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The music got its name from an article in which the Amsterdam DJ K.C. the Funkaholic was asked how he felt about the harder Rotterdam house scene. He answered "They're just a bunch of gabbers having fun". DJ Paul Elstak from Rotterdam read this article and on the first Euromasters record (released through Rotterdam Records), he engraved in the vinyl "Gabber zijn is geen schande!" translating as "it's not a disgrace to be a gabber!". The word gained popularity in the Rotterdam house scene and people started to call themselves 'gabbers'.[2]

Although a house variant from Detroit reached Amsterdam in the late 1980s, it was the producers and DJs from Rotterdam who evolved it into a harder house variant which is today known as "Gabber".

The specific sound of Rotterdam was also created as a reaction to the house scene of Amsterdam which was seen as "snobby and pretentious". Though house tracks from Frankfurt's Marc Acardipane were quite similar to the Rotterdam style, it was the popularity of this music in the Netherlands which made Rotterdam the cradle of early hardcore. The essence of the early hardcore sound is a distorted bass drum sound, overdriven to the point where it becomes clipped into a distorted square wave and makes a recognizably melodic tone.

Often the Roland Alpha Juno or the kick from a Roland TR-909 was used to create this sound. Early hardcore tracks typically include samples and synthesised melodies with the typical tempo ranging from 180 to 220 bpm. Violence, drugs and profanity are common themes in early hardcore, perceptible through its samples and lyrics, often screamed, pitch shifted, or distorted.

Early hardcore was popular in many countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Italy. In the late 1990s, the early hardcore became less popular than the Hardstyle. After surviving underground for a number of years, in 2002 the style reappeared in the Netherlands in a new form, the mainstream hardcore. The sound becomes more mature, darker, and industrial and derives.