Happy Hardcore: This genre, defined by its fast tempo, stompy drums, and aggressively optimistic piano rave melodies, is perhaps one of the most maligned genres ever. Much like disco, it's trashed mostly out of ignorance and/or the fear of appearing "girly".
REAL TALK: happy hardcore grew out of UK rave at the same time as jungle, and was really delightful for the first few years of existence. Like jungle, happy hardcore spent 1993 breaking away frome the old breakbeat hardcore rave paradigm, and 1994 finding its own identity. By 1995 it had really come into its own as a distinct genre-still tied to jungle and rave, but with its own unique sound and aesthetic. It lasted for a couple of years before losing a lot of the original rave/jungle elements that made it so great. It devolved into an even cheesier breakbeat-free kind of hyperpop for the Dance Dance Revolution crowd (much like jungle eventually evolved into clownstep drum & bass). This really awful later-era cheeseball stuff is the reason for happy hardcore's bad rap. I still stand by the tunes that came out in 1993-1997.
Here are some tracks of the happy hardcore golden era:
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