nightcore

English

Etymology

night +‎ core (“key part of a thing”) from Nightcore, the name of the Norwegian duo who created the genre, who said their name meant "we are the core of the night, so you'll dance all night long."

Around 2008, others started making their own songs in the same style and used the term nightcore not to refer music made by the duo, but to the new genre of music as a whole. As this usage spread and knowledge of the original duo faded, the term was reanalyzed as night +‎ -core in the same style as other music genres like metalcore, rapcore, etc.

Noun

nightcore (uncountable)

1. A plunderphonic style of music based on taking an original track and speeding it up, increasing its pitch.
   • 2009 May 2, @StatusMessage, Twitter‎^[3], archived from the original on 2023-07-08:

     Mofo's [motherfucker's] tagging nearly everything Nightcore : it's not Nightcore! Maybe if you knew about hardcore you'd know that in the first place. <_<

   • 2011 December 1, Zephyranth [username], “Any original Nightcore songs?”, in Narkive [originally posted on Yahoo! Answers]‎^[4], archived from the original on 2023-06-21:

     It's all in the title. Anyone know of good original Nightcore songs? Original being the key word here. And I guess any other really good Nightcore song too.

   • 2019 January, Noah Yoo, “Grimes Shares New Nightcore Remix of ‘We Appreciate Power’: Listen”, in Pitchfork‎^[5]:

     Grimes has shared a new remix of her recent single “We Appreciate Power.” Billed as a “Nightcore Remix” and produced by HANA, the track sees the original song (also featuring HANA) sped up and pitch-shifted.

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