Beatmap Listing » Krewella - Live for the Night (Nightstep Mix)

A song that is labeled as "Nightcore" is a techno/trance/dance song that has been modified from an original song - it differs from that song in that its tempo and pitch has been raised. These levels are usually around 20-30%, and are raised simultaneously. Please note that a song need not be anything more than a speed increase in order for it to qualify as a "Nightcore" song.
A coined term for Nightcore is that it is a raise of speed and pitch. Although this is commonly used, it is not correct, since the very definition of "speed" is a combination of both tempo and pitch. Therefore, "Nightcore" can be seen as a glorified term for "speed edits" of techno/trance/dance songs.

Let me explain where the term "Nightcore" came from. Nightcore is an artist. It is composed of two boys from Alta, Norway; Thomas S Nilsen (a.k.a. DJ TNT) and Steffen Ojala Søderholm (a.k.a. DJ SOS). The group was formed in 2002 and released five known albums of tracks with raised tempo and pitch. These albums were composed of purely electronic tracks with an emphasis on techno, trance, and dance music. However, the tracklistings of these albums are unknown and not all of the songs reached the Internet or were distributed past their hometown. Most of what was known about them can be pulled from their old defunct website, viewable through Wayback Archive: click here.

After 2003, the group disappeared. No news or releases came from them. The only information regarding them came from a fanmade MySpace page easily accessible through Google search. The Bio was copied from the group's aforementioned website before it went down. There was no known way to contact them.
Years passed, and video-sharing sites such as YouTube sprung up. Tracks from the Nightcore group were uploaded on YouTube (it is unknown who first did), and steadily gained popularity. As these videos gained millions of views, Nightcore was "exposed" as having produced none of the tracks themselves, being mere speed edits (the group never openly admitted this). Anyone with basic sound editors could create songs exactly how Nightcore did.

So, that was what people started to do. Electronic (mainly techno, trance, and dance) songs were edited in Nightcore's "style" and uploaded on YouTube, being labeled as Nightcore songs. This practice still continues to this day, and YouTube is now home to tens of thousands of fan-made Nightcore songs.

Recently, in 2011, Nightcore has reappeared with the help of One Vibe Events, who sought them out to appear at a show in Phoenix, Arizona. Nightcore released a new single, Astral Plane and planned to play a new Norwegian song at this show. Unfortunately, Nightcore did not end up appearing at the show due to scheduling issues although, having returned, may appear at other shows in the future. They have an official Facebook page where they interact with their large fanbase that sprouted during the many years they were absent.

A dubstep song that has either increased tempo, pitch or both.
It originated from nightcore, however the original nightcore community does not support the growth of any "style" other then nightcore. It cannot be made from scratch, it has to be an already made song that gets "remixed", and published.

Dubstep+Nightcore=Nightstep (Roots)

It should be labeled as a remix, however certain youtube uploaders either tag it as nightcore or a genre. The original nightcore community does NOT support it in any way, so labeling it as nightcore is wrong.

The most popular dubstep songs that get remixed in this way are usually vocalish. The speed+tempo increase is anything from 15-30%. It can go below and over these values, but these are the usual ones. It doesn't have to be both tempo and pitch, but they usually go hand to hand since the pitch makes the vocals anime-ish, and the speed makes the wobbles and the drop hit hard and fast.

The (Speed Up Ver.) is any kind of song, whether Pop/Rock/Alternative/Instrumental/J-Pop/K-Pop/Jazz/Hip-Hop/Folk/Urban (etc) that has either increased tempo, pitch or both.

This started from the confusion between the common songs and those that are part of the genre Techno/Trance/Dance/Happy Hardcore, so any kind of song that has been modified from an original song is considered as (Speed Up Ver.)