Hardstyle emerged in the Netherlands in the early 2000s, blending hardcore techno kicks with hard trance melodies and reverse bass. The genre grew through large hard dance festivals and online rave communities, becoming known for tempos around 150 BPM and anthemic, euphoric breakdowns. Short hardstyle bursts later spread on video platforms as a shorthand for extreme energy, used in phonk and gym edit culture, gaming videos and ironic memes where a normal scene is treated like a final boss fight.