No, it is not a dyeing breed by any means. It changes...goes underground, and emerges as a new beast. Harder,faster, and just generally crazier. Happy Hardocre is really on a comeback as far as im concerned. The comeback being speared by the two labels known as Quosh, and Next Generation. (Next Generation and Blatant Beats are really the same thing...both owned by DJ Brisk). Recently they have come up with gold. Sweet Love, Ruff-Rugged & Raw, Hardcore Velocity....the list goes on for a long time.... America is jsut being left out of the loop[ as usualy with this scene...thats all Although there are a few other beasts to keep an eye on as well. Along with the re-emerging happy hardcore, Nu Energy and Relentless Vinyl are spear heading what Freeform is. Freeform generally is not so bouncy...its more of a cleaned up pacy dark sound. The builds tho are usually better thought out than that of happy hardcore as well, and is never afraid to throw in some breakbeat madness...Kaotik Records is a perfect example of this. There is also the Finnish freeform from Finland. It is EXTREMELY dark and fast. More of a scary gothic sound, and not for the average raver. This is just emerging tho, but keep an ear out for it. Camel Records and FINRG are really leading this as far as I'm concerned with tracks like HypnoDisk, Strength Is Irrelevent, and Second Death. Hardcore is still hanging around 2...it is jsut sort of going under ground a bit and tinkering around to improve itself. TNC aka Thin n' Crispy are really at the head of Hardcore at this point with tracks like 'Brothers & Sisters/ Feeling Good' Or there new record out Trigger Hardcore, which is the BEST record to get crowds to the dance floor, if any of you DJs are reading this. I doubt you guys will be able to get your hands on it tho, because i caught it out as a promo....so you guys may have to wait a month or so probably. Then there is Breakcore which is also emerging, but isn't really there yet as a genre I believe. Then there is the CLSM, they have a more industrial/ware house-ish sound to them. They are somewhere in the twilight between freeform and hardcore/happy hardcore. They also are really stirring up some good hard dance tracks as too. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
anyway, thats jsut what i felt like saying, sorry for the rant everyone, but Hardcore and Happy Hardcore are here to stay!