The Hardcore Music Scene: A Phase for Many

Whether it's through an amp or a pair of headphones almost everyone who isn't living in a cave has been engaged in some form of musical conversation. Even the cave has exceptions as the Tuvans in Siberia utilize caves as a musical instrument to amplify their guttural singing. In fact, many groups use their natural environment for music whether it is humming a catchy tune in a dank cave or gathering the masses in a valley-or in modernized places, a hall of some kind-to celebrate the beautiful and diverse language known as music. Music's vernacular changes on a culture-to-culture basis, but the strange truth in a world where truth is often obscured is that every culture on the planet (even dirty rotten cannibals) has some way of speaking through music.

In New Jersey (The Garden State for you cave dwellers) the music scene varies by whatever town you find yourself in. It is a state that is a cultural smorgasbord allowing all kinds of musical slang to find a home and a place where it can be appreciated by those who get chills whenever they hear that right note. Being an inhabitant of a town that falls on the county border of Sussex and Morris county I find myself running into a certain breed of person-the hardcore/punk/metal kid. Technically the town of Hopatcong falls under Sussex county rule, but we understand we are an outcast town that doesn't need a county for representation. Hell, our reputation supersedes any county label and that is an achievement in itself.