Scooter are a German techno hard dance group founded in Hamburg, who have sold over 30 million records and earned over 80 gold and platinum awards. Scooter are considered the most successful German single-record act with 23 top ten hits. Although most of the group’s early recordings are in the rave & techno, Scooter have experimented with other dance music subgenres such as hardstyle and jumpstyle, and occasionally hip hop, and hard rock, and dubstep.
Scooter’s trademark sound features fast tempos and happy melodies, accompanied by frontman H.P. Baxxter rapping lyrics, sampling, and occasionally choruses involving artificially pitched voices. Among their more well-known hits are “Hyper Hyper”, “Move Your Ass!”, “How Much Is The Fish?”, “Ramp! (The Logical Song)”, “Nessaja”, “Weekend”, “Maria (I Like It Loud)” and “The Question Is What Is the Question?”.
On October 15, 2013, Scooter officially announced that their founding member Rick J. Jordan will be leaving the band at the end of the trio’s 20 Years Of Hardcore Tour 2014. According to the frontman of Scooter, H.P. Baxxter, in the years ahead, Phil Speiser (from Dirty Disco Youth or DDY) will replace Rick J. Jordan’s, who will provide his skills on the drums, synthesizers, piano as well as sound effects.
While The Fifth Chapter officially began for Scooter on May 23, 2014, when they released their recent single “Bigroom Blitz”, the Hamburg based trio’s new studio album, entitled The Fifth Chapter will be available on September 26, 2014, emphasizing a completely new era for the band. Scooter’s next single “Today” from The Fifth Chapter can also be obtained on September 26, 2014.
Scooter’s musical style has been defined as a fusion of Rave and Techno. Scooter has taken inspiration from such artists like The KLF, Marc Acardipane, Charly Lownoise and Mental Theo, and has more recently sampled melodies from hardstyle producers, such as Technoboy and Headhunterz. Frontman H.P. Baxxter performs his own vocals, which usually rhyme and occasionally involve puns, sayings, and idioms. Scooter vocals are usually shouted, and are usually meant to arouse a crowd. Crowd samples prevail in Scooter’s style, with songs like “Maria (I Like It Loud)”, “J’adore Hardcore”, and “Seven Bridges” featuring full crowd refrains. Most of the music produced by Scooter is above 135 BPM, though there are also occasional slow tracks. Many of the slower tracks, such as “Second Skin” (The Chameleons cover), draw inspiration from new wave music. This leans toward H.P. Baxxter and Rick J. Jordan’s roots as new wave musicians before Scooter began.