Overview
"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.
Background
"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?" He then predicted that the internet would be the "next step for porn." In another interview, he explained of the song's meaning:
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. Cocker explained, "It started off as an experiment. ... I was really pleased with it because I'd been thinking vaguely before doing this record to get away from the verse-chorus-verse-middle bit-double chorus-end kind of structure, but still have a melody ... we kind of achieved it on that song."
Release
"This Is Hardcore" was released as the second single from This Is Hardcore on 16 March 1998. 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:
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).