Force & Styles

Force & Styles have recently put up a podcast that I've been listening to and find quite interesting. They talk about how they first got into the rave scene, the stories behind some of their tunes and their time signed to a major record label.

What I find most interesting is how brief their time as a duo was and that they didn't make as many tunes as you'd think they did. Some point the finger at Force & Styles for being responsible for the downfall of happy hardcore at the end of the 90s, but my view is that it wasn't the Force & Styles tunes that were the problem. I like the majority of them

The first Force & Styles tune that I know to have been played at a rave was "Down 2 Love" which was played at Dreamscape 19 at the end of May 1995. They were still part of Force & the Evolution at the time, who would continue to DJ and release tunes up to the end of that year.

1996 was the big year for them. It was the year of "Pretty Green Eyes" and "Heart Of Gold" plus they had their "All Over the UK" album come out through United Dance. It was also arguably the peak year for happy hardcore as a genre too in terms of popularity.

One thing I didn't realise until listening to the podcast was that the last original Force & Styles tune to be released on their UK Dance record label was "Cutting Deep". Although released in 1998, this appeared on United Dance 6 which came out in April 1997. Given 1999 is said to be the year happy hardcore more or less died I don't think you can point the blame at someone who hadn't made a tune for 2 years.

Another thing I learned from the podcast is how they would take much longer than anyone else to make a tune. These vocal anthems were carefully crafted and that's possibly why they were successful. The issue as I see it is that others saw how successful these tunes were and tried to do the same themselves but going for quantity over quality. Basically Forces & Styles were good at making the vocal anthems whilst others weren't.

I'm not a fan of vocals in dance music generally speaking, but "Funfair" by Force & Styles is a rare example of a tune where I prefer the vocal version to the instrumental.

Force & Styles continued to DJ as a duo right up to the end of the 90s. Styles had been producing solo records under the name Unique. Given the demise of happy hardcore as a genre, Force could no longer afford to make a living from it and went back to the day job. Styles was still living with his parents and could afford to continue both solo and with Breeze. He's managed to carve out a pretty successful career but the 21st century UK hardcore sound and it's offshoots isn't really my cup of tea.