This Is Hardcore

This song is clearly about sex. Not sick sex, perverted sex, or even rape. This song is about a young man, or perhaps even an old man, losing his virginity. “I want it bad. I want it now. Oh can’t you see, I’m ready now…I’ve seen all the pictures, I’ve studied them forever. I wanna make a movie so let’s star in it together.” This clearly shows that the man referred to only has experienced porn in his life, which is the closest he has ever come to sex.

His reference alone about “wet dreams” backed up with “you gotta take these dreams and make them whole” backs up the theory, as well as the line “I can’t believe that it took me this long.”  

Also, referring to his inexperience are several lines.  “I’ve seen this storyline, played out so many times before”, showing that he is strictly going by what he has seen in his porn movies.  “That goes in there, then that goes in there, then that goes in there, then that goes in there, ohhhhh (made in somewhat of a post-ejaculation sound), and then its over”…sounding like he’s taken it from some sort of a porn manual.  That’s what this song is about.

I'd love to pretend I figured this out myself, but I'm taking this from interviews with Jarvis Cocker.

Firstly, the song is based on not only porn films, but a pornographic outlook on life. With celebrity comes the idea that people viewing from the outside see a seperate version of you, like actors in a porm movie. People see perfection (or, as Jarvis put it "massive biceps and a two-foot-long cock) but somehow, inside, you're still a person.

Also the idea that your life is more real when everything looks perfect - "Leave your make-up on and i'll leave on the light" shows that this isn't sex for love, it's sex for dramatic effect.

Anyway. That's what I got from stuff Jarvis said about it in interviews.♥

this song makes me wet.

It's funny how every song on this site is supposed to be either about sex, or drugs or the music industry! I remember reading an interview of Jarvis where he says (from what I remember)that the song is about how people see too many movies and therefore expect their lives to happen just as planned, which makes them miss the real things.

That's also how I interpret it, not because I read the interview (since you make songs your own and are in no way entitled to relate with the songwriter's orginal intentions) but just because I think the song happens to be explicit enough ! Although there is an ovious sexual imagery throughout the lyrics, I'm not really sure the sexual act is the main focus ; I think it's just a song about someone who has dreamed his whole life away ("i've seen the storyline played out so many times before") and would like every moment to be like in his fancies, including this particular intercourse ("i think i saw you in some teenage wet dream", "don't make a move til i say action", "leave your makeup on"...).

So IMO, "this is hardcore" simply means "this is the real stuff now", and "you are hardcore" sort of means "you're like what I've always fancied but you're the real thing and that's why you make me hard".

By the end of the song, the narrator seems to be aware that this kind of approach to life is absurd ("that goes in there and that goes in there and then it's over") ; I think he realises this because although he always wanted it he never expected to actually reach something so close to his fancies (= having sex with that person), and the fact it feels real this time kind of wakes him up and makes him panick, because he's so used to dreaming he can't see it any other way ("what the hell do you do for an encore ?").

Maybe my analysis is a bit personnal but I get this feeling in several songs by Pulp (ex, monday morning : "why live in the world when you can live in your head"). Anyway I don't think it's about extreme sex or anything, most Pulp songs feel very simple and poetic to me and the references to sex or partying are just images to express loneliness and the awkardness of life in general. Well that's how I see it :).

I used to stupidly skip this song, to favor others that would be more in tune with my mood at that moment (TV Movie, Glory Days). That's what happens when you don't pay attention.

The way the structure of the song resembles every moment of a sexual intercourse amazes me. It's a rhythmic uphill that reaches its climax in the extremely graphic line "this is me on top of you". An then, the floor's the limit.

I don't skip it anymore.

fucking during this song = wonderful

sexiest song in the world.

I love that middle section everyone's mentioned, "this is me on top of you, etc.", and one thing that always blows my mind about this song is that you figure that section has to be the climax, and then it goes into a whole other part, like there's still 2.5 mins left to the song!! Whoa.

I think it's obvious this song is about sex and porn, as Jarvis Cocker has also said. So sexy, love the classic film soundtrack style opening and the talk of sex films/porn and then the music changing to something softer for the verse

This is the eye of the storm It's what men in stained raincoats pay for But in here it is pure

which I interpret as a contrast to the beginning talk of empty porn, with this now being "real", pure sex - what men pay to try and have, but Jarvis really has it with whoever it is he's sleeping with in this verse, where it's so good he can't believe it's taken him this long to be "on top of you" with her.

Porn films, what else?