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At the dawn of the '80s, New York City was mired in debt and crime, grappling with one of the most trying periods in its history, yet ironically (or perhaps fittingly), its underground music scene was seething with activity like never before. Still reeling from the violent inception and subsequent implosion of punk rock, hundreds of underprivileged kids living in Manhattan and its outlying boroughs began forming rock groups to rail against the everyday trials, dangers, and prejudices of urban existence. As had been happening in other urban centers (most notably L.A. and Washington, D.C.) equally affected by the lean, recession-laced early years of Reaganomics, New York became a melting pot/hub for a flourishing hardcore scene -- a cultural phenomenon that used punk rock as a platform for politically charged, inherently regional musical catharsis. And though it would eventually splinter into countless subgenres, at least initially NYHC (New York Hard Core) far superseded the original ...