Nothing Lasts Forever - Happy Hardcore

When looking back on different eras of music, whether its genres, certain bands or different music scenes, one thing that is noticeable is just how short that era was.

This gave me the idea to start a series of posts about these things. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that music starts and ends in a defined period, indeed most scenes continue in a small way indefinitely not to mention big revivals you have of some too.

I'm beginning with one that's close to home, Happy Hardcore. When I first started showing interest in rave in 1994 I was told that there were two types of rave, Happy Hardcore and Jungle. This is the moment in rave history defined as being the scene split. At the time, the difference wasn't as obvious as you would think. For example, there was "Breaking Free" by Slipmatt, who would become a Happy Hardcore DJ, but that record spanned both Happy Hardcore and Jungle in reality. Then there were tunes like "Above the Clouds" by Sunshine Productions and "Positive" by Love Nation, perhaps both remembered as being Happy Hardcore tunes but they are both on a Jungle compilation I have from that time.

In 1995 the difference started to become more obvious and Jungle had evolved into Drum & Bass, though you'd still find Helter Skelter and Dreamscape tape packs having both genres mixed together. It wasn't until new years eve 1996 when Helter Skelter first completely separated their Happy Hardcore and Drum & Bass tape packs and they would still keep a mixture of the two genres in the same room until the end of the decade.

1996 saw the start of Hardcore Heaven which was a Hardcore only rave which also released compilations. It also saw the start of the Bonkers compilation series. Although never commercially successful in the UK, this was probably the year Happy Hardcore was at its most popular. Around the same time, Dutch acts such as Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo and Paul Elstak were enjoying chart success in Holland.

For me personally, 1996 and 1997 were the years I was most active in my tape pack buying. I have fond memories of waiting for the new Helter Skelter newsletter and flyer for next event which would give details of how to order the latest tape pack. On receiving the tape pack I would always play the DJ Vibes tape first.

By 1998 I stopped buying new tape packs and started back filling my tape pack collection with Helter Skelter offering discounts on older packs, but also buying second hand packs from people who had now gone off the music. I still followed the scene though through compilations, but the two main magazines covering the scene, Dream and Eternity, had now ceased to exist. I'd also opened up to other genres of music too particularly house music which I'd previously written off for being too slow.

At this point, Happy Hardcore had fully established itself as being a genre that was seen as a bit of a joke. I remember at the time going into a record shop in Leicester which had sections for pretty much every dance music genre you could think of apart from Happy Hardcore. When I asked at the counter whether they stocked any Happy Hardcore, they laughed and said no. When I listened to Bonkers 4 that year, I could see where people were coming from and it was getting a bit too cheesy for my liking as well.

However, I would always leap to the defence of Happy Hardcore. I hated the snobbery of some house music fans about it and was determined to stick to Happy Hardcore and give the 2 fingers up to house, even though I was starting to prefer it purely from a musical perspective.

After the first Helter Skelter of 1999 I bought a new tape pack for the first time since 1997. I played the Vibes tape first as usual, the first track was "Forever Autumn" by Supreme and UFO which I first heard in 1996. I enjoyed the set, but very little of it was new material. Next up I listened to Force and Styles, the first track was "Pacific Sun" which I first heard in 1997 and again hardly any new material. The tape pack also featured some hard trance from Mark EG & M Zone, old skool from Ratpack and a DJ Seduction classics set, so really the whole pack didn't contain a great deal of up front Happy Hardcore, a sure sign the music was on its way out.

DJ Seduction officially retired later on that year and many of the other DJs had moved onto other genres shortly afterwards, most notably Hard House. The only big rave that still had Happy Hardcore in its main room was Slammin Vinyl, but even then they started to mix Hardcore and Hard House in the same room at one point.

So in summary Happy Hardcore grew out the original rave sound in 1994, established itself in 1995, enjoyed its glory years in 1996 and 1997, declined in 1998 before slowly grinding to a halt 1999 onwards.

Some of you may be thinking what about the 00s with the return of Bonkers, the start of Hardcore Till I Die and the Radio 1 show?

Well, basically that is a different era. It became UK Hardcore as opposed to Happy Hardcore and many of the 90s fans did not like the 00s stuff. I bought the comeback Bonkers album and didn't think much to it. Though admittedly I still hadn't become one of those people who would say "Yeah I used to listen to Hardcore", I was adamant that I still listened to it. My realisation that I was a raver of yesteryear in denial was when somebody said "Yeah I used to listen to hardcore" and I found out the beginning for him was the Bonkers comeback album, so after I stopped liking the new stuff.