Frontliner

Melody as a main stage weapon

Large-format melodic hardstyle has one of its most recognizable signatures in Frontliner: tight kicks, emotional builds, and a rare ability to turn a melody into festival language. Born in Amsterdam, Barry Drooger started producing at a very young age and ended up at the core of the Dutch hard dance scene, first as Abject and later under the name that solidified his international presence. His music moves between euphoria, mass energy, and a technical obsession with sound design, with a style that earned him the nickname The Melodyman.

Abject, Scantraxx and the definitive leap

The first professional stage arrived in 2005 with the alias Abject. At the end of 2006, he worked alongside Headhunterz on tracks like Scantraxx Rootz and End of My Existence, two cuts that placed his name within the Dutch hard circuit. Between 2008 and 2012, he released on Scantraxx, where he developed a discography of enormous weight for modern hardstyle. Spacer became one of his essential tracks of 2008, while the album Producers Mind, released in 2011, showed a broad vision of the genre: direct for the dancefloor, but also built from composition and studio work.

Anthems that defined a decade

Frontliner's impact is also understood through his anthems. He signed Save.Exit.Planet for In Qontrol 2010, Call of the Visionary for Reverze 2011, Symbols for Q-Base 2012, and Weekend Warriors for Defqon.1 2013, a sequence that explains his weight in the culture of major hardstyle events. In parallel, he launched his own label in 2012, Keep It Up Music, from which he reinforced an independent identity and released his own material. His subsequent catalog includes works like The Summer of Frontliner, collaborations with B-Front under B-Frontliner, and remixes for internationally renowned artists such as Armin van Buuren, Major Lazer, and Showtek.

The open laboratory of The Melodyman

In addition to performing at reference festivals and clubs like Defqon.1, Qlimax, Reverze, Decibel, Q-Base, and In Qontrol, Frontliner has made music production a visible part of his brand. His broadcasts and technical content have served to teach kick creation, synthesis, and studio processes to new producers. In 2015, he released a sample pack that extended his sound beyond hardstyle. In 2022, he activated Alter Ego, a project oriented towards rawstyle and a darker side of his language. With Echoes of Euphoria, released in 2024, he returned to reclaim the euphoric essence of his classic era, while recent formats like The Melodyman Live reinforce his current position as a producer, DJ, and pedagogical figure within the international hardstyle scene.