The "Hardcore" is what we call the true, "pure" contingent of a social group or sub culture, as used in terms like "Hardcore Gamers", "Hardcore Anime Nerds", or even "Hardcore" foodies.
A hardcore ceremony
A "core" is a center of something, or lies at the center of it.
Our post-christian, post-pagan world is maybe not as aware of it anymore, but in most other, and ancient cultures, there is/was a strong mythology associated with concepts of centers, centrality, and yes, the core.
"You are way off course, buddy!"
The world tree, the "axis mundi", Ra, Aristotle's' "unmoved mover" are just a few examples. There is the Sufi concept that all of the world, divinity, and its mysteries lies compressed within one singular 'dot' (i.e. one core that contains everything else).
"Labyrinths" were used in religious rites in which the acolytes needed to walk the winding paths until they reached the center, and then back again. We could go on with many more examples like these...
"This is network 23"
(the words "core" and "heart" are etymologically connected, by the way. this is even more obvious in languages like French, where "heart" is called "cœur".)
Now, similar with concepts like "the golden ratio", it's easy to 'go off the rails' and try to associate everything in myth with a central or polar concept.
The good thing is that it is self-explaining and obvious in most cases.
If a culture believes the sun is the center of the cosmic world, and worships a solar deity, then the spiritual concept of centrality is right there, and visible to everyone.
If a culture believes that a "world tree" grows at the center of the universe, from which everything branches off, we once again stand before the idea of centrality.
A central release of Planet Core Productions
But pagan days and the belief in ancient mysteries have long gone by. We are modern and rational beings now.
Yet many ancient wonders of the world still persist in our disenchanted world.
We now know that "space" is not made up of celestial spheres on which gods and goddesses fly by while Neptune is waving his trident at Uranus.
Yet we still gaze longingly at the marvels of outer space.
"I take you to the center of the earth"
We now know animals, plants, and trees are not meta-morphed and shapeshifting pixies, demons, minor deities, and that mushrooms are not home to talkative gnomes.
Yet we still marvel at the wonders of nature and the animal kingdom.
Why is this so? Because regardless of myth, religion, science, rationality: concepts like space, life, death, nature are matters that are highly detached from the ordinary, from the ordinary state of things, from ordinary modes of consciousness... and now that we no longer wear the clothes of superstition, we are free to use the language of science and rationality to describe these things.
The Euromast (an observation tower in Rotterdam) can be seen as a polar (and thus central) symbol.
And Rotterdam Records was a sub-label of Midtown Records - which was called that way as it was located at the center of the city.
And "Hardcore" is another thing that is far, far away from the ordinary state... there is much, much more to it than appears on the surface.
"There is a secret song at the center of the world"
We showed here that ancient, and different cultures worshipped the concept of a core, of centrality, and revered many "core deities", so to speak.
And we, modern people, superstitious or not, still worship the hardcore, in our music, in our thoughts, in our lives.
You can link the term "Hardcore" to many things in culture or philosophy;
But no matter of it's centrality or a social group or unique thought:
"Hardcore" is definitely something that is special, most precious, and far removed from the ordinary world.
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