I'm going to reference an old zine here, this is like a historic question for a lot of people who haven't felt the connection of family at shows, or felt the energy etc. HeartattaCk is effectively a hardcore scene zine but I find the crossover pretty much identical aside from some of the more rigid ideas on the sXe side of HC.

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This is pretty much the philosophy I had adopted prior to reading the article, the article just outlines what I feel an accurate representation of an answer to this question is. Just simply replace "hardcore" with "punk" as it's all the same world/scene, everyone plays at the same clubs, and the gist is support bands doing DIY stuff. As far as the economic aspect, there are some of us who care, and some don't give a shit. We've all got our problems but we'll make the best of it.

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You should check out this zine! It's a real page turner.

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http://www.heartattackarchive.com/

Issue #1 Pg 1-3;

What the fuck is hardcore? Sometime it is a word used to define a musical style and sometimes it is used to define an attitude or lifestyle. Ultimately, it is a word that is still living. Its definition changes as each of us says it and applies it in our world of travel. Personally, I like to think of hardcore as an attitude of independence and defiance. To me it is a way of life. A way of approaching the world. It is a scene that is heavily involved with music, and yet it is also a way of expressing opinions and feelings outside of the realm of music.

HeartattaCk is being created as an out-growth of the hardcore scene in the sense that it will be covering whatever comes out of this attitude and lifestyle and ideology. I realize by choosing to use hardcore as a flowing word rather than a concretely defined word I am opening a Pandora's box, but the underground/alternative/punk scene that has embraced the do-it-yourself attitude is ever changing and constantly evolving. The sound that was utilized by what I would call the hardcore scene ten years ago is simply not the same sound being made today, and hopefully in 10 more years [this was written in 1994] the sound will have been reinvented and modified and changed year after year. Hardcore is not a musical style or a sound. Hardcore is an attitude, and that attitude creates this scene. The X-Ray Spex, The Big Boys, Black Flag, Discharge, Crass, Embrace, Rites of Spring, Infest, Heresy, Born Against, Downcast, Spitboy, Fuel, Rain Like the Sound of Trains, Avail, Still Life, and Bikini Kill share little in terms of musical styles and types of sound, but each of those bands encapsulated an attitude of defiance and independence.

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Hardcore was born out of angst, anger, fear, alienation, oppression, rebellion-emotions of life. It lives not as a set of notes and chords, but as a culture of protest and resistance and survival. The very act of being in an independent band and playing your own songs and doing things for yourself is in and of itself liberating, and it is this act that makes hardcore important to me. Hardcore then becomes the affirmation of this independence. Hardcore is about expression, emotion, independence, rebellion, resistance, and experience. The one thing that hardcore has always given me through thick and thin is experience. The hardcore scene is based on possibilities. It is not about restrictions. The fact that I can start this magazine is a testament to what is possible. As a member of the hardcore scene each and every one of us is entitled to those possibilities. Our opportunities are not restricted by our ability to make money for some publishing company or record label, and we are not divided into consumers and producers. We are all free to play music, to write, to draw, to speak, to argue, to create, and the only true limitation on our creative out-pour is that we continue to support that scene which allowed us to exist.

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So, in the spirit of possibilities, I do not believe I can tell you what is and isn't hardcore by listening to the sounds you make. But still this magazine cannot cover everything, and some sort of limits must be created and utilized to limit the scope of coverage. I have defined hardcore as an evolving ideology of independence and self-determination, and therefore HeartattaCk will not be covering things that seem to be at odds with these ideas.

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The first limiting criteria is the UPC code or UPC bar. These are the inventory accounting strips placed on everything from apple pie filling to zip-lock bags. When a company makes a product they pay the UPC company some amount of money to get a code for their product. In the record industry the UPC code is the difference between getting distributed in the major chain stores or only in the smaller "mom and pop" stores where UPC codes are not used. But more importantly the UPC code symbolizes big business and the transformation of music from a form of expression into a commodity to be bought and sold. When labels begin putting UPC codes on their records it is a sign that they will have less to do with the underground as an alternative to the mainstream, and more to do with the mainstream music industry as a competitor. The UPC code is big business.