreamworld, Courtesy Call, and Endlessly SIngle which have Nightcore as the artist name, but don't have any of the songs on that list.
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emilemil1
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by emilemil1 » October 18th, 2014, 4:36 pm

They could be by Nightcore, but I don't think that's very likely. There are a few people/labels (mostly shady ones) who release Nightcore albums much like we release individual fan-made Nightcore songs on YouTube.
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by Chaos-Phoenix » June 1st, 2015, 12:49 pm

I used this for a speech- so awesome!!!!
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by danieljj012 » September 24th, 2015, 5:07 am

Impressive! That you have enough time to do this. But I would suggest you to, just maintain the general music list.
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by HKO2006 » May 15th, 2016, 12:43 am

Mirrors on http://archive.is/
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Thomas sin jæmmesia, first thress CDs
http://archive.is/o10uW
:!: Nightcore is Hardcore :!:, steffie/nightcore/biography.html
http://archive.is/gMve6
:!: Nightcore is Hardcore :!:, steffie/nightcore/news.html, updates in 2003
http://archive.is/P982x
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Speeding up seems to be a little magic making things a little bit more appealing.

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DJ Yozora
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Re: What is Nightcore?

Post by DJ Yozora » July 24th, 2018, 4:16 am

Reading all the different opinions in Nightcore Universe about the definition of 'real Nightcore' after all this time is very interesting! If you go to YouTube in 2018 and claim that Nightcore edits can only be made with Dance/Trance/Techno songs, you are going to make a fool of yourself! I'm pretty sure that most Nightcore fans nowadays have never heard of the homonymous group and their speed edits of Dance songs. Some of them are probably not even familiar with these old music genres. These days Nightcore can be any song whose tempo and pitch have been raised and is usually found on YouTube in a video with an anime-style image. It is an internet music style and a YouTube video genre. I think, everyone agrees that Nightcore is not a music genre, as it covers many different genres, regardless if they are limited to Dance/Trance/Techno or expand to include everything else. In the latter case people distinguish between Rock Nightcore, Pop Nightcore etc. Therefore I believe that the term "music style / edit" is more accurate.

After I read many interesting opinions on the site, I decided I should post my own.


The evolution of Nightcore's meaning

First of all I want to make it clear that I am no expert in Nightcore. I only heard about the music group 2 years ago and I haven't used any sources other than some archived pages and interviews I could find. From what I've read I cannot conclude that Thomas S. Nilsen and Steffen Ojala Søderholm wanted to create a music genre. They called themselves 'Nightcore', not their music style. Of course their band name was supposed to be the signature of their own style, but they never expected that people would mimic 'Nightcore's style' (known simply as "Nightcore" today being named after the band). As far as I'm concerned, the duo wanted to create a music style of their own; they had no intention to mark the beginning of a sped up music trend.

As soon as Nightcore's work made it to the internet, people like Maikel6311 decided to expand the limited tracks Nightcore had released by applying a similar speed up edit to more songs. For that reason they sticked to the genres that the duo had used and made it sound like something Nightcore would have released. I don't disagree that continuing the style the band left behind whilst trying to keep it as original and authentic as possible is respectful and shows gratitude towards the duo. On the other side taking someone's name and music style without their permission and reproducing it is called impersonating. It makes no difference, if you label yourself or just the video or song as Nightcore. In my point of view the ‘traditional’ Nightcore creators have no right to tell others not to use the term freely, because they did exactly the same thing in the first place. Either way it was thanks to people like Maikel6311 and other early uploaders and reproducers that Nightcore became a music style referring to sped up Dance/Trance/Techno music (aka the definition that this site prefers).

As soon as Nightcore started to become popular on YouTube more people liked this editing style and begun to reproduce it too. However they didn’t limit themselves to the Dance genres like the earlier uploaders and the duo did. They sped up rock, pop as well as other popular genres and called their edits ‘Nightcore’ too. Thanks to those creators Nightcore became a popular YouTube video genre with millions of fans. At this point Nightcore lost the meaning that the older creators had given it and evolved into a mainstream music style.


The argument about Nightcore's definition

There are 3 sides with a different perception of the term ‘Nightcore’ from my point of view; the huge Nightcore community on YouTube that considers any sped up song a Nightcore edit, the traditional Nightcore creators and fans who claim to respect and continue what the group did and refuse to accept any wider definition of Nightcore and the group itself that doesn’t take any side and just appreciates that people like and continue what it started. From the legal point of view, if the group has registered their trademark, it could hire a lawyer and sue the other parties for copying their speeding up patent, using their name in their edits and usernames, dishonoring them by connecting any sped up song to their name without their approval, getting fame (and money) through the usage of the duo’s name etc. If they don’t take any action, it means that they don’t have the rights over the Nightcore trademark or they just don’t care about all this, which makes more sense to me. According to their statement they were happy that people enjoy and continue what they did.

My conclusion is that there is no correct or false definition of Nightcore and the band never intended to set one. The music editing style known as Nightcore was created by the fanbase. Nightcore was the name of the band, not of their work or style. Although they preferred to speed up dance songs, they never defined Nightcore as an editing style that requires a song of that genre. An example for that is their latest edit (Turn Off Your Mind) that doesn’t fall into their original genres being Hardstyle, which means that they apply the edit to anything that sounds good to them.

I have seen people on NU complaining that Nightcore cannot evolve further, when it’s practically undefinable and includes almost every music genre. I don’t see why any Nightcore genre cannot inspire people to create something new. Nothing hinders Dance Nightcore or Rock Nightcore to progress and turn into a new style of music or maybe a new genre. Even Nightcore as a whole could influence music. There have been cases, in which music producers were inspired by Nightcore, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see a new kind of music mimicking Nightcore’s high pitched vocals for example.

The issue of many different Nightcore edits with the same name can’t be solved by limiting Nightcore to its original genres. It’s for a reason that Nightcore uploaders include the artist’s name, but even if they don’t, there are already countless songs in the Dance/Trance/Techno territory that have the same name. It’s impossible to tell who made a specific song without listening to it, if you don’t know the producer’s name. The appearance of remixes makes this even harder.

Those who insist that Nightcore is literally connected to Dance music because of the band’s motto “Nightcore means that we are the core of the night, so you’ll dance all night long” and the name of their website (“Nightcore is Hardcore”) should consider that not only slow Dance and Techno songs can sound like happy fast Dance music when sped up. Speed up edits of other songs, such as pop and edm songs, can also achieve the same result. If someone likes to dance to a specific kind of music depends on the individual’s taste and can’t be judged objectively. Also, claiming on the one hand that Nightcore cannot include any music genres that the group didn’t use in their edits and on the other hand supporting fan Nightcore edits of the songs that in your opinion sound similar to the band’s songs is contradictory. According to that logic none else, but the duo can approve and decide what songs are being edited.


Conclusion

To sum up, I think that the argument about Nightcore’s definition is pointless, especially at the present time, when the term has been widely accepted as a speed up edit of any song. Many (including myself) have only known this ‘new meaning’ of Nightcore. We got to know and like it this way over the years. It would be very difficult and pointless to knock it out of our heads and replace it with the definition that other fans came up with earlier. That said I consider it a big progress, if we at least realize the development of the term from the name of the band and the speed up edits of some ‘applicable genres’ to what it has become today.

Now as for Nightcore Universe and its kind of ‘radical’ opinions, I don’t think it’s a narrow minded community that people should stay away from. I believe it’s the perfect place to discover Nightcore and the story behind it from those who have known it since the early days. It is also interesting to see how the Nightcore community looked like 5+ years ago, which is like traveling back to time! However the owners of the site certainly have the right to regulate the Nightcore genres that are allowed to be discussed in the forums. That makes this place unique and worth visiting; a district for fans of Dance/Trance/Techno Nightcore that definitely has its own appeal, but sadly disappears from the mainstream…



That was of course my personal opinion on the matter. Anyone can agree or disagree with it. If that’s the case or if you have noticed any inaccurate information in my text, please let me know! Productive feedback is welcome! :)
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