# Nightcore Nightcore refers to Eurodance and trance tracks sped up to 160-180 BPM with pitched-up vocals, a style two Norwegian teenagers invented for a 2001 school project. Fan uploads under the name grew into one of YouTube's largest music subcultures, defined by anime-girl thumbnails and a strict speed-and-pitch remix formula. ## Origin Nightcore started in 2001 as a school project by Thomas S. Nilsen and Steffen Ojala Søderholm, two Norwegian classmates from the north of the country who were both born in 1986[1]. Their first track earned less than top marks, so the pair went back and produced a full 13-track EP called Energized, which brought them the top grade on the second attempt[1]. The duo kept the Nightcore name, which they said meant 'the core of the night, so you'll dance all night long'[4]. Nilsen took the alias DJ TNT and Søderholm went by DJ SOS. In a 2011 interview with The Super Super, they said their teenage inspiration was the German happy hardcore act Scooter, whose high-pitched vocal hooks they wanted to hear more of[1]. Neither of them partied at the time, so they mixed music for their own listening rather than for any club scene[1]. The pair burned CD copies of Energized and follow-up records and handed them to local DJs and anyone who asked, without selling or promoting the releases[1]. The original Nightcore MySpace page from the late 2000s survives on the Internet Archive[6], and albums like Caliente are still catalogued on Last.fm[5]. - **Platform:** CD releases in Norway (creation) / YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Thomas S. Nilsen (DJ TNT) and Steffen Ojala Søderholm (DJ SOS) - **Date:** 2001 ## Overview Nightcore edits follow a strict recipe. Producers take an existing Eurodance, trance, or pop song, raise the tempo to somewhere between 160 and 180 beats per minute, and shift the vocal pitch upward so the singer sounds cartoonishly high[4]. The visual half of the format is just as fixed. Most YouTube uploads pair the audio with a still image or slow slideshow of anime girls, often lifted from visual novels or shoujo series[2]. Urban Dictionary catalogues three subvariants fans use to describe the sound: 'Pure Nightcore' with extreme speed and chipmunk vocals, 'Bass Nightcore' that layers heavy low end under the sped-up top, and 'Trance Nightcore' that keeps runtimes long and repetitive[2]. Debate over whether Nightcore counts as a music genre or just a remix process runs through fan forums. Discussion boards from the early 2010s argued that speeding up someone else's track hardly qualifies as making new music, while defenders pointed out that fans developed shared rules around tempo, artwork, and mood[3]. The label also drew criticism because many uploads strip credit from the original artist, turning YouTube channels into ad-revenue streams built on music the uploaders did not make[2]. That tension between fan love and the copyright question shaped how Nightcore spread across the platform. ## How It Spread The duo's small-scale Norwegian project turned into a global YouTube trend around the mid-2000s, when fans began posting their own sped-up remixes under the Nightcore label after hearing the original CDs[4]. By 2011, The Super Super reported 'tens of thousands' of tracks tagged Nightcore on YouTube, with many uploads pulling in millions of views[1]. Fans as young as 13 were producing tracks in GarageBand or other free tools, treating anything from Lady Gaga to ABBA as raw material for a Nightcore edit[1]. Anime fan communities picked up the aesthetic in parallel. Threads on itjustbugsme in the early 2010s complained that Nightcore was 'basically just sped-up music with an anime girl picture slapped over it,' arguing the label often had more to do with weeaboo iconography than musical craft[3]. Forum posters also debated whether songs sounded better sped up, with some admitting that certain tracks got more interesting under the treatment even when the vocals turned into chipmunk squeaks[3]. The pattern of anime-girl thumbnail plus sped-up dance track hardened into the visual signature that made a Nightcore upload recognisable at a glance[2]. The uncredited-remix model kept drawing criticism. Urban Dictionary entries describe uploaders as 'moneyholics' who slap anime imagery on other people's music to claim ad revenue while the original artists get nothing[2]. Even so, the Nightcore name became a shorthand for the whole sped-up EDM style, and a wave of copycat '-core' labels followed on YouTube as fans applied the same treatment to other electronic subgenres. ## How to Use A typical Nightcore edit starts with an existing track, most commonly Eurodance, trance, happy hardcore, or a pop song with a strong 4/4 beat. Producers speed the track up by roughly 15 to 20 percent in a DAW like GarageBand, Audacity, or FL Studio, which raises the pitch of the vocals along with the tempo so the singer sounds much younger and higher[1]. Some editors add heavier bass or trance-style repetition on top, matching the 'Bass' or 'Trance' subvariants that fans use[2]. The finished audio is paired with an anime image or a short looping animation and uploaded to YouTube, usually with the artist name followed by '(Nightcore Remix)' in the title[2]. Crediting the original artist in the description is common but not universal, which is why the practice draws regular criticism from listeners who feel the uploaders are cashing in on other people's work[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Nightcore? Nightcore is a remix style that speeds Eurodance, trance, and pop songs up to 160-180 BPM and pitches the vocals up so the singer sounds high and chipmunk-like[4]. ### Where did Nightcore come from? It started in 2001 as a school project by Norwegian classmates Thomas S. Nilsen and Steffen Ojala Søderholm, who released their first CD Energized under the Nightcore name[1]. ### What does Nightcore mean? The duo said the name meant 'the core of the night, so you'll dance all night long'[4]. ### How do you make a Nightcore track? Speed an existing dance track up by around 15 to 20 percent in a DAW, which raises the pitch alongside the tempo, then pair the audio with an anime image for YouTube[1]. ### Is Nightcore still popular? Nightcore uploads are still a fixture on YouTube and its sound shaped later fast, pitched-up styles, though the mid-2000s to early 2010s were the peak of the fan-upload wave[1]. ### Who created Nightcore? Thomas S. Nilsen (DJ TNT) and Steffen Ojala Søderholm (DJ SOS), two Norwegian teenagers born in 1986[1]. ### What was the first Nightcore album? A 13-track EP called Energized, which the pair produced to earn a top grade on their school music project[1]. ### What inspired the Nightcore sound? The duo cited the German happy hardcore band Scooter and its high-pitched vocal hooks as a main teenage influence[1]. ### Why do Nightcore videos have anime art? Fan uploads on YouTube converged on anime-girl thumbnails, which became such a fixed convention that critics joked Nightcore was just sped-up music with an anime picture slapped on top[3]. ### What are Bass and Trance Nightcore? Fan-defined subvariants: Bass Nightcore keeps the high vocals but layers heavy low-end underneath, while Trance Nightcore stretches the runtime and leans on a repeated vocal phrase[2]. ## References 1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120106054647/http://www.thesupersuper.com/featured/nightcore-interview/]() 2. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nightcore]() 3. [https://itjustbugsme.com/forums/discussion/11791/nightcore/p1]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nightcore]() 5. [https://www.last.fm/music/Nightcore/Caliente]() 6. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090728172807/https://www.myspace.com/nightcore]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiaQcca-2l0]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/nightcore Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library