New beat is a Belgian electronic dance music genre that fuses elements of new wave, hi-NRG, EBM and hip hop (e.g. scratching). It flourished in Western Europe during the late-1980s. New beat spawned a subgenre called “hard beat” (a blend of EBM, new beat and acid house) and became a key influence on the evolution of European electronic dance music styles such as hardcore and gabber.