ABSTRACT
Just as the electronic listening music initiative was mounting its retreat from the dance floor in late 1992, the hardcore rave scene began to enter a troubled phase. Every drug-based subculture seems to reach a similar point, a threshold at which it crosses over to "the dark side." It happened in late-sixties San Francisco, when heroin, methamphetamine, and the terrifyingly intense hallucinogen STP destroyed Haight-Ashbury's love and peace vibe. But what makes British hardcore unique is the way this shift was reflected in the music. By late 1992, the happy tunes of rave's commercial heyday were being eclipsed by a style called "darkside" or "darkcore." Hardcore became haunted by a collective apprehension that "we've gone too far."
