This Is Hardcore (song)

1998 single by Pulp

"This Is Hardcore" is a song by English rock band Pulp, released as the second single from their sixth album, This Is Hardcore (1998). Written as a commentary on fame using pornography as an analogy, the song includes a sample of the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra's "Bolero on the Moon Rocks." Released as a single in March 1998, the song reached number 12 in the UK and became a top 40 hit in Finland, Iceland, and New Zealand. It has since seen critical acclaim, as has its music video.

"This Is Hardcore" was based on Jarvis Cocker's self described "mixture of revulsion and attraction" to pornography. In a 1998 interview, Cocker stated that he found it "fascinating" how, in pornography, people "need to see new faces all the time, so what happens to the older people when they've been used up and had everything done to them?" Musically, Cocker cited easy listening music, such as Tipsy and Stock, Hausen, & Walkman, as inspirations for their "creepy, profoundly uneasy listening." The song also features a sample from "Bolero on the Moon Rocks" by the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra, which Cocker recalled "jigsaw[ing] together" throughout the song. The song's selection for single release was controversial in the band. Bassist Steve Mackey stated, "I think it's got a place. To me 'This Is Hardcore' is like a challenge in song, it's a gauntlet for the rest of the year. It's like when Radiohead put out 'Paranoid Android' in 1997: here you are, deal with this." Guitarist Mark Webber, meanwhile, was less approving:

blockquote|"I was never a very big fan of this song. I can appreciate that it's good work, but I never really liked it. From the outset, Jarvis didn't want people to expect an album of 'Common People' and 'Disco 2000', He wanted to redraw the boundaries and recently it has been a case of Jarvis' will overriding everyone else's common sense." The video has since been named as one of the greatest of all time, scoring universal acclaim, with Pitchfork Media also naming its music video the 16th best of the 1990s.

"This Is Hardcore" has generally seen positive reception from critics, despite its lack of commercial viability. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the song "the centerpiece of the album" and stated, "Drum loops, lounge piano, cinematic strings, and a sharp lyric create a frightening monument to weary decadence." Sylvia Patterson of New Musical Express wrote, called it "possibly the creepiest single released by a commercial 'artiste' in recording history" and concluded, "It is awful. And brilliant. Preposterous, eh?" NME readers ranked the song as Pulp's sixth best in a fan vote, as did Stereogum'''s Ryan Leas, who wrote, "[The song's parts] are alternatively some of the dirtiest and saddest sounds to ever make it into a Pulp song." The Guardian named it as one of Pulp's ten best songs, writing, "It's not about sex but power, narcissism, performance and ego, and it's as grim as they come." In October 2011, NME'' placed it at number 120 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". Three years later they ranked it at number 254 on "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."