In 1990, German producer Marc Trauner (also known as Mescalinum United) claimed to have released the first hardcore techno track with "We Have Arrived". The British group Together released its track "Hardcore Uproar", also in 1990. Music journalist Simon Reynolds has written books on hardcore techno, covering bands like L.A. Style and Human Resource.
In the early 1990s, the terms "hardcore" and "darkcore" were also used to designate some primitive forms of breakbeat and drum and bass which were very popular in England and from which have emerged several famous producers like the Prodigy, Lords of Acid and also Goldie. It introduced sped up hip-hop breakbeats, piano breaks, dub and low frequency basslines and cartoon-like noises, which has been retrospectively called 'old skool' hardcore (a.k.a. breakbeat hardcore) and is widely regarded as the progenitor of happy hardcore (which later lost the breakbeats) and jungle (which alternatively lost the techno style keyboard stabs and piano breaks).
Around 1993, the style became clearly defined and was simply named "hardcore", as it left its influences from Detroit techno.
Paul Elstak, the founder of Rotterdam Records.
The official birth of hardcore is supposedly known from the release of the 1990 track "We Have Arrived" by the German producer Mescalinum United, of Frankfurt.Trauner founded the label Planet Core Productions in 1989 and has produced more than 500 tracks, including 300 by himself until 1996. Another important name of the hardcore scene was PCP: Miroslav Pajic, better known as Miro. His group PCP popularized a slow, heavy, minimal and very dark form of hardcore that is now designated as "darkcore" or "doomcore". In the United States, the New York pioneer of techno Lenny Dee launched the label Industrial Strength Records in 1991 that has federated a large part of the American scene, making New York one of the biggest centers of early American hardcore. Other American producers on the label included Deadly Buda and the Horrorist, but the label has also produced producers from other nationalities. At the same time in Rotterdam, the DJs and producers Paul Elstak and Rob Fabrie popularized a speedier style, with saturated bass-lines, quickly known as "gabber", and its more commercial and accessible form, happy hardcore.
Paul Elstak founded Rotterdam Records in 1992, which became the first hardcore label in the Netherlands.In 1992 at Utrecht, a large rave called The Final Exam led to the creation of the label ID&T. Launched in 1993, the concept of Thunderdome quickly popularized hardcore music in Europe with a catalogue of CD compilations and events, attracting thousands of young people that launched the gabber movement. Just during the single year of 1993, four compilations were released with increasing success.[better source needed] Many artists on the compilations have become well-known figures in the scene, notably 3 Steps Ahead, DJ Buzz Fuzz, The Dreamteam, Neophyte, Omar Santana, and Charly Lownoise and Mental Theo in the gabber/happy hardcore registry. The same year, the label Mokum Records was created by Freddy B who had success with artists and groups like Technohead Tellurian, the Speedfreak, Scott Brown, and the Belgian musician Liza N'Eliaz, pioneer of speedcore.
In England, the members of the sound system Spiral Tribe, including Stormcore, 69db, Crystal Distortion and Curley hardened their acid-breakbeat sound, becoming the pioneers of the "acidcore" and "hardtechno" genres. In 1994, they founded the label Network 23 which among others has produced Somatic Responses, Caustic Visions and Unit Moebius, establishing the musical and visual basis of the free party rave.
In France, the pioneers of hardcore include Laurent Hô.
In the late 1990s, hardcore progressively changed as gabber waned in popularity. This left a place for other hardcore-influenced styles like mákina and hardstyle.
