Looking at the facts: Thunderdome played only a minor role in the history of Hardcore Techno

Now, let us first say that this is not a "diss" against or an attack on ID&T. They sure did a lot of work in their own field, and some of it is remarkable. It's just not very related to what we know as "Hardcore Techno".
In addition, I don't think that the whole "Thunderdome created Hardcore!" narrative originated out of ID&T; it's a story some Thunderdome fanboys invented. And fanpeople invent stories like this all the time; just like some Eminem-fanboys claim that Eminem invented Rap music, or that "P!nk" is a punk rocker.

Note: this time, we included our listening examples in order to provide historical context, and not to offend anyone. so don't take some of these tracks (and their content) too personally, but try to see it (or hear it) - 'through the eyes of the 90s'.

Listening suggestion #1: Bass-D & King Matthew - The Thunder Anthem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeXax0fEG0U

After this short intro, let's look at the facts.
What is/was "Thunderdome"?

"Thunderdome" was the name given to a series of compilation CDs that were published by the Dutch music corporation "ID&T" (together with another company, "Arcade"), beginning in the early 90s.
At the same time, there were a series of parties / raves using this name.

Now, a "compilation CD" does not create anything (except for some very rare and highly disputed cases!).
It does not invent something. It does not generate new sounds or tracks, or anything by its own.

Compilation CDs were very popular in the last two decades of the 20th century. There were CD series for rock music, synth pop, disco, new wave, punk, "evergreens"... and so on.
Of course the business people in the music industry were always on the look-out for new trends in music; because creating a compilation series based on a "new" genre was an "industry bet" that could generate a bit of money when done right.

Listening suggestion #2: DJ Dano - Welcome To The Thunderdome - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBThLoI-PHw

Hardcore and Gabber was such a genre in the early 90s; it's popularity spread like wildfire in europe and even to other places in the world. More and more DJs and producers got into this style. Labels were started, huge amounts of tracks were created.

ID&T (and Arcade) obviously became aware of this new "youth culture", and decided to cash in on it. Thus, "Thunderdome" was created.

I don't blame them for that. They were "business people, doing business things".

But it should be quite clear that selling a hardcore-themed CD does not "create" anything; it does not "create" a new genre.
The corporation took tracks that were already released elsewhere, by other labels, and re-released them on the "Thunderdome" compilations.
Just like the music industry re-released popular rock, pop, rap songs on their respective compilation CDs.
Nothing unusual, nothing strange. Just business, man!

Listening suggestion #3: Mike Ink & The Chain Of Brotherhood - Lovely Ugly Brutal World (Original Mix) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VMSWE-gjMg

You might say: "but 'betting' on a new genre by creating a new CD can be seen as a creative/inspiring impulse".

That's debatable. For example, when the whole Nirvana / Alternative Rock thing happened, the music industry tried to cash in, too, by creating "new" compilation CDs dedicated to "grunge", "indie", or "crossover" later.
But that does not mean these compilations created "alt rock", "indie rock", nor does it mean these CDs "created" the sound of bands like nirvana, soundgarden, or pearl jam.

"But the Thunderdome CDs popularized Hardcore Techno, for sure?"

That's quite debatable, too. The new gabber sound was already getting quite "popular" on its own. And if ID&T had not invented Thunderdome, a different music company would have created something in order to cash in on "Hardcore" - as they later did.

#4: Mescalum - Asylum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZbmhWRXXHU

"But surely the Thunderdome parties were important?..."

Again, parties, festivals, rarely "invent" something. They broadcast what already exist.
If you look at music history, there are very few parties or festivals that truly changed something (in comparison to the amount of parties that go down each year.)

And even if you look at a thing like Woodstock - that was indeed a game changer and did turn things around - no-one would claim that "Woodstock *created* the hippies and the subculture". Because they were around long before Woodstock happened.

#5: Hardsequencer - Brain Crash - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tepFCfObUMA

Part 2

Okay, so that were the early 90s, ID&T re-sold Gabber releases to Hardcore kids, and got quite popular that way.
But then something happened that completely diminished the position of the whole "Thunderdome" franchise within the Hardcore subculture.
I don't know to what degree ID&T was involved in this, but I believe it was not their fault, or caused by them.

Apparently, some music industry execs looked at the whole thing and said to themselves:

"Hmm, we are selling Gabber to the Gabber kids. We are making quite some bucks this way.
But the 'Gabber youth culture' is a limited market sector. There are different, vaster markets out there.
We could make much more money, if we not only sell our CDs to the die-hard Gabbers, but to *everyone else* as well".

In this marketing effort, they tried to "mellow down" Hardcore, added lots of sounds and samples from "popular genres" such as rock rap pop and disco, the whole thing become cheerful, party-like and harmless. The rough production edge, grim and extreme vibes, and Hardcore attitude was jettisoned. A new sound was created that would not offend people too much and was docile enough to be sold to the mainstream current of society.

#6: The Leathernecks - The Harder, The Better - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9ObLEW-IM

The "Thunderdome" series stood at the center of this new sound, together with the other big labels.

As expected, this business technique worked quite well and generated a lot of money.

Essentially, it was an attempt to "create 'hardcore' that could be sold to people who used to hate 'hardcore'".

The actual Gabbers and Hardcore Ravers were not pleased about this at all. They accused "Thunderdome" and "Rotterdam" of having sold out; of trying to destroy the whole Hardcore movement with their new "happy sounds".

And people got *really* angry. Looking back, it is almost unimaginable how fiery the flames of rage burned.
Literally 100s of "diss-tracks" against Thunderdome, ID&T and 'Rotterdam' (as a stand-in term for "commercialized hardcore", even though a lot of people involved were not located in that city, and, more importantly, the actual rotterdam gabbers were not happy about this development either) were made.
Hardcore DJs issued notes of apologies for including Thunderdome-style tracks in their mix tapes. People issued angry complaints if promoters booked "commercial" DJs at a Hardcore party. You might get booed off stage if you dropped a track like that.

#7: Nasenbluten - Rotterdam Takes It Up The *rse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbiF1zOWYdw

If we look back at "style wars" like this, it all looks a bit silly and immature. It's all similar to "mods vs rockers" in the 60s or the hatred of "real punks" vs green day fans in the 90s. Or the scorn of black metal kids against death metal kids in the same decade.
Mysterious and bizarre to contemporary eyes.

Yeah, we, the "Hardcore Youth", over-reacted in our spite, back then. I over-reacted, too.

So, if all of this was quite silly and a bit of nonsense, maybe we can forgot about it, and it was not so important?

#8: E-De Cologne - Guys of Shit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUhOSDWR9pQ

No! Because it had some very real consequences, consequences that bring us back to the actual topic of this text.

It meant there was now a split; a split between those DJs and producers (and fans) that sided with "commercial hardcore"; and those that decided to burrow themselves even deeper in the underground.

And it were the latter DJs and producers, the "hardcore contingent", that eventually helped to create, further, and shape new genres like Speedcore, Breakcore, Industrial Hardcore, "France Style" Hardcore, Doomcore, Slowcore... and the myriads of other Hardcore sub-styles.
This means that after 1994 or so, "Thunderdome" (and many other "big" compilations) had close to zero influence on the emergence of new hardcore sounds and genres.
Because the producers involved in creating these novel styles did not like these CDs anymore, couldn't care less about them, did not listen to them, were not influenced by them. And this an important thing to point out when pondering the evolution of hardcore.

It means that Thunderdome played only a minor role in the history of hardcore techno.

It played a major role on *some* styles, true. And yes, the "commercial producers" also created some more-or-less novel genres, like millenium or mainstream hardcore, too, at a later point.

But that's not much compared to the vast amount of hardcore genres and releases.

#9: The Noize Junkie - Forget Rotterdam - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAvf-aENkzI

Ending

Again, I don't want to offend or criticize anyone; artists, DJs, involved with Thunderdome or anything else. The ID&T music company did their thing, and apparently they did it very well.

We were "over the top" in our rage by the mid 90s, and it was not justified.
And, hell yeah, there are quite some good tracks on these CDs!

The whole "Thunderdome created Hardcore!" thing is, from my understanding, a fan theory, not something that was invented by id&t. The fan people are to blame, not Id&t.

And it was time to set some facts straight.

#10: The Speed Freak - No More Cheese! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3aIfszk_Ms